DEV Community: Nitin Sharma

I Tried OpenClaw Every Day for a Month, And Here’s How I Automated My Daily Tasks

Nitin Sharma — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:01:51 +0000

Let me say something most people won’t admit: You’re just using AI at 5% of its potential.

Right now, you open ChatGPT, ask a question, get an answer, and move on.

Meanwhile, a small group of people are quietly building systems where AI:

finds leads while they sleep,
does research before they wake up,
monitors opportunities 24/7.

Yes, we have moved from AI tools to AI agents — tools that actually get your work done and even automate tasks like never before.

But how?

Well, people have started using viral tools like OpenClaw to automate most of their tedious work, build systems, and make more.

And in this post, I’m going to show you everything you need to know about OpenClaw, how to get started, and its most practical use cases with real outputs.

Excited? Let’s get started.

What Is OpenClaw & How It Works?

Let me explain this in the simplest way possible.

Before OpenClaw, you need to open 10 tabs, go through each one, copy data, paste it into Notion or Sheets, and repeat this every single day.

But after OpenClaw,

you send one message
it does everything
and sends the result back to you

Yes, that’s literally what OpenClaw actually is.

And it’s mainly a self-hosted gateway that runs on your computer, connects with apps like WhatsApp or Telegram, and executes tasks for you.

Here’s how it works:

The best part? It controls your browser, manages your files, and can schedule your work so it gets done… even when you’re not working.

But how? Well, you just need to tell OpenClaw: “Do this every morning and send me the result”.

Yes, it’s that simple and easy to work with.

How to Run OpenClaw Locally on Your Device

You can install OpenClaw in multiple ways, and yes, you can even use it for free thanks to Ollama.

For example, you can install it using a couple of terminal commands, use a VPS like Hostinger for a 1-click setup, and more.

But here, we’ll keep it simple and install OpenClaw locally on a Mac.

Before you start, make sure you have:

Node.js installed
An API key from providers like Anthropic, Google, or OpenAI

Now let’s get into it.

Step 1: Install OpenClaw

To install OpenClaw, you just need to run this command inside your terminal:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

It will take a few minutes and install OpenClaw on your Mac.

Step 2: Run onboarding

Next, run:

openclaw onboard — install-daemon

This connects your system to OpenClaw and keeps it running quietly in the background.

You’ll also need to:

Choose a model provider
Add your API key
Configure the gateway

If you’re using Ollama, you can skip the model provider step and follow this setup instead.

Step 3: Open the OpenClaw dashboard

Once everything runs without errors, open the dashboard using:

openclaw dashboard

Now you’re ready, and you can talk to it, assign tasks, and schedule workflows.

For sure, you can even connect it to apps like WhatsApp or Telegram, use tools and skills, and automate tasks.

Now let’s talk about the real part i.e., What can you actually do with it?

Use Case 1: Lead Generation While You Sleep

Suppose you’re a freelancer, running an agency, or selling services.

And you have to spend hours every day finding leads and replying to them.

Let’s be honest, this is a tedious, and repetitive work that needs to get done literally every single day.

But now, you can use OpenClaw to:

scrape job listings (Upwork, remote job boards, etc)
filter them based on keywords (React, AI, SaaS, etc)
extract client details
send you only high-quality leads

Here’s the prompt I used inside OpenClaw:

Scrape the top 10 job listings from the internet, filter them based on AI-related keywords, extract client details, and send me only high-quality leads.

You can even take it further, and ask OpenClaw to:

find LinkedIn users in a specific niche
identify their problems
save all the data directly to Notion

You see, it’s actually saving you tons of your precious time and getting the work done.

Use Case 2: Build Your Own “Custom News Feed”

If you’re a content creator like me, you already know that you need to spend hours every day finding the latest info.

Then you read everything just to figure out what actually matters to write about or turn into a video.

And how do you do it right now? Through scrolling social media, searching on Google, and jumping between tabs.

It’s messy and time-consuming, but with OpenClaw, you can create your own feed and automate it.

But how? Just tell it something like:

Check these 5 websites and Twitter accounts every morning.
Extract the latest updates, summarize them, and send me a clean report at 8 AM.

And that’s it, it schedules everything for you.

Here’s the output I got:

You see, it saves a lot of your time, and now you’re consuming exactly what matters through an automated process.

Use Case 3: Find the Best AI Tools in Minutes

You know, I have been writing about the best AI tools that you can use practically in your everyday tasks.

And seeing the curiosity among readers, I can say that most people want to know about the best AI tools for their needs.

For that, they read a number of posts, watch YouTube videos, or ask LLMs. And it is even a repetitive and tedious process.

Well, now you can use OpenClaw and ask it to get the best AI tools you need.

And you can further schedule a task to scrape the top 10 AI tools every day and send you a clean PDF report by 6 AM.

Talking about me, I usually need to spend 30 minutes going through a number of websites, reading about each AI tool, and then selecting the best ones that I can.

But with OpenClaw, it gets done as an automated task by just describing a detailed, specific prompt. And it helps me a lot to write a new post and even in my daily tasks.

Use Case 4: Do Your Daily Research in Minutes

You already know this: researching something new is tedious and time-consuming.

And most people are spending hours doing it manually, when you can automate the entire process with OpenClaw.

Here’s the workflow:

Scrape the top 3–5 industry blogs and research papers every morning at 6 AM
Filter them based on specific keywords (AI workflows, automation, updates, etc.)
Synthesize everything into a clean PDF report
Send it to you on WhatsApp before you’ve even finished your first coffee

Here’s an example:

Now think about it.

Instead of spending hours reading and filtering information…

You get exactly what you need, already researched, summarised, and delivered to you.

What Next?

You know, the above ones are just a couple of simple use cases to show you what’s actually possible with OpenClaw.

And once you understand how this works, you can start building workflows like:

Check my emails every morning, summarize only important ones, ignore spam, and create a task list for the day
Track top 5 trending AI news from Twitter, explain why they matter, and suggest content ideas I can write about
Automatically check me into my flight as soon as the window opens and send the boarding pass to my WhatsApp
Monitor my competitors, track their new posts or products, and send me a daily report
And much more

The best part? Thanks to OpenClaw, you are building systems that run in the background while you focus on actual work.

Hope you like it.

If this resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to read it, since most people want to learn practically about AI but won’t access posts like this.

And that’s where you can help someone you care about use AI practically and get ahead.

Best Web Scraping Tools in 2026: I Tested 30+ Tools, and These Are the Only Ones Worth Using

Nitin Sharma — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:13:37 +0000

Let me be honest, everyone is talking about AI, building AI apps, but nobody talks about where the real advantage comes from.

Well, it’s not the model that the companies are building, it’s the data.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If you don’t know how to collect high-quality, structured, reliable data at scale, you are already behind.

Big companies just found a way to scrape from the internet and even from LLMs to get the data they need. And they built better data pipelines based on that.

But what about us? Well, we have a number of web scraping tools, but finding the right ones is really difficult.

And so, I’ve tested 30+ web scraping tools to find the best and most powerful ones that can get your work done.

The Problem With Most Web Scraping Tools

You know, I’ve been doing web scraping for over 3 years now.

In that process, I’ve tried 30+ web scraping tools to find the best ones for me. Yes, I even used AI web scraping tools, LLM web scrapers, scraper Chrome extensions, and so on.

And let me tell you, most of them are BS and just copies of one another that can’t scrape JavaScript-heavy websites or even bypass simple anti-bot systems.

Also, most of the advanced web scrapers are just for technical users, and the non-technical ones have no options.

And so, I made a checklist while adding the best web scraping tools to the list.

Here’s what I was looking for in the best web scraping tool:

It should actually help you scrape JavaScript-heavy websites and support proxies, locations, and more.
It should be advanced enough to work for even 100 pages and easy enough so anyone can get started and scrape what they want.
It should be smart enough to solve CAPTCHAs, blocked IPs, and other anti-scraping roadblocks so you don’t need to spend time fixing that.
If you’re a developer, it should give you full control like APIs, custom scripts, and advanced options to get your work done.

And after testing several of the best web scraping platforms, I found these ones:

1. Oxylabs Web Scraping API

If you want serious, enterprise-grade scraping without building your own proxy + anti-bot nightmare, then you should go with Oxylabs Web Scraper API.

It’s built for large-scale scraping, heavy anti-bot websites, e-commerce monitoring, SERP scraping, market intelligence, and more.

To get started, simply visit the Oxylabs website and click on the button, “Try Oxylabs for free,” to create your account.

Then you just need to start your Web Scraper API free trial by visiting the “Web Scraper API Playground” tab.

Here you can add the website URL, select the parameters you want to go with, and then get the structured data instantly.

Yes, you can define custom parsing logic, select the location, JavaScript rendering option, or user agent you want to go with.

It even provides the code in Python, PHP, C#, cURL, and other programming languages so you can integrate it right inside your app.

They have launched OxyCopilot as well, where you just need to specify what you want to scrape, and it uses AI to generate ready-to-code for you.

Thanks to OxyCopilot, this has become my first choice when I want to do serious web scraping in the simplest way possible.

Here’s a video if you want to see the complete web scraping process:

Talking about the pricing, it provides a free plan where you can get up to 2,000 results.

2. Firecrawl

Well, this one is specifically built for AI workflows since it mainly focuses on scraping LLM-ready content.

So if you are building an AI chatbot, RAG pipelines, or any AI product which needs tons of data, then you can use Firecrawl.

To get started, you just need to visit their website and add the URL to scrape, and it gets done.

Further, it has an agent where you need to describe what you want to scrape, and it has more API endpoints for your needs.

It even provides managed browser environments for agents without the need for infra setup, and also allows you to connect Firecrawl to any AI tool via the Model Context Protocol.

No doubt, it’s not that advanced compared to Oxylabs, but it can handle JavaScript pages and get the work done.

Talking about the pricing, it provides a free plan with 500 credits that allows you to scrape up to 500 pages.

3. Octoparse

If you are non-technical but serious about scraping, this one is still powerful.

Octoparse is one of the few no-code tools that I’ve been using for years and loving it.

But Nitin, why?

Well, it has a point-and-click interface, handles infinite scrolling, scheduled tasks, and can solve anti-bot techniques like CAPTCHA solving, user agents, IP rotation, and more.

To get started, simply visit their website, click on the button, “Start a free trial,” to create your account, and then download their app.

After that, you just need to add the URL or select the specific scraper from the templates section.

And then, using their point-and-click interface, select the elements, add pagination, run extraction, and export it into CSV.

Yes, it’s that easy.

Talking about the pricing, it even has a free plan that lets you export up to 50K data per month.

4. Chat4Data

This one is a quick one-off data extraction tool, which makes it highly useful for anyone who wants to scrape in the simplest way possible in no time.

I’m talking about Chat4Data, which lets you scrape by simply chatting in simple English about what you want to scrape.

To get started, simply visit their website and download their Chrome extension.

And then simply open the Chrome extension, add the URL, and tell it what you want to scrape.

And it generates structured output in no time.

The best part I like is that it mimics human behavior while scraping, automates pagination, crawls subpages, and more.

Nitin, when to use it? Well, if you want to scrape data in no time from any website without handling the issues, then you should go with Chat4Data.

Talking about the pricing, it has a free plan where you get 100 credits upon registration.

5. Browse AI

Well, this one claims to be the #1 AI web scraper and monitoring platform and is built around the concept of “robots”.

I’m talking about Browse AI, and it allows you to scrape via a robot, monitor websites, create workflows and automations, and integrate that with 7,000+ tools.

To get started, you just need to visit their website and click on the button, “Get started for free,” to create your account.

Then build a new robot to scrape structured data by adding a URL to start training a new robot.

And then you can extract that data, monitor it, send updates when it changes, create automations, and even export to Google Sheets, Zapier, webhooks, and more.

Thanks to that, it has an insane number of use cases like lead monitoring, price monitoring on ecommerce websites, and then automating to save a lot of your time.

Talking about the pricing, it has a free plan that lets you scrape up to 2 websites.

6. Bright Data

This one is similar to Oxylabs and is an all-in-one platform for proxies and web scraping.

I’m talking about Bright Data, and it provides proxy networks, a web unlocker, scraping APIs, ready-made datasets, SERP APIs, e-commerce APIs, a data marketplace, and more.

Using their Scraping API, you just need to send requests to any target website and get clean, structured JSON data in return. And their system automatically handles CAPTCHAs, rotates IPs, manages TLS and browser fingerprints, renders JavaScript, and bypasses anti-bot protections for you.

To get started, simply visit their website and click on the button, “Get started for free”, to create your account.

Then you can simply ask their AI assistant what you want to scrape, automate, or more.

Or simply use a scraper template from their library or create your own to scrape the data in a structured format.

The best part? They can let you scrape ready-to-train data for AI and even have an Agent Browser that provides a serverless browser for your AI agents.

As for pricing, it is divided into the different services they offer, and you can go with the one that you prefer.

So Which One Should You Actually Use?

If you have read so far, you know that I’ve listed some of the best web scraping tools, talking about their features, how to get started, and even their pricing.

Now, I know it may be difficult to choose from these options since all look great when you see the features and so on.

Well, the short answer is it depends on what you’re building and the features you need.

I can’t say that Oxylabs is better or that you should use Octoparse since each has unique capabilities and features.

But if you don’t want to overthink it, here’s the simple decision framework:

Use Oxylabs Web Scraping API if you’re building enterprise-level data pipelines, doing large-scale scraping, or dealing with heavy anti-bot systems.
Use Firecrawl if you’re building AI apps, RAG systems, or need LLM-ready structured content.
Use Octoparse if you’re non-technical but still need serious structured data extraction.
Use Chat4Data if you want quick, one-off scraping by simply describing what you need in plain English.
Use Browse AI if you want to monitor websites, track changes automatically, and build scraping workflows without writing code.
Use Bright Data if you want a complete infrastructure layer, including proxies, unlockers, scraping APIs, and ready-made datasets.

So now focus on what matches your real use case, and then go with that.

Hope you like it.

That’s it, thanks.

Forget ChatGPT & Gemini — Here Are New AI Tools That Will Blow Your Mind

Nitin Sharma — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 06:36:07 +0000

Let’s be honest, every day tons of new AI tools get released in the market, and you don’t know which one to try.

I see that most people blindly try some of them, hoping to find the best ones that can make their work or life easier.

What happens next? They try it for 15 minutes, get bored, and then jump to another new AI tool the next day.

Sure, there are some great and popular ones like Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, NotebookLM, and more that can do a lot across different niches.

But Nitin, we also want to try some of the new AI tools.

I get it. But honestly, finding the right AI tool that actually fits into your daily workflow and genuinely boosts your productivity is a tedious process.

That’s exactly why I try tons of AI tools every month, filter out the noise, and share only the ones that are actually useful through posts like this.

Note: This post was originally published in my newsletter, AI Made Simple. It’s basically where I document what actually works for me with AI, in real workflows.

With that said, here are the best new AI tools after testing 100+ new ones.

1. X-Design

If you are anything like me, you have probably tried many so-called all in one design tools, and most of them do not really feel all in one.

That is where an AI tool called X-Design stands out. It actually feels built for real work.

The X-Design team positions it as an AI creative agent for branding and design, but in practice it works more like a practical design suite. You can use it as an AI logo generator, AI poster designer, AI image generator & editor, background remover, and more.

To get started, simply visit their website, click the “Sign up” button, and create an account. Then describe what you want to generate, and the tool takes it from there.

Here is what I tried:

When it comes to pricing, X-Design gives you 20 free credits every day, which is enough to test the tool properly. If you need more features or higher limits, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans.

2. Sudowrite

Let’s be honest, we have seen tons of AI writing tools and AI humanizer tools.

Most of them are simply wrappers around ChatGPT.

That’s why I tried Sudowrite, which is built specifically for fiction writers and runs on its own AI model called Muse.

But what exactly is Sudowrite?

According to their documentation, Sudowrite is an AI toolkit for novelists that helps you plan, write, edit, and organize your work. It can offer suggestions, enhance prose, facilitate brainstorming and much, much more.

To get started, simply visit their website and click the “Try Sudowrite for free” button to create your account.

And here’s what it offers:

As for pricing, you can start with a free trial, and if you like it, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans.

Just so you know:

Everything I’ve shared here is something I actually use.

If this post changed how you use AI even a little, that didn’t happen in isolation. It came from a much bigger shift in how I use AI overall.

That’s why I put that entire system down inside “The (Unfair) AI Workflow Playbook” with everything you need.

It’s the exact set of workflows I use daily to run my work faster than feels normal, and if you apply even a few of them, you’ll save hundreds of hours.

You can spend months figuring this out on your own, or you can steal my entire playbook right now.

3. Flow

I am genuinely optimistic that Google will lead the AI race, especially with the range of AI tools it is building that people actually enjoy using.

Even today, I personally prefer NotebookLM, Gemini, and AI Studio over ChatGPT.

And recently, I also started using Flow, another impressive AI tool from Google that lets you convert text into video. They describe it as an AI filmmaking tool built for creatives.

To get started, visit their website and click the “Create with Flow” button.

You simply write prompts describing camera angles, actions, characters, and settings, and Flow generates short video clips with motion, lighting, and visual continuity.

The best part is that you are not limited to AI generated visuals. You can upload your own assets, combine images, and build a complete story from ideation to iteration.

I tried it myself with a prompt, and the results were impressive.

Insane, right?

In terms of pricing, Flow offers 180 free credits, which is enough to generate around nine short videos.

4. Voquill

If you follow me, you may remember that in a previous post I talked about Wispr Flow.

Now there is a new AI tool called Voquill, which is an open source alternative to Wispr Flow.

But Nitin, what is it exactly?

Well, Voquill is a voice first text input tool that lets you speak anywhere you would normally type. It turns your speech into polished, professional writing.

Instead of typing hundreds of words every day, you can simply talk and let the tool handle the rest.

To get started, just visit their website and download the app.

And then you can begin with the free plan and add your own API key to start using it.

The best part is that Voquill works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and it works across any app you use.

5. Vellum

You know, everyone is now focused on building AI agents to handle tedious work, which is why we are seeing a flood of new AI tools being released.

One of the more popular tools released recently is Vellum.

To get started, simply visit their website, create an account, and describe what you want to automate across different use cases.

According to its documentation, Vellum is an end to end AI development platform that helps teams build and deploy AI powered applications.

It offers a collaborative environment where both technical and non technical team members can contribute to AI projects using familiar tools and interfaces.

And here’s how it works:

When it comes to pricing, Vellum offers a free plan with 30 credits so you can try it out.

If you want to build more agents or scale further, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans shown below.

6. Firecrawl

If you are in the web scraping space, you probably know there are many ways to extract data from the internet.

And recently, a new tool has been going viral that lets you scrape website data either by providing a specific URL or by simply telling an agent what you want to extract. It handles everything else for you.

I am talking about Firecrawl, which is specifically built for developers to scrape websites and convert them into LLM ready data.

To get started, visit their website and click the “Sign up” button to create an account.

Once inside, you can scrape, search, or crawl data using multiple API endpoints, or simply use their agent feature.

When it comes to pricing, Firecrawl offers a free plan with 500 credits. If you need more, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans.

7. CalPal

Let’s be honest, we already have some of the best AI website builders, AI voice generators, AI image generators & editors, AI headshot generators, and more.

And now, I have found an AI calculator.

I’m talking about CalPal, which is essentially a calculator with AI built in. It can handle everything from basic math to contextual reasoning, without needing to switch to ChatGPT or any other separate tool.

The best part is that CalPal goes beyond simple calculations. It understands variables, conversions, time zones, aggregations, and even mixed unit tasks, all in a conversational way.

For example, you can define something like:

salary = 5000, tax_rate = 0.2, net_pay = salary * (1−tax_rate)

…and CalPal parses this easily and gives you the result inline.

The only drawback is that you need to add your own Gemini API key to enable the AI features.

Personally, I do not use it often, but it can be useful if you want to do:

quick unit conversions during research,
perform calculations across different time zones without opening a world clock,
or sum and average lists when comparing performance metrics across tools.

In those cases, CalPal works well as a lightweight AI assistant.

Hope you like it.

That’s it — thanks.

Also, don’t forget to check out “The (Unfair) AI Workflow Bundle” where I shared the exact set of AI workflows I use daily to run my work faster than feels normal.

How I Use Perplexity and NotebookLM as a “Thinking Partner” to Learn 10x Faster as a Developer

Nitin Sharma — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 08:55:56 +0000

Let me be honest: most people do not have an intelligence problem, they have a learning problem.

They still try to learn by buying 90-hour courses, reading 300-page books, or binge-watching YouTube videos like it's 2015.

Sure, it feels productive at first, but a few days in, the brain gets overloaded, attention drops, and almost nothing sticks. You feel busy, maybe even smart, but a week later you struggle to explain what you learned.

That is not learning, that is information hoarding.

This is why most people fail to learn AI, coding, finance, or any so-called complex skill. Not because the subject is hard, but because the process is broken.

Random blog posts, long videos watched end-to-end, bookmarks you never open again.

I was doing the exact same thing while working with clients, researching a topic, learning AI concepts to create a digital product, and building AI workflows and systems to write posts like this.

And that's when it clicked for me: I was just consuming information and spending too much time overloading my brain, which was hurting my output.

However, learning only happens when you compress, connect, and test ideas.

That realization led me to build a simple system using "Perplexity and NotebookLM" that now works like a thinking partner.

Below is the exact workflow I use to learn faster, go deeper, and actually remember what I learn.

Note: This post was originally published in my newsletter, AI Made Simple. It's basically where I document what actually works for me with AI, in real workflows.

Step 1: Stop searching randomly. Force AI to curate for you.

Let me be honest, our learning process is completely broken.

We open Google or YouTube, type in a topic, and click the top ranked posts or videos.

Then what happens? You watch a couple of videos and read a few posts. The process quickly becomes exhausting, and you end up going through at least three or four different pieces of content.

Even after all that, you often still do not learn what you were actually looking for.

So instead of opening ten tabs and guessing which source is worth my time, I force Perplexity to filter the noise for me and suggest the best resources upfront.

I also avoid vague prompts like "Explain X" or "What is Y". I use curation first prompts.

For example:

I want to learn [topic] from scratch to an intermediate level.

Give me:

The 5 to 7 best learning resources, including blogs, videos, or papers

Only practical and example driven sources

A short reason why each resource is worth reading

Avoid generic beginner content and theory heavy material

This single prompt saves hours and gives me exactly what I need.

You see, now I am not trying to learn everything. I am learning from the right inputs.

And that matters because bad inputs lead to bad understanding, no matter how smart the model is.

Just so you know:

Everything I've shared here is something I actually use.

If this post changed how you use AI even a little, that didn't happen in isolation. It came from a much bigger shift in how I use AI overall.

That's why I put that entire system down inside "The (Unfair) AI Workflow Playbook" with everything you need.

It's the exact set of workflows I use daily to run my work faster than feels normal, and if you apply even a few of them, you'll save hundreds of hours.

You can spend months figuring this out on your own, or you can steal my entire playbook right now.

Step 2: Convert scattered links into one private knowledge base

Here's where most people still mess up.

They read the resources recommended by Perplexity one by one and hope their brain absorbs everything and magically connects the dots.

It does not work that way.

Instead, I dump all those links, PDFs, or transcripts into NotebookLM and treat them as a single knowledge source.

Now I am no longer asking questions to the internet. I am asking questions to my own curated dataset.

And that changes everything.

When I ask:

Summarize the core ideas
What concepts repeat across multiple sources?
What assumptions do these authors agree on?

I get pattern level answers that connect insights across all the sources, not surface level explanations from a single one.

This is how you move from "I have read about this" to "I actually understand this".

Step 3: Ask questions that force compression & reverse-engineering

To be honest, whenever I read something, my brain fills up with questions.

Most people then read the entire post again or search on Google to resolve them.

That is the opposite of what you want when learning.

I intentionally ask questions in NotebookLM that shrink information instead of expanding it.

Here are a few prompts I use almost daily:

If I had to explain this concept to a smart 12 year old, what would I say?
What are the three mistakes beginners make with this topic?
What would break if I misunderstood this one idea?
What is the simplest mental model that explains most of this?

These prompts force the model to compress complexity into clarity.

And here is the key insight most people miss: "If you cannot compress it, you do not understand it".

Step 4: Convert learning into an output immediately

This is the step that multiplies retention.

I never end a learning session without creating something:

a short audio or video explanation
a mind-map or framework
a report
a visual outline
or even a rough tweet sized insight

Not for social media, but for my own clarity.

The best part? Inside NotebookLM, I can create audio overviews, video overviews, mind maps, quizzes, infographics, slide decks, and more with ease.

That is what I use most often to reinforce concepts.

Even while jogging or exercising, I listen to the audio overview or watch the video overview to solidify my understanding.

Step 5: Turn passive knowledge into forced recall

Now let me be honest: reading summaries in different formats is still not enough, because you do not get a deep understanding of the topic.

If you want something to actually stick, you need retrieval, not more reading or watching.

So I always end my learning session by asking NotebookLM to test me.

For example:

Create five scenario based questions from this topic
Give me a short quiz that checks conceptual understanding, not definitions
Ask questions where a wrong answer clearly reveals a misunderstanding

When I struggle to answer, I know exactly what I need to revisit.

This is how learning turns into a feedback loop instead of a one way dump of information.

The "30-Minute Sprint": How to use this today

Now, let's stop talking about the system and start using it.

If you have a topic you've been "meaning to learn", don't book a 4-hour window on Saturday.

You'll never do it.

Instead, run this 30-Minute Sprint. This is exactly how I tackle a new AI topic or learn something new.

a) 0–5 Minutes: The Curation Filter (Perplexity)

Don't visit to Google or YouTube, and search for the topic you want to learn.

Simply copy and paste this into Perplexity right now:

I need to understand [Topic] for [Specific Goal].
Find me the 3 most data-backed articles and 1 high-quality video transcript. Focus on 'how-it-works' rather than 'why-it-matters'.

b) 5–10 Minutes: Build the Brain (NotebookLM)

Download the PDFs or grab the URLs from Perplexity, and dump them into a new NotebookLM notebook.

Do not read them yet since you are building a silo, not a library.

c) 10–20 Minutes: The Aggressive Inquiry

Now, this is where the magic happens. Instead of reading top-to-bottom, "interview" your sources.

Ask NotebookLM:

Based on these sources, what are the 3 non-obvious variables that make this work?
Create a table comparing [Concept A] and [Concept B] based strictly on these files.
What is the most common point of failure mentioned across all these documents?

d) 20–30 Minutes: The "Proof of Work"

Generate your output.

Click the "Audio Overview" in NotebookLM and listen to it at 1.5x speed while you grab a coffee. Then, write down one sentence that explains the topic to a total novice.

If you can't write that sentence, go back to the chat and ask: "Explain this to me like I'm a distracted executive who only has 30 seconds".

Hope you like it.

That's it, thanks.

Also, don't forget to checkout "The (Unfair) AI Workflow Playbook" where I shared exact set of AI workflows I use daily to run my work faster than feels normal.

Forget ChatGPT & Gemini - These Free AI Tools Will Replace Your Paid Apps in 2026

Nitin Sharma — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 20:57:38 +0000

If you have subscribed to my Substack newsletter, you may know that I spent most of 2025 testing AI tools the same way I test software I would actually use long term.

Not by asking, "Is this impressive?" but by asking, "Would it be useful in my daily workflow, and is it free?"

And over the last year, I noticed something interesting while testing new AI tools for my own work.

There are several free AI tools that help me every day, and I have built many workflows because of them. In fact, these free AI tools quietly replaced apps I was already paying for.

With that said, here is a curated list of free AI tools that can realistically replace paid apps across writing, research, design, automation, note-taking, app building, and more.

Note: This post was originally published in my newsletter, AI Made Simple. It's basically where I document what actually works for me with AI, in real workflows.

1. Wispr Flow

Well, this one does not try to impress you with features; instead, it removes friction.

The core idea is simple: You think. You speak. Text appears. Cleanly.

I am talking about Wispr Flow, which is more of a voice-to-text AI that turns speech into clear, polished writing in every app with the help of AI.

Their main focus is to avoid the tedious process of writing and let you simply speak naturally at your own speed, while Wispr handles the rest.

I use it when:

Writing long drafts or journaling
Turning half-formed thoughts into usable text
Brain-dumping ideas or capturing thoughts without losing momentum

So if you are paying for writing assistants that interrupt your flow, or dictation tools that require editing every line, you can use Wispr Flow since it does the job quietly and well.

And if you have paid for productivity or writing tools mainly to "write faster", try replacing them with a voice-first AI tool like this.

Sometimes that is exactly what you want.

Talking about pricing, it provides a 14-day free "Flow Pro" plan, and on the free plan you can use up to 2,000 words per week.

2. Opal

Now, the next AI tool I want to talk about is Opal, which solves a very specific problem.

A lot of people want to build small AI tools, but they do not want to:

Write prompts all day
Debug workflows
Deal with logic chains
Learn a programming language like Python

And that is where you can use Opal. You describe what you want, and it builds the complete app for you.

I tested it for:

Simple analysis bots
Product research tools
Automated idea generation tools

And the output was surprisingly usable.

So if you have paid for no-code app builders or AI workflow tools that require constant setup, please stop doing that.

For about 90 percent of use cases, Opal can handle a lot of this for free, especially for internal or personal tools.

Just so you know:

Everything I've shared here is something I actually use.

If this post changed how you think about AI even a little, that didn't happen in isolation. It came from a much bigger shift in how I use AI overall.

That's why I put that entire system down inside "The (Unfair) AI Workflow Playbook" with everything you need.

It's the exact set of workflows I use daily to run my work faster than feels normal, and if you apply even a few of them, you'll save hundreds of hours.

You can spend months figuring this out on your own, or you can steal my entire playbook right now.

3. Google AI Studio

Everyone argues about ChatGPT vs Gemini.

Meanwhile, Google AI Studio has quietly become one of the most powerful free AI environments available.

And let me be honest, most people open Google AI Studio once, get confused, and never touch it again.

That's a mistake.

Google AI Studio is what happens when you remove the chatbot skin and give people direct access to models, structured prompts, system instructions, and repeatable workflows where you can actually build things.

Here's how I actually use Google AI Studio to build real things.

To be more precise, it is a full prompt and workflow playground where you can:

Work with Gemini models directly
Try Nano Banana Pro with additional settings
Build AI apps and repeatable systems instead of one-off prompts
And more

I use it to:

Build repeatable research prompts and test AI apps
Run longer reasoning workflows without UI friction
Generate infographics, charts, and more with additional settings

So if you are paying for multiple AI writing or research tools, AI Studio alone can replace half of them once you learn how to think in workflows instead of chats.

4. NotebookLM

If you read, research, or write for a living, NotebookLM can give you an unfair advantage over others.

And I am sorry to say, but NotebookLM is still one of Google's most misunderstood tools.

People still think it is just for "AI notes." It is more than that.

NotebookLM is what happens when you stop asking AI random questions and instead force it to think only using your source material, and then generate outputs in multiple formats.

You can use it to generate infographics, turn ideas into real outputs, use it with Gemini to read less & remember more, and even change the way you learn forever.

The best part?

You just need to upload your sources in any format you prefer. It does not hallucinate, does not guess, and works only with your material while providing outputs in multiple formats.

I have used it to:

Replace paid research assistants
Turn messy notes into structured insights
Extract outputs in different formats from long PDFs, videos, and articles
Generate visually appealing tables, infographics, visuals, charts, and more based on the provided content

So if you are paying for research summarizers, PDF analysis tools, or note-taking apps that still require manual work, NotebookLM can replace a lot of that for free.

And once you get used to this tool, you will not want to try any other AI tool.

5. Pomelli

This one still feels under-discovered, and most of you may not have even heard the name.

I am talking about Pomelli (use a VPN if it is not available in your country).

But Nitin, what does it do? Well, Pomelli analyzes your website and instantly understands:

Your tone
Your visual style
Your brand positioning

Then it generates:

On-brand social posts
Campaign ideas
Visual creatives
Content formats that actually look designed

Yes, this is again from Google, and for solo founders and creators, it replaces paid design tools, content idea subscriptions, and even basic marketing freelancers.

So if you have ever paid for "brand content packages", Pomelli will make that decision hurt a little.

6. ChatGPT Atlas (or) Perplexity Comet

This is where things quietly changed in 2025.

Instead of you opening AI tools all day, the AI moved into the browser itself. And I'm specifically talking about:

I'm grouping them together for a reason, because different AI companies are solving the same core problem.

At a basic level, both do one powerful thing really well: they understand the page you're already on and work with it in real time.

Which means you can:

Get instant summaries of long, dense articles
Ask questions directly on GitHub repos without leaving the page
Extract insights without copy-pasting anything into another tool

But that's just the surface.

Once you start using them properly, you can build real workflows: implementing SEO improvements while reading content, planning projects directly from your open tabs, and more.

After a while, paid summarizers, research extensions, and even some SEO tools start to feel unnecessary.

7. Granola AI

Granola AI is for people who hate meetings but still need the output.

Instead of giving you a messy transcript, it focuses on:

Key decisions
Action items
What actually matters

Just for that, I have seen people pay monthly just to extract "next steps" from meetings.

Well, Granola AI does that well on the free tier.

So if your workflow involves:

Calls
Reviews
Internal discussions

This can easily replace paid meeting assistants, paid note-taking apps, and post-meeting cleanup tools that you used to rely on.

So if meetings are part of your work, this one pays for itself even on the free tier.

8. Nano Banana Pro

If you're even remotely in the AI space, you've probably heard of Google's Nano Banana.

But what most people missed is what came next: Nano Banana Pro.

And the real upgrade isn't hype, it's the obsessive focus on generating cleaner visuals with accurate, readable text directly inside the image, which is something most image models still mess up.

The wild part? It has tons of practical use cases, yet 99% of people still have no idea what it can actually do.

Just to give you a sense of the range: it can generate a full inside-out product breakdown, turn a rough floor plan into a proper trade booth layout, create hyper-realistic product photography, build isometric game environments, and a lot more.

And no, this isn't just for playing around. You can plug Nano Banana straight into real workflows as a designer, a teacher, or a founder.

Personally, I've been using Nano Banana Pro heavily to create visually appealing digital product covers, detailed thumbnails for my posts, and custom infographics exactly the way I want them.

In fact, one of my best digital products, The (Unfair) AI Workflow Playbook, uses a cover page generated entirely with Nano Banana Pro.

Even my post thumbnails are now coming from Nano Banana Pro, and it consistently gets the job done without friction.

At this point, it has quietly replaced a bunch of paid "creative assistant" tools that promise inspiration but mostly just slow you down.

9. Canva Magic Studio

I'm genuinely surprised how most people still think of Canva as just "templates", when Canva quietly turned itself into an AI operating system for non-designers.

To put it in perspective, Canva rolled out Magic Studio, which pulls all of Canva's AI capabilities into one place. And once you see what that unlocks, the old "design tool" label completely falls apart.

You can now generate:

content and design together
images
full presentations
and even code to build simple apps

On top of that, they introduced Magic Media (only available for paid users), where you can turn raw ideas into images and videos, then refine everything using tools like Magic Edit, Magic Grab, Magic Animate, Magic Eraser, and more.

For most creators, this quietly replaces separate copy tools, basic design subscriptions, and slide software they were paying for anyway.

And here's the part people underestimate: if your design needs are practical, not artistic, Canva's free tier goes much further than most people expect.

10. Leonardo AI

If you have been reading my posts, you may know that I have used Leonardo AI a lot to generate thumbnail images with several popular AI image generation models, and for free.

To get started, you just need to visit their website and create your account.

After that, you will get 150 free credits every day, which can help you generate 50 or more different images using the models you want to use.

I have mainly used it for:

Thumbnails
Visual experiments
Asset generation

So if you want serious image generation without paying upfront, Leonardo AI is still one of the best free options.

The free tier is generous enough that many people never need to upgrade.

Let's Wrap Up

If you read this entire list and felt a little uncomfortable, that's a good sign.

Because the uncomfortable truth is this: most people don't waste money on paid tools because they need them, they waste money because they never learned how to use the free ones properly.

Every tool I shared above solves a very specific problem:

Writing without friction
Researching without hallucinations
Building without code
Designing without designers
Working without constantly switching tabs

And when you combine a few of them intentionally, the "$20 here, $30 there" subscriptions start to look unnecessary.

A simple example:

Use Wispr Flow to think out loud and capture raw ideas.
Feed that into NotebookLM to structure, summarize, and extract insights from your own material.
Build repeatable workflows inside Google AI Studio instead of rewriting prompts every time.
Design assets or visuals with Nano Banana Pro or Canva Magic Studio when you actually need them.
And let ChatGPT Atlas or Comet handle context directly inside your browser instead of copy-pasting content all day.

You see, that's already more powerful than most paid stacks people are using.

So instead of asking, "What new AI tool should I try next?" ask a better question:

"What part of my workflow still feels manual, slow, or annoying?"

Then pick one free tool from this list and fix that one problem properly. That's where the real advantage in 2026 comes from.

Hope you like it.

That's it, thanks.

Also, don't forget to checkout "The (Unfair) AI Workflow Playbook" where I shared exact set of AI workflows I use daily to run my work faster than feels normal.

7 Nano Banana Pro Workflows That Actually Save You Hours As a Developer and More

Nitin Sharma — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 03:10:46 +0000

If you have subscribed to my newsletter, you may know that my previous post explained the basics of what Nano Banana Pro can do and shared a number of mind-blowing use cases.

It went viral (and even ranked on Google) because people are tired of hearing "it can make a picture of a cat".

Later, I wrote a post explaining how Nano Banana can specifically help if you are a designer, a teacher, or a founder, and I shared practical workflows for each.

Seeing the hype around Nano Banana Pro, I spent another 50+ hours going deeper and found 7 advanced, profession-specific use cases that actually justify the "Pro" in the name.

And that's what I'm going to share with you today.

Note: If you enjoy reading this type of practical and informative content, and want to get my best AI insights straight to your inbox, consider subscribing to my newsletter, AI Made Simple. It's free.

With that said, let's get started.

1. Generate Isometric Game Environments & Assets

You know, I started my career as a web developer, spent a good amount of time playing some of the best games in my early days, and even have solid experience working in the gaming industry, like writing code, designing consistent game assets, and so on.

I know how difficult it is, and how much time game developers spend building all of it.

Even many AI tools struggle to keep the consistency right.

But after using Nano Banana Pro, I found that it creates perfect isometric grids and doesn't skew the angles. This means you can generate assets that actually fit together on a map.

Here's the prompt I tried:

Create a stylized low-poly isometric view of a fantasy "Potion Shop" on a floating island. The building should have a purple thatched roof, a glowing sign that reads "Potions", and barrels of colorful liquid outside. The ground is grass with small stone paths. The background is a clean solid color. The lighting should be warm and cozy, resembling a high-quality mobile game asset. 3D render style, Blender Cycles.

Here's another prompt to generate the complete game visual:

Create a cinematic buyer persona poster for "The Reluctant CTO".

Key attributes:

Hates risk, loves reliability

Trusts benchmarks, not promises

Wants tools that integrate seamlessly

Render a dramatic portrait with dim server-room lighting, blue-green hues, reflective glasses showing code, and the tagline: "If it doesn't scale, it doesn't exist."

Include bullet points as minimal typography on the side. Aspect ratio 3:2.

And here's what it generated:

Insane, right?

This can be useful for:

Indie Game Devs: rapidly prototyping levels or creating UI icons.
Web Designers: creating trendy isometric illustrations for landing pages (which usually cost a lot on stock sites).

2. Generate Labeled Synthetic Data for Computer Vision Training

You know, collecting and labeling real-world training data for object recognition models is tedious, expensive, and often biased.

And that's where Nano Banana Pro helps.

It can generate high-fidelity, synthetically labeled images based on complex probabilistic constraints, allowing you to create edge-case scenarios that would be impossible to photograph.

This is a workflow few people talk about, but it's a killer feature for machine learning engineers.

Here's the prompt:

Generate a hyper-realistic image of a retail shelf display for a new energy drink brand. The image must contain precisely 12 units of the product bottle (green label with black cap) scattered semi-randomly on the top two shelves. The lighting should simulate poor, low-light retail conditions (ISO noise visible, warm orange ambient lighting). Crucially, the final image must also contain bounding boxes around each of the 12 product bottles and be overlaid with a JSON-like text output in the corner listing the coordinates and class label: {"object": "energy_drink", "count": 12, "labels": [ (x1, y1, x2, y2), … ] }. The perspective should be a slightly downward, high-angle shot.

And here's what it generated:

Just try counting the bottles manually, and you'll see that it actually generated 12 bottles in one go with a precise labeled image that you can use for training data.

This can be useful for:

Machine Learning Engineers / Data Scientists: Generating vast datasets of corner-case images (e.g., obstructed views, bad lighting, unusual angles) to robustly train models for inventory management, quality control, or autonomous vehicle object detection.
Robotics Engineers: Creating complex visual environments to test robot navigation and object grasp prediction.

3. Create Cinematic Storyboarding With Camera Direction

We all know that even today generating realistic, long videos isn't possible with AI tools.

So think about how difficult it is to generate a cinematic storyboard with every small detail and camera direction included.

If you work in video, you know the pain, and hiring a storyboard artist is expensive.

That's where you can use Nano Banana Pro, since it understands cinematic terminology and you can talk to it like a Director of Photography (DoP). It even knows what "depth of field", "bokeh", and "Dutch angle" mean.

Here's a prompt I tried:

Hyper-realistic architectural render of a massive organic-tech research facility built inside the hollow trunk of a colossal, ancient bioluminescent tree in an alien jungle at twilight. The exterior blends smooth dark metal panels with translucent, pulsating bio-luminescent membranes emitting a soft inner glow. Polished dark-wood pathways and glowing vine-bridges wrap around the tree's interior. In the foreground, a detailed multi-limbed robotic drone with glowing sensors tends to exotic alien flora in a hydroponic garden. Above, glowing spore-like organisms drift through humid mist, reflecting the tree's light and the setting alien sun. Emphasize ancient bark texture, sleek metal surfaces, and translucent membranes. Volumetric lighting, extreme depth of field, cinematic cool blues, deep greens, subtle purples. Octane render, 16k, photorealistic.

And here's what it generated:

This can be useful for:

Filmmakers/YouTubers: planning shots before picking up a camera.
Advertising Agencies: pitching a TV commercial concept to a client.
Writers: visualizing a scene to help describe the atmosphere better in a script.

4. Convert Confusing Career Paths Into Visual Skill Maps

Let's be honest, we all want to learn new skills today because we're seeing AI eliminating many low-end jobs.

And naturally, we're worried about the future.

But the main problem is that we don't know the right roadmap to learn some complex skills faster and actually understand the core concepts.

Sure, you can ask ChatGPT or any other AI model, and it will generate a roadmap, but it will always be in text form.

And that's where you can use Nano Banana Pro to generate a visual career roadmap for any skill.

Here's the prompt I wrote:

Create a career roadmap for "Become a Senior Data Analyst in 18 months" as an RPG skill tree.

Use an isometric game-map aesthetic with branching paths.

Each node must include:

Skill name

Tool (SQL, Excel, Tableau, Python)

Time required

A tiny icon representing the skill

Use a dark fantasy style, glowing node connections, and readable small text. Include a starting point "Zero Experience" and final node "Senior Data Analyst at $100K+". Use subtle neon accents. Aspect ratio 16:9.

And based on that, here's what it generated:

This use case is relevant for everyone, so there's no need to specifically mention where it can be useful.

5. Generate a Full "Inside-Out" Product Breakdown

Let me be honest, even today, most AI image generators hallucinate when generating complex visuals.

No doubt, I tried generating some complex mechanics with different AI image generators, and they placed gears where they don't belong.

But Nano Banana Pro's reasoning engine is different, it understands complex concepts and can generate them visually with accuracy.

So instead of hiring a 3D illustrator for a preliminary manual, you can generate an exploded view to visualize the assembly.

Here's the prompt I tried:

Create a technical, isometric exploded view of a vintage mechanical camera in dark mode. Separate the lens assembly, shutter mechanism, and body casing. Label the three major components with floating text lines. Style: Clean vector line art, white background, blueprint blue accents. High mechanical accuracy.

And here's what it generated:

Here's another example:

Generate a photorealistic 3D exploded view of a high-tech professional camera drone. The components (propellers, camera sensor glass, lithium battery block, and internal logic board) should be hovering vertically in mid-air, separated to show the internal engineering stack.

Materials should look premium: matte black plastic, brushed aluminum, and copper wiring accents. Use dramatic studio lighting with cool blue rim lights against a dark grey background.

Add floating text labels pointing to specific parts: Label the lens 'OPTIC SENSOR', the battery 'Li-ION CORE', and the motor 'MAGLEV DRIVE'. Ensure the text is sharp and futuristic.

And based on that, here's the output:

This can be useful for students to understand complex visuals, for teachers to explain concepts more easily, and for other similar purposes.

6. Turn a Rough Floor Plan Into a Trade Booth Layout

In my last post, I showed you how to generate a cozy minimalist design from a room plan, but let's get specific for professionals.

If you are planning a pop-up store, a trade show booth, or a coffee shop layout, you can upload a rough sketch of the floor plan and ask it to generate the layout you want.

Let's take an example.

Suppose you have a 10x10 booth at a conference and you need to see how it looks with your branding colors, a counter, and a TV screen.

Here's the prompt I tried:

Visualize a trade show booth design for a tech company. The space is small (10x10 feet). Include a back wall with a large screen displaying a 'Cloud Graph'. Use a minimalist white and orange color palette. Place a high table in the front right. Realistic lighting.

And here's the output:

You see, by providing a more detailed prompt like this, you get a clear output and a complete idea of whether to move forward with the design.

And thanks to this, you can visualize anything you need, whether it's a pop-up store, a trade show booth, a coffee shop layout, or something entirely different.

This can be useful for:

Event Planners: To visualize venue layouts.
Retail Owners: To plan seasonal window displays.
Real Estate Agents: To virtually stage empty commercial offices for listings.

7. Create a Hyper-Realistic Product Photography

We all know that studio photography is expensive because controlling liquids, smoke, and gravity is hard.

And companies don't really have alternatives, so they end up paying a hefty fee for product photography.

That's where Nano Banana Pro can save you money and generate exactly what you need.

And yes, you can ask for a liquid splash that looks frozen in time, and the light refraction through the liquid will be physically accurate. This is the "money shot" for marketers.

Here's the prompt I tested:

Commercial product photography of a luxury perfume bottle made of amber glass, placed on a dark reflective surface. The bottle is surrounded by splashing water and swirls of golden smoke. The lighting is backlit to make the liquid inside the bottle glow. The text on the bottle label reads "Eternity". Macro lens details, water droplets on the glass, 8k resolution, unreal engine 5 render style.

And here's the output:

This can be useful for:

E-commerce Owners: creating seasonal variance for products (e.g., your product in snow for Xmas, or on sand for Summer) without a reshoot.
Social Media Managers: creating high-end aesthetic posts for brands with zero budget.

Hope you like it.

That's it, thanks.

Here are some more valuable post you can read to learn how to use AI in practical ways:

9 Nano Banana Pro Use Cases That Will Blow Your Mind

Nitin Sharma — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 03:50:34 +0000

You know, I wrote about Nano Banana just a month ago, and at the time it already felt like a small creative superpower.

But things have changed fast, and now we have Nano Banana Pro as a completely different beast.

It's built on Gemini 3 Pro, and in the last three days, I've been testing it obsessively. Not to see whether it can make pretty images, since we've had enough of that, but to see whether it can actually do something meaningful.

I was finding use cases ranging from diagrams that make sense, to infographics that understand the topic, layouts that look like they came from a design team, and even merged scenes that stay coherent instead of collapsing into chaos.

And finally, in this post, I'm breaking down the exact use cases and real-world examples that turn Nano Banana Pro from a "nice AI trick" into a straight-up competitive advantage most people won't see coming.

Here's the YouTube video if you want to watch it:

Note: This post was originally published in my newsletter, AI Made Simple.

If you enjoy reading this type of practical and informative content, and want to get my best AI insights straight to your inbox, consider subscribing. It's free.

With that said, let's get started.

How to try out Nano Banana Pro?

The easiest way to try it is to open Gemini, go to the Tools tab, and click "Create images with the Thinking Model".

If you're a free user like me, you'll get a few free generations using Nano Banana Pro, and after that it automatically switches back to the previous Nano Banana model.

The real upgrade this time is how seriously they've focused on generating cleaner visuals with accurate, readable text directly inside the image. And it handles multiple languages and still keeps the text sharp and consistent, which is something almost every other model fails at.

Honestly, Nano Banana Pro feels like the first version that finally steps out of the "beautiful but useless art" category and becomes something you can actually use to build real projects.

That's why creators, students, designers, freelancers, marketers, and anyone who works with visual content finally have a model that's practical for everyday tasks.

And now, let me show you what you can actually create with it.

1. Create infographics that actually understand your content

So far, no AI model has been able to generate real and accurate infographics.

You may have experienced that most of them turn your text into random shapes, clip-art icons, and meaningless arrows.

And that's where Nano Banana Pro does something smarter: it understands your topic, pulls factual world knowledge, and then visualizes it.

Here's a prompt that I tested:

Explain GANs visually using an infographic. Focus on how the generator and discriminator fight each other and what happens during training.

And here's what it generated:

Here's another prompt:

Create today's weather in a comic-style infographic for Bangalore using realtime data.

You can see that Nano Banana Pro not only designed the layout but also captured the actual concept correctly with proper spellings.

Real-world example:

This is insanely useful for:

Students

Teachers

Developers

Anyone learning complex topics

So if you've ever struggled to learn a topic, just ask Nano Banana Pro to show it visually.

2. Generate images with real text (accurate, multilingual, readable)

This is the part that shocked me.

Most AI image models still get confused between:

"H" and "M"
"0" and "O"
Or they create fonts that look like ransom letters

And that's where Nano Banana Pro generates long paragraphs, taglines, typography, multilingual text, realistic fonts, branding-quality layouts, and more.

Here's the prompt:

Create 5 poster-style variations using bold sans-serif typography. Here's the headline: "Build Once. Scale Forever".

Real-world example:

With this, you can now use Nano Banana Pro for tasks like poster designs, social media graphics, book covers, landing page hero images, packaging concepts, and branding mockups.

3. Combine multiple images into a single cinematic image (with consistency)

This is the most practical breakthrough because most AI models still struggle with identity consistency.

But Nano Banana Pro can combine different images into one appropriately arranged scene.

I tried uploading the images shown below into Nano Banana Pro.

And here's the prompt:

Create a single composite image using my uploaded photos. Place the Taj Mahal as the background. Put Pikachu in the center foreground, holding or pointing toward my 'AI Made Simple' newsletter logo as if promoting it. Position the car on one side (either left or right) in a natural way. Blend all elements smoothly with consistent lighting, shadows, and color tone so it looks like one cohesive scene.

Based on that, here's what it generated:

Real-world example:

In a similar way, you can create product photos without a photographer by uploading your product, a background, a mood reference, and a lighting reference.

You can even create a family photo by uploading separate pictures of your loved ones, including those who are no longer present, and generate a group photo in any tone or style.

4. Turn your research into visual summaries

If you do content for a living (like I do), this is a cheat code you cannot afford to ignore.

Most people spend hours reading papers, taking notes, pulling insights, and then trying to explain everything in a way that looks clean and visual. Nano Banana Pro kills all that manual work.

All you need to do is upload a screenshot, a PDF, a blog post, a tweet thread, your handwritten notes or even a full research paper.

And then just ask it to generate visual summaries.

Here's the exact prompt I used:

Summarize the core insights about this post into a visual explainer in just one frame. Use a clean, editorial style with labeled arrows, minimal icons, and a narrative flow.

Here's one more:

Insane, right?

Real-world example:

If you're building a newsletter, researching a topic for YouTube, preparing for a client presentation, or publishing a Substack post, you can feed Nano Banana Pro an article or a dense academic paper and instantly get a visual summary that becomes your lead image, carousel, or main hero graphic.

5. Generate marketing concept boards (no design degree needed)

We all know how agencies work.

They spend days (sometimes weeks) building mood boards, brand explorations, and "concept directions" just to present the first round. Half the time, even clients don't know what they want until they see it.

Nano Banana Pro skips all of that and can generate full marketing concept boards instantly.

Here's the prompt I tried:

Create 3 distinct brand concepts for a fitness startup. Include color palette, typography style, 2 sample posters, and one product mockup per concept. Keep everything internally consistent.

Real-world example:

This can be insanely helpful for founders building a brand from scratch, marketers testing visual directions, designers who want fast iterations, or literally anyone who hates starting from a blank page.

6. Create a cozy minimalist design from a room plan

You know, I genuinely want to buy a plot in my native place someday and design a big house by myself.

I've always imagined how each room would look, the layout, the lighting, the furniture, the overall vibe. But unless you know architecture software (which I don't), it's impossible to visualize it properly.

So I uploaded one of my room plans into Nano Banana Pro just to see what happens.

Here's what I uploaded:

And here's the prompt I wrote: Make a 3D plan of this photo

As you can see, the result looks like a proper interior concept:

Insane, right?

Real-world example:

If you're renovating your bedroom, planning a new house, working on a client project, or even just rearranging your furniture, you can upload your floor plan (or even a rough hand-drawn sketch) and instantly see multiple 3D design options.

7. Visual summaries of real-time search

This one surprised me because it combines everything Nano Banana Pro is good at i.e., infographic design, world knowledge, clean text rendering, and real-time reasoning, and then turns it into an image you would actually want to use in your content.

To test it, I uploaded an image showing the AQI in Jaipur, India, and asked it to generate a 1-card visual summary. Something simple but accurate.

Here's the exact prompt I used:

Pull real-time AQI based on the uploaded image, and make a 1-card visual summary with:

Current AQI of Jaipur

Health implications

Recommended precautions

Use consistent typography and reasoning.

And here's what it generated:

Real-world example:

If you run a newsletter, create carousel posts, work in climate or health, or simply want to share real-time updates in a visual format, you can upload any screenshot, and Nano Banana Pro will turn it into a polished one-card summary. This saves hours of manually designing dashboards and gives you visuals that look like they came straight from a professional newsroom.

8. Generate a hand-drawn-style comic for any topic

This one feels almost unreal because you're not just generating an image, you're creating a full, stylized, multi-panel comic that looks hand-drawn by an actual illustrator.

And the craziest part is how Nano Banana Pro maintains visual consistency across panels, characters, emotions, and objects without falling apart.

To test it, I went pretty detailed with the prompt and pushed it into a specific artistic direction.

Here's the exact prompt I used:

Create a comic with the title: Getting started with Nano Banana Pro 🍌.

Panel 1: A mobile interface on Gemini, rendered in a poetic watercolor-ink style with fine ink outlines and soft, bleeding washes. The interface is friendly and a hand painted with expressive brushwork taps a prominent button labeled "🍌 Create image". Above the button it should say "Choose your Model" then below there should be a checkbox that says "Thinking with 3 Pro" Muted greys and blues dominate the background. The button has a vivid yellow accent. " Select the Thinking with 3 Pro model" and tap "Create image" to begin.

Panel 2: A cheerful person is depicted adding their selfie from the phone's camera. The user's face is drawn with soft outlines and warm pastel colors, while the phone and UI maintain the delicate water-ink aesthetic. Visible paper grain adds to the texture.

Panel 3: The person thinks about what to create. In the background, different options are visualized to show what they're thinking, including - them as a plushie, them with a mohawk hairstyle, and a figurine. These options are clearly rendered behind the person in the same style as the rest of the comic.

Panel 4: The person is shown adding a style prompt, with a speech bubble saying "Transform me into a watercolor painting". The text is integrated into the panel's watercolor-ink look, and the interaction feels natural and intuitive.

Panel 5: The person is seen editing the image by simply typing into Gemini. The scene captures the ease of this interaction, with the final edited image, now in a watercolor style, appearing on the screen.

The overall tone is friendly, instructional, and inspiring. It feels like a mini tutorial comic, all conveyed through the specified delicate water-ink illustration style. Make the aspect ratio 16:9.

Real-world example:

If you're a creator teaching a concept, a brand explaining how their app works, a teacher breaking down a topic for students, or someone building product tutorials, you can turn your instructions into an illustrated comic in seconds.

This instantly boosts engagement and makes complex workflows easier to understand, without hiring an illustrator or spending hours drawing panels yourself.

9. Generate a modern logo that actually looks professional

This one is wild because logos are usually the hardest thing for AI to get right.

Most AI models either make something overly complicated, overly abstract, or something that looks like a generic tech icon downloaded from a free vector website.

And I wanted to test Nano Banana Pro to generate something premium, minimal, and editorial.

Here's the exact prompt I used:

Create a clean, modern, premium editorial-style minimal logo icon for my newsletter AI Made Simple. The design should feel sophisticated, timeless, and highly legible, with a focus on simplicity and clarity. Incorporate subtle visual cues that evoke artificial intelligence, learning, or clarity without making the icon look tech-heavy or cluttered. The logo should work well at small sizes and feel appropriate for a high-quality newsletter brand.

And the result?

As you can see, it actually looks like a professionally designed logo, and something you could genuinely use across your entire identity.

Real-world example:

If you're launching a startup, a newsletter, an app, or a personal brand, you can generate 10–20 logo concepts instantly and refine the direction before you spend money on a designer.

This gives you clarity on what style you want and lets you test how the logo looks on different backgrounds, sizes, and formats. Even designers will appreciate this because it shortens the exploration phase significantly.

Let's wrap up

After spending the last three days pushing Nano Banana Pro from every angle, here's the simplest way to put it: this is the first time AI visuals feel like a real tool instead of a novelty.

And if you look closely at all nine use cases, a pattern becomes obvious.

This model isn't trying to impress you with aesthetics. It's trying to understand what you're asking, reason through your idea, and then turn that reasoning into something visual you can immediately use in real work.

And that's the part people still underestimate.

The real value isn't that Nano Banana Pro can generate an infographic or a comic or a logo. The real value is that it compresses hours of creative work into a single prompt, without lowering the quality, and lets you jump straight to the part that matters.

So now that you've seen what it can actually do, the only thing left is the fun part: open it, start experimenting, and let it change the way you create.

Hope you like it.

That's it, thanks

If you enjoy reading this type of practical and informative content, and want to get my best AI insights straight to your inbox, consider subscribing. It's free.

I Tried Thousands of ChatGPT Prompts, and These 4 Saved Me Hours (No BS)

Nitin Sharma — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 07:28:28 +0000

Let's be honest, AI isn't just changing how fast we work, it's changing who can get things done.

We have best AI website builders, AI image generators, and editors, AI headshot generators, AI voice generators, and so on.

And remember, there was a time when you needed to hire a copywriter to write an article, a designer to make a presentation, or a web developer to build a simple site.

Now, you can do all that yourself in minutes with ChatGPT.

But here's the secret: ChatGPT is only as good as your prompts, and we all know it.

That's why, I've spent hundreds of hours testing prompts for every kind of task imaginable, writing, marketing, coding, design, learning, you name it.

After a lot of trial and error, these are the 4 prompts I keep coming back to.

They save me hours every week and make my work look like it was done by a team of pros.

With that said, let's dive in.

1. Learn any skill, fast

Let's be honest, most people want to learn new things but get stuck because they don't know where to start.

ChatGPT solves that in one line.

Use this prompt: "I want to learn about [insert topic]. Tell me the most critical 20% that helps me understand 80%".

This is based on the 80/20 rule, the idea that 20% of what you learn gives you 80% of the results.

You'll instantly get a clear roadmap, major concepts, and key resources.

As you can see, you can further ask for a step-by-step practical roadmap.

And if you want to go beyond theory, just follow up with:

Prompt: "I'm a beginner and want to get better at [skill]. Suggest 5 hands-on project ideas to practice it".

And that's how, ChatGPT becomes your personal learning coach.

You'll know what to learn, how to learn it, and what to build, all within minutes.

2. Find the best resources (without wasting your time)

Most people spend hours scrolling through random YouTube videos or blog posts trying to find the "best" resources.

You don't have to.

Ask ChatGPT this: "Give me the best learning resources (books, videos, podcasts, courses) for [topic]. Make sure they fit different learning styles, especially visual learners".

In seconds, you'll have a curated list of quality resources, like someone already did the research for you.

You can even refine it:

"Now shortlist only the free ones" or "Now pick the ones that have practical exercises".

This will actually saves you from the chaos of Google and keeps your learning structured.

As a web developer, and a content writer, I've used this exact method to learn frameworks, design principles, and marketing skills without wasting time or money.

3. Simplify anything you don't understand

This one's a life-saver.

Sometimes, you read something like a technical concept, a financial term, or an academic paper, and your brain just goes blank.

Here's where ChatGPT shines:

Prompt: "Explain [concept] like I'm 5".

Or prompt like: "Summarize this text into bullet points of key ideas and insights: [paste your text]".

In seconds, it breaks down complex topics into simple language. You can even ask it to give analogies, examples, or visuals to make it stick.

And if you're reading a long book or article, just say: "Summarize this chapter and give me 5 key takeaways with real-world examples".

And that's how you'll understand faster than most people who spent days studying the same thing.

You see, ChatGPT becomes your personal tutor, one that never gets tired of explaining things a hundred times until you actually get it.

4. Perform like a pro in any profession

Now, here's where things get crazy powerful.

ChatGPT can simulate the mind of any expert, and teach you to think like one.

Suppose, you want to write like a copywriter?

Use this prompt: "Act as a world-class copywriter with 10+ years of experience. Help me write a blog post about [topic]".

Need to optimize your website?

Prompt: "Pretend to be an SEO expert. Audit my website and suggest fixes to improve rankings".

Want to improve your sales pitch?

Prompt: "Act as a Sales Manager with 15 years of experience. Rewrite my pitch to make it more persuasive".

You see, you're basically hiring a top expert for free, instantly.

It's like having a copywriter, marketer, designer, strategist, and much more inside one window.

The key here is just to be specific about the role and the task, and write a detailed prompt based on that. Yes, the clearer your prompt, the smarter ChatGPT becomes.

Hope you like it.

That's it, thanks.

If you've found this post helpful, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter, AI Made Simple where I dive deeper into practical AI strategies for everyday people.

99% of People Use AI Wrong — Here’s How I Actually Learn and Remember Faster

Nitin Sharma — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 06:08:31 +0000

Let’s be honest, most of us don’t really “learn”, we just consume.

We scroll through videos, read articles, and bookmark threads hoping something will stick. But when it’s time to actually use what we’ve read, it fades away.

That’s because learning today is broken.

We’re surrounded by more information than ever (thanks to the internet and AI), but we don’t have a process to retain it, connect it, or apply it.

I felt that pain deeply, and it’s a problem we all experience.

Let me give you my example.

As a programmer and content creator, I constantly study complex ideas and topics from AI models to product design to storytelling frameworks.

But reading or watching videos alone wasn’t helping, and it took too much time. Sure, I’d understand something in the moment, then forget half of it a day later.

So I stopped trying to “learn faster” and started focusing on remembering better and finding a better way to learn. AI completely changed the game for me.

Over time, I built a couple of repeatable workflows that help me do three things extremely well.

And this post breaks down those AI workflows using tools like Perplexity, NotebookLM, and Gemini so you can learn faster and actually retain what you learn, step by step.

Note: If you found this post valuable or learned something new, consider becoming a free subscriber to my newsletter on Substack. It’s the best way to read more of my work, support me, and keep this kind of content coming.

With that said, let’s get started.

1. This AI workflow helps me learn 10x faster

You know, as a content writer, I spend hours going through articles, videos, and research papers just to understand one topic properly.

But here’s the shortcut: I use Perplexity and NotebookLM to upload knowledge into my brain faster.

Here’s how I do it:

First, I open Perplexity and search for the best resources such as blogs, YouTube videos, research papers, or even books on whatever I’m learning (for example, “how to learn AI fast”).

Then, instead of reading each source manually, I take all the URLs that Perplexity gives me and paste them into NotebookLM by creating a new notebook.

You may know, NotebookLM lets me upload multiple types of sources such as PDFs, website links, transcripts, text files, and more, all in one place. I usually go with the website link option and add everything there.

If you want to master NotebookLM and learn how to use it in your daily work, you can read this helpful post.

Now comes the magic part:

I ask NotebookLM specific questions like “Explain reinforcement learning like I’m 5” or “Summarize the key principles of deep learning from all these sources”.

And it doesn’t stop there. I can instantly generate audio summaries, video overviews, mind maps, reports, and even quizzes from the same data.

The best part is that I can customize all of them. For example, I can ask it to create a short two-minute audio version, a YouTube-style explainer, or a quiz that tests my understanding.

To be honest, this single AI workflow saves me hours and maximizes my productivity to an insane level.

2. Visualize your research and remember 3x more

When I’m deep into research, plain text usually isn’t enough, and it makes concepts hard to understand.

I often need something visual that helps me see the data and connect the dots faster.

But the problem is that most of us don’t know how to build reports or dashboards from scratch. That’s where AI makes things simple.

You can now research, analyze, and even build full visual dashboards without writing a single line of code.

Here’s how I do it: Let’s say I want to research a U.S. stock before investing, for example, NVIDIA Corp.

That’s where, I start with Perplexity and write a detailed prompt like this:

I want to research a US stock before investing a big amount. The stock is NVIDIA Corp.

Give me a clear, simple, and data-backed analysis covering:

a) What the company does and how it makes money.
b) Financial health – revenue, profit trend, debt, and cash flow.
c) Valuation – is it cheap or expensive vs competitors.
d) Growth drivers – what could make it grow in the next 3–5 years.
e) Risks – main reasons the stock could fall.
f) Recent news & earnings – anything important to know.
g) Final summary – would you consider this a Buy, Hold, or Avoid (based on data, not hype)?

Keep it short, structured, and beginner-friendly — no generic answers please.

Within seconds, Perplexity gives me a complete, structured analysis backed by real data and sources.

Next, I copy that output and open Gemini, and use their Canvas feature.

In short, Canvas is a creative workspace inside Gemini where you can generate documents, visuals, and even simple web apps using prompts and direct edits.

Then I paste everything from Perplexity into Canvas and choose what I want to create, such as an infographic, a web page, or a dashboard.

And so, Gemini instantly turns that data into clean visuals.

For example, I asked it to make an infographic based on NVIDIA’s analysis, and it created one showing key financials, growth drivers, and risks in a simple, easy-to-digest layout.

Looks informative and easy, right?

You see, we’re not just reading information, we’re interacting with it, seeing it clearly, and remembering it faster.

And the best part? You can use the same approach to study AI trends, startup case studies, or even personal finance.

3. Learn anything deeply with Gemini’s “Guided Learning”

We often ask LLMs to “explain like I’m 5” when something feels too complex to understand.

And while that works for quick explanations, real learning happens when you engage, go deeper, and actually do something with the concept.

That’s where Gemini’s new feature “Guided Learning” changes everything.

It works like a personal learning coach (or a personal tutor) that doesn’t just give direct answers but helps you truly understand a topic step by step.

More clearly, according to Google, Guided Learning provide you a step-by-step guide to help you build a deep understanding instead of just getting quick answers.

Let’s take an example.

Suppose I’m a student who wants to deeply understand a Physics topic like “Reflection and Refraction”.

That’s where, I simply go to Gemini, choose the Guided Learning feature, and write a prompt such as:

In seconds, Gemini starts explaining the topic like a personal tutor with clear diagrams, real-life examples, and interactive steps that build one after another.

As you can see, it can also include images, short videos, and quizzes to help you test what you’ve learned along the way.

And the best part? Once you finish a topic, it even asks follow-up questions and suggests related concepts to explore next.

You see, you’re not just reading or learning faster.

You’re learning interactively, like having a smart AI tutor guiding you step by step.

So whether you’re trying to master Physics, understand AI, or pick up a new skill, Gemini’s Guided Learning helps you truly remember what you learn instead of reading it and forgetting it later.

Let’s wrap up

So far, you learned these three practical moves in this post:

Use Perplexity and NotebookLM to collect, simplify, and save the best information so you don’t get lost in too many articles. Add your sources to a notebook, ask clear questions, and create short summaries, quizzes, or audio notes that are easy to learn what you need or review later.
Turn text into visuals with tools like Gemini Canvas so concepts become memorable. Visuals make connections obvious and stick in your head far longer than complicated texts.
Learn interactively with guided flows. Instead of one-off explanations, use the guided learning features that build concepts step by step and test you along the way.

And here are a couple of extra things worth knowing:

If you want a single place that exposes many of Google’s AI capabilities, try Google’s AI Studio. It bundles a lot of Google AI features and can be a useful complement to the workflow above. Think of it as another powerful tool in your toolkit.
Don’t try to use every tool. Use one workflow for a week, get comfortable, then add another tool only if it solves a real pain point.
The fastest way to remember stuff is simple: organize the right inputs, force retrieval (quizzes, flash audio), and turn facts into something you can explain or show. AI just makes those steps much faster.

I hope you like it.

That’s it, thanks.

Lastly, if you found this post valuable or learned something new, consider becoming a free subscriber to my newsletter on Substack. It’s the best way to read more of my work, support me, and keep this kind of content coming.

I Tested 25+ AI Writing Tools, and This One Writes Better Than Most Humans (With Results)

Nitin Sharma — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 10:37:56 +0000

You know, I have been writing online for over 5 years now.

First, I focused on Medium and made my first $100K, and now I’m focusing on my AI newsletter on Substack.

Over the last 2 years, I’ve tried a number of AI writing tools to generate content in my writing style and for different use cases.

Honestly, if a writing tool can create informative content in the exact style I want, it can make me much more productive and genuinely help in my work.

I’ve also noticed that many people are interested in the best AI writing tools to generate content in various styles for their businesses.

But to be honest, even today, if you try most of the AI writing tools, they will generate generic content or use OpenAI’s API under the hood and claim they are the #1 AI writing tool.

And so, I’m writing this post after testing 25+ AI writing tools to suggest to you some of the best options.

Note: This post contains a few affiliate links. If you choose to become a paid member through them, I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Most importantly, I only recommend products I’ve personally used and trust.

I never promote any product just to make money or spam people. My sole intention is to provide value, and if you find it helpful, it’s entirely your choice to proceed with it.

With that said, let’s get started.

The Problem With Most AI Writing Tools

If you Google “best free AI writing tools”, you would find tons of options available.

But after testing 25+ of them myself, I can confidently say most of them are simply useless. In short, most of these AI writing tools are just using the OpenAI API to generate content.

Instead, you can simply use ChatGPT with a detailed prompt and generate content the way you want.

Also, if they generate content that can be easily detectable by AI, it makes no sense to use it since it will just make your work worse.

Here’s what you actually need:

An AI writer tool that actually uses advanced AI models trained on multiple writing styles and generates content in the exact tone or format a user specifies.
Can accurately interpret complex, multi-layered prompts and can generate differently for casual readers, professionals, or brand-specific personas based on the user’s intent.
Should naturally mimic different tones or writer voices and perform equally well across specialized domains like SEO, storytelling, copywriting, or technical documentation.
Can maintain deep context across long-form content without drifting or repeating, even in 1000+ word outputs, and produce factually grounded writing that references real data or credible examples when prompted.
Understands structure, generates clean and well-formatted sections with logical transitions, subheadings, and CTAs without needing manual fixing.
Rewrites existing drafts in a way that improves clarity, emotion, and engagement, and can generate unique ideas without hallucinating or losing factual integrity.
And obviously, writes like a human and not the same generic content an LLM model generates.

So, while researching the best free AI writing tools, I focused on the above parameters, and based on that, I found the 7 best AI writing tools you can choose from.

With that said, let’s start with the recommendations.

1. Sudowrite

If you search on Google for the best AI writing tools, chances are Sudowrite will appear right at the top.

And here’s why: unlike most AI tools built for blogs or marketing copy, Sudowrite is designed specifically for fiction writers. They even created their own AI model called “Muse”, trained only on fictional storytelling.

But what makes Muse different from other LLMs?

To prove my point, I used the same writing prompt on both ChatGPT and Sudowrite, and the difference was clear.

As you can see, both produced good stories, but Sudowrite’s output felt more emotional, vivid, and naturally written. It actually reads like a real fictional story rather than an AI-generated one.

And here are some of the best features of Muse that make it stand out:

The best part? You can further:

Adjust the style, tone, or pacing in seconds.
Expand or shorten any part of your story instantly.
Rewrite specific sentences or paragraphs while keeping the creative tone intact.
Brainstorm character ideas, plots, or twists with impressive accuracy.
And more.

Well, that’s the main reason I decided to try Sudowrite myself, and thanks to its mind-blowing features and its own model called Muse, I've placed this one in the #1 position.

To get started, you simply need to visit their website and click on the button “Try Sudowrite for free” to create an account.

Then you can start a new project and use most of the features to generate fictional content the way you want.

As you can see, it has all the features one needs, from brainstorming ideas to writing in continuation, rewriting a specific sentence or paragraph, or describing a word or phrase in different senses, and more.

What I love most is their “Story Bible” feature, which makes writing a novel unbelievably simple. In just 7 clicks, you can choose your genre, select a writing style, craft a synopsis, do a brain dump, add characters, and much more to bring your perfect novel to life.

Talking about pricing, the plans start at $10 per month and go up to $44 per month, depending on the credits you choose.

2. Fiverr Writing Service

This one isn’t technically an AI writing tool, but I want this post to be as helpful and informative as possible.

That’s why I’m including options that can genuinely make a difference for readers like you.

So, here’s one worth mentioning: Fiverr Writing Services, perfect for anyone who wants high-quality content written by real experts instead of AI.

But why include it? Because let’s be honest, most AI writing tools still struggle to match the creativity, tone, and flow of a skilled human writer. In that case, Fiverr can be a strong alternative.

You might be wondering, how do you get started?

Well, it’s simple. Visit Fiverr, type “writers” in the search bar, and browse through thousands of professionals.

You can choose the right expert based on their portfolio, reviews, ratings, and writing style.

This way, you don’t need to rely on any AI writing tool or spend hours trying to perfect your own draft. You can let experienced writers handle it for you.

And why Fiverr specifically? Because it’s one of the most trusted, affordable, and beginner-friendly platforms available. They also have Pro writers who specialize in blogs, stories, copywriting, and more.

I’ve personally hired several content writers and fiction writers through Fiverr, and that’s why I can confidently recommend Fiverr Writing Services as a reliable choice.

3. ChatGPT (or Claude)

Let’s be honest, almost everyone has heard of ChatGPT and Claude, and most AI writing tools actually use these models behind the scenes.

And the best part? Over time, both ChatGPT and Claude have become incredibly powerful across almost every category, including content creation.

So naturally, I had to include them here.

To generate content in your preferred style, simply visit ChatGPT (or Claude) and create a free account.

After that, all you need to do is write a clear and detailed prompt describing exactly what you want to generate, and you’re ready to go.

Here’s a prompt I use most often:

You are an expert writing assistant helping me write high-quality, factually correct, and original content in my personal writing style.

My writing style: Conversational, simple English, practical, and to-the-point. I like short paragraphs, natural flow, and relatable examples. My tone is confident but not robotic. I write as if I’m talking to a smart friend in informal english.

Your goals:

• Write with a human tone, no corporate or filler language.
• Avoid vague statements like “AI is changing everything”. Instead, explain how and why.
• If you mention tools, features, or facts, ensure they are up-to-date and verified (cross-check before writing).
• Use logic, storytelling, or real-world examples when relevant.
• Prioritize accuracy and clarity over word count.
• Use active voice and smooth transitions between ideas.

Topic: [insert your topic here, e.g., “How AI is changing productivity tools” or “Using NotebookLM to learn faster”]

Format: Write it like a blog post (not an essay), with a short hook in the intro, a clear flow of ideas, and a punchy closing line.

I tested it on a simple topic related to NotebookLM, and here’s what it generated:

Sure, it might feel a bit tedious at first, but that’s what makes it fun.

You can experiment by adjusting your prompt, defining the tone, and even asking ChatGPT or Claude to mimic a specific writing style.

And the best part? Both ChatGPT and Claude offer free usage limits, which makes them a perfect choice if you want to boost productivity and create better content without spending a dollar.

4. Rytr

Now, here’s another popular AI writing tool, used by over 8 million writers and boasting a 4.9 out of 5 satisfaction rate.

And here, you can generate email responses, blog posts, creative writing, social media ads, and everything in between.

I’m talking about Rytr, which focuses specifically on generating short-form content.

To get started, simply visit their website and click the “Get Rytr It’s Free” button to create your account.

And then I tried generating an email in two variants by adding a few key points, and here’s what it generated:

The best part? I can change the language, adjust the tone, and even modify specific sentences exactly the way I want, as you can see below.

As for pricing, you can start for free and generate up to 10k characters.

If you need more, you can choose the “Unlimited” or “Premium” plans to generate more content and access additional features.

5. Jasper AI

I’ve heard a lot about this one on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, and it’s quite popular.

The best part about Jasper AI is that it’s specifically built to help businesses and individuals streamline their marketing process. It enhances brand experience, speeds up content creation, and helps automate marketing workflows to save both time and effort.

Most of you may already know about it, but the main drawback is that there’s no free plan, and it’s a bit expensive compared to other tools.

To get started, visit the Jasper AI website and click the “Start Free Trial” button to create your account.

Next, you’ll need to select either the “Pro” or “Business” plan and add your card details, even for the free 7-day trial.

After that, you’ll be redirected to the dashboard, which offers a variety of categories to choose from.

Here, you can explore different categories like content marketing, performance marketing, or try out features and popular apps depending on what you want to generate.

Select "Facebook Post" for example.

And from there, the process is mostly the same as what we discussed in the previous section.

6. Writesonic

Now, this is another popular AI writing tool, and they mainly focus on boosting your brand’s visibility in AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and so on.

I’m talking about Writesonic, and it even provides you with a tracking system, SEO strategies, a content engine to generate content, and more.

To get started, simply visit their website and click on the button “Start Free Trial”.

Then it lets you generate content in a very step-by-step manner, as you can see above.

I’ve tried the complete process myself, and to be honest, it generates way better content than I ever thought.

As for the pricing, you can start a free trial with any plan and try out the above process to see the results.

And further, you can buy a paid plan if you want to.

7. Copy AI

Finally, the last tool I want to talk about helps you create content, generate pipelines, execute campaigns, close deals, and more.

I’m talking about Copy AI.

To get started, visit their website and click the “Login” button to create your account.

Once you’re in, you can choose a plan and start creating content, building advanced workflows to automate your content creation process, or even developing custom AI specific to your brand voice.

Regarding pricing, Copy AI offers two main options: Chat and Agents, as you can see below.

So if you just want to generate content and chat with AI models, the Chat plan is sufficient. But if you want to train content and build automation, the Agents plan is the way to go.

Let’s Wrap Up

So, after testing 25+ AI writing tools, here’s the takeaway: most tools are either too generic or just repackaging the same OpenAI models.

But the few I’ve shared here actually deliver results if you use them right.

First, I talked about Sudowrite because it has its own powerful AI model. One of its limitations, though, is that it’s mainly built for fictional stories. Interestingly, some might even see that focus as an advantage.

Next, I included Fiverr Writing Services because, in my opinion, the best way to create truly high-quality content is still by hiring a skilled human writer. Fiverr is a great option for that, and I can vouch for it since I’ve personally used it for years.

The rest of the list follows the same logic, focusing on tools that actually work in real situations.

Here's a quick cheat sheet for you:

• For fiction and creative writing — Sudowrite.
• For hiring a human (when you want nuance that AI still misses) — Fiverr.
• For flexible, do-it-yourself prompts — ChatGPT / Claude (use a tight prompt).
• Short-form, quick-turn copy — Rytr.
• Enterprise-level features and templates — Jasper AI.
• SEO and brand-focused workflows — Writesonic.
• Campaigns, pipelines, and automations — Copy AI.

What really matters is how you write your prompt and how honestly you edit the result.

Sure, AI can help you write faster, but you’re still the one in charge, so you need to guide the tone, check facts, and smooth out the flow.

For instance, if it sounds robotic, just rewrite the first few lines and give it back to the tool to improve.

If you want one simple starting point: use ChatGPT (or Claude) with the detailed prompt I shared, then try Sudowrite or Rytr for creative ideas.

This mix helped me save time and still keep my writing natural and human.

Hope you like it.

That’s it — thanks.

If you’ve found this post helpful, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter, AI Made Simple where I dive deeper into practical AI strategies for everyday people.

I Tried an AI Tool That Turns Any Content Into a Mind Map So You Actually Remember Stuff

Nitin Sharma — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 04:22:19 +0000

Let's be honest, we all spend hours reading, watching, or researching, yet remember very little.

The same happens after watching a YouTube tutorial, reading a long PDF, or going through an article. Before you're even halfway through, you're already lost in the details or distracted by something else.

What do you do next?

You start writing notes to remember. Some go in your notebook, some in Google Docs, some in Notion, and a few even end up in WhatsApp.

But if you take a moment to understand how our brain actually works, you'll realize it doesn't process information in a straight line, reading one sentence after another.

Instead, we understand and remember things by connecting ideas together, like a web of relationships rather than a block of text.

And that's exactly where Mapify comes in. It helps you visualize complex ideas, understand them better, and learn much faster by generating a mind map based on your content.

Note: This post contains no affiliate links. I'm not getting a single penny for writing this review. I'm just testing a ton of AI tools and sharing my honest take on whether they're worth your time or not.

What is Mapify, and how do you get started?

Well, Mapify is an AI mind map generator that turns any piece of content like a YouTube video, PDF, webpage, image, or even audio into a visual mind map within seconds.

The main idea behind this tool is that it takes everything scattered and restructures it into something your brain can instantly grasp, helping you understand faster and retain more.

What I like the most is that it can turn your messy information into a clear roadmap, making it easier to learn something new without wasting any time.

To get started, visit their website and click on "Start for free" to create your account.

After signing up, you will land on your dashboard, and on the left side, you can see all the types of content you can convert into a mind map.

And on the right side, you can type a topic or prompt, and Mapify will generate a detailed mind map based on it.

As for pricing, Mapify offers a free trial, and after that, you can choose from any of the paid plans shown below.

What are its core features?

Now, let's talk about the core features of Mapify, and they are as follows:

a) One-click summarization across formats:

You can paste a YouTube URL, drop a PDF, or upload audio, then click the Mapify button to map the core ideas into a visual tree. This turns long, scattered content into a compact structure so you find the key points fast and stop wasting your time.

b) Chat, edit, and step-by-step generation:

You can chat with the mind map or the underlying file to expand, compress, or reframe branches the way you want.

That lets you explore topics in more detail, make complex parts easier to understand, or change the structure to fit your needs for teaching, studying, or planning.

c) Export and share:

When you are satisfied with a map map, you can export it as PNG, PDF, SVG, Markdown, or as project files such as Xmind. You can also share via link or embed the map on a page. This makes your notes portable and easy to collaborate on or publish.

d) Cross-platform availability:

You know, Mapify provides a web app, a Chrome extension, and a mobile app so you can use it on any device and sync maps across devices. That means capture and review work from desktop, browser, or phone without losing context.

e) Support for many languages:

Mapify advertises translation and summarization in 50 plus languages, which is useful when your source material is not in English or when you work with international content.

f) Modern LLMs under the hood:

I have read that Mapify runs on top LLMs like GPT and Gemini, and the team has discussed integrating GPT-5 to improve context and accuracy. That matters because stronger models help you get the best info, reduce hallucinations and provide deeper reasoning on long or complex sources.

How I'm using Mapify

You know, I mainly use Mapify to learn faster and save time.

To be more precise, I often upload research papers, PDFs, or even add YouTube links to instantly generate mind maps from them.

Similarly, when I come across long YouTube videos that are a few minutes or even hours long, I create a mind map out of them to extract the key points and structure everything visually.

To be honest, this simple process saves me a lot of time and helps me retain exactly what I need to remember.

And the best part is, it helps me in every area of my work and learning.

Just to give you some context, I'm a programmer, content writer, and currently learning about AI, so it literally supports me in all three areas.

For example, as a content writer, I need to do a lot of research.

That means spending a lot of time watching videos, reading blogs, and going through research papers. Rather than making messy notes or forgetting ideas, I use Mapify to turn everything into one clear visual map, so I can quickly see connections and insights.

Do you really need Mapify?

In short, yes.

If you're a student, programmer, content creator, or anyone dealing with large amounts of information and wanting to learn efficiently, Mapify can make a huge difference.

But how? Let me explain.

As a programmer, I know that what I'm learning today might not stay relevant for long. Every few months, new frameworks, tools, and languages appear.

And to stay updated, I have to keep learning something new almost every day. Honestly, that's exhausting. Most of my time goes into learning, and then I have to take notes too.

This is exactly where Mapify helps me. It takes complex info and turns it into clear, visual maps that are actually easy to understand and remember.

If you're a student, you've probably faced the same challenge.

Imagine a 200-page research paper or a long AI textbook. How do you remember what's important without losing your mind? Instead of trying to absorb everything, you can use Mapify to map different concepts into a structured chart, focusing only on what matters.

And it's not just for students. Content creators and researchers can use Mapify to grab insights from articles, videos, or reports and turn them into one clear map.

Even for everyday learning, Mapify can make a real difference.

This is exactly why Mapify is so powerful and why I had to write this post.

Hope you like it.

That's it — thanks.

If you've found this post helpful, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter, AI Made Simple where I dive deeper into practical AI strategies for everyday people.

I Tried NativeMind, a Local Browser AI That Speeds Up Research and Keeps My Data Private

Nitin Sharma — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 13:40:59 +0000

You know, for the last two years, I've been testing and writing about the best AI tools on the market.

But the more I explore, the clearer one fundamental issue becomes: privacy is no longer optional in the age of AI.

You've likely seen and heard the warnings: every prompt you type into a public, cloud-based LLM (like ChatGPT or Gemini) crosses a server boundary.

That means your confidential research, sensitive customer data, or proprietary documents are fundamentally relying on a third party's security policy.

In 2024, half of enterprise IT leaders cite data leakage during model training as a top security risk, and I don't want to take that chance with my own data.

That's why I want to write about NativeMind, a tool that completely sidesteps the cloud-privacy problem. For me, it's one of the best AI tool I've found that brings real-time, browser-native intelligence while keeping your data absolutely private.

But Nitin, what exactly is NativeMind, and how does it deliver on this promise?

Well, that's what we're going to talk today.

Note: This post contains no affiliate links. I'm not getting a single penny for writing this review. I'm just testing a ton of AI tools and sharing my honest take on whether they're worth your time or not.

With that said, let's start.

What is NativeMind, and how do you get started?

Well, NativeMind is an open-source browser extension that acts as your private AI interface.

More precisely, it lets you interact with web pages in real time. With this, you can summarize webpages, chat across tabs, perform local web searches, and more.

And the best part? It's designed to work exclusively with local LLMs (Large Language Models) like gpt-oss, DeepSeek, Qwen, Llama, Gemma, and others — meaning the AI processing happens entirely on your device.

So your data remains 100% private (& safe).

But Nitin, how do you get started?

Well, simply visit their website and click on the button "Add to Chrome" to download the Chrome extension.

Then download the Ollama open-source tool, and after that, download one of the models you'd like to use.

That's all. Once set up, you can start using it for multiple use cases.

Just to give you an example, I tried summarizing my profile page on Dev.to, and here's what it provided:

In a similar way, you can visit any website to summarize pages, highlight key insights, and search for more.

Talking about the pricing, you can get started for free for personal use.

What are its features?

Well, NativeMind isn't just "AI inside your browser".

It's packed with features that make browsing smarter, faster, and more private, and that's exactly what helps you stay productive.

Here's what you can use NativeMind for:

a) Summarize webpages:

You don't need to scroll through multiple pages on a website just to extract the core idea or find something specific. Simply use NativeMind with the model you prefer, and it will summarize the content for you.

b) Chat across tabs:

Most AI tools can't remember context, so you often can't ask a follow-up question about something you asked earlier. With NativeMind, you can keep the context alive even across different websites and pages.

c) Do local web search:

It can also perform local web searches based on the topic you're exploring. Just type what you want to search for, and NativeMind will automate the process and provide you with answers — without sending your queries to external servers.

d) Translate immersively:

You can translate an entire page into another language while keeping the original formatting intact.

e) Use local LLMs in your web apps:

NativeMind runs directly on your device with the LLMs you choose to download. That means it's 100% free for personal use and keeps your data private at all times.

How I'm using NativeMind

You know, I've been reading tons of posts every day related to AI and other technology.

And that's where I use NativeMind more like an automation tool to read exactly what I want.

To be more precise, I simply provide a specific prompt to get clean, concise summaries of long articles, reports, or webpages directly within my browser.

This way, I can quickly understand what an article is about without reading it completely or spending 10 to 15 minutes of my time.

The best part? NativeMind keeps my data, prompts, and content private because everything runs on my own device. That's one of the main reasons I use it.

What I like even more is that I can ask questions and it maintain context for my AI conversations, even as I navigate across different websites and tabs.

Lastly, I'm more into AI, so I know the specific use cases of different AI models.

And that's where NativeMind makes it easy for me to use and switch between different open-source models (like Llama, Gemma, Mistral, etc.) that I've installed with Ollama.

Do you really need NativeMind?

Let me put it this way: if you care about speed, control, and complete privacy in your digital life, then yes, you absolutely do.

Think about how most AI tools work.

Every time you enter a prompt, your data goes straight to some company's servers. They log it, analyze it, and sometimes even use it to train their models.

You are giving away your ideas, your research, and most often even personal details without realizing it.

That is the trade-off: convenience for control.

NativeMind flips the model completely by running everything locally on your device, which means no data leaves your machine and your browsing, research, and prompts stay entirely yours.

For me, that changes everything and helps me get a lot more done.

Over time, I've noticed that reading and doing research has become much easier. I don't get lost in too many open tabs anymore.

So if you read a lot, research for work or study, or write online, NativeMind will easily save you hours every single week. And since it is open-source and completely free for personal use, I really don't see any downside.

Hope you like it.

That's it — thanks.

If you've found this post helpful, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter, AI Made Simple where I dive deeper into practical AI strategies for everyday people.

DEV Community: Nitin Sharma

I Tried OpenClaw Every Day for a Month, And Here’s How I Automated My Daily Tasks

What Is OpenClaw & How It Works?

How to Run OpenClaw Locally on Your Device

Use Case 1: Lead Generation While You Sleep

Use Case 2: Build Your Own “Custom News Feed”

Use Case 3: Find the Best AI Tools in Minutes

Use Case 4: Do Your Daily Research in Minutes

What Next?

Best Web Scraping Tools in 2026: I Tested 30+ Tools, and These Are the Only Ones Worth Using

The Problem With Most Web Scraping Tools

1. Oxylabs Web Scraping API

2. Firecrawl

3. Octoparse

4. Chat4Data

5. Browse AI

6. Bright Data

So Which One Should You Actually Use?

Forget ChatGPT & Gemini — Here Are New AI Tools That Will Blow Your Mind

1. X-Design

2. Sudowrite

3. Flow

4. Voquill

5. Vellum

6. Firecrawl

7. CalPal

How I Use Perplexity and NotebookLM as a “Thinking Partner” to Learn 10x Faster as a Developer

Step 1: Stop searching randomly. Force AI to curate for you.

Step 2: Convert scattered links into one private knowledge base

Step 3: Ask questions that force compression & reverse-engineering

Step 4: Convert learning into an output immediately

Step 5: Turn passive knowledge into forced recall

The "30-Minute Sprint": How to use this today

Forget ChatGPT & Gemini - These Free AI Tools Will Replace Your Paid Apps in 2026

1. Wispr Flow

2. Opal

3. Google AI Studio

4. NotebookLM

5. Pomelli

6. ChatGPT Atlas (or) Perplexity Comet

7. Granola AI

8. Nano Banana Pro

9. Canva Magic Studio

10. Leonardo AI

Let's Wrap Up

7 Nano Banana Pro Workflows That Actually Save You Hours As a Developer and More

1. Generate Isometric Game Environments & Assets

2. Generate Labeled Synthetic Data for Computer Vision Training

3. Create Cinematic Storyboarding With Camera Direction

4. Convert Confusing Career Paths Into Visual Skill Maps

5. Generate a Full "Inside-Out" Product Breakdown

6. Turn a Rough Floor Plan Into a Trade Booth Layout

7. Create a Hyper-Realistic Product Photography

9 Nano Banana Pro Use Cases That Will Blow Your Mind

How to try out Nano Banana Pro?

1. Create infographics that actually understand your content

2. Generate images with real text (accurate, multilingual, readable)

3. Combine multiple images into a single cinematic image (with consistency)

4. Turn your research into visual summaries

5. Generate marketing concept boards (no design degree needed)

6. Create a cozy minimalist design from a room plan

7. Visual summaries of real-time search

8. Generate a hand-drawn-style comic for any topic

9. Generate a modern logo that actually looks professional

Let's wrap up

I Tried Thousands of ChatGPT Prompts, and These 4 Saved Me Hours (No BS)

1. Learn any skill, fast

2. Find the best resources (without wasting your time)

3. Simplify anything you don't understand

4. Perform like a pro in any profession

99% of People Use AI Wrong — Here’s How I Actually Learn and Remember Faster

1. This AI workflow helps me learn 10x faster

2. Visualize your research and remember 3x more

3. Learn anything deeply with Gemini’s “Guided Learning”

Let’s wrap up

I Tested 25+ AI Writing Tools, and This One Writes Better Than Most Humans (With Results)

Table of Contents:

The Problem With Most AI Writing Tools

1. Sudowrite

2. Fiverr Writing Service