My AI Toolkit: Going Beyond ChatGPT
I don't think there's a person left in the UK who hasn't heard of AI. Most people are aware of ChatGPT, and many use it regularly, but very few have really dug deep into what's possible beyond the basics. But when you do - it's mind-blowing what's possible.
Now, if making AI your hobby doesn't sound like fun to you - worry not! I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time and money on AI subscriptions so you don't have to.
It’s become a bit of an addiction. Any spare time I get, I’m trying out a new AI tool, watching a YouTube video about the latest AI trends, or vibe coding a new app for Homeplay. People who talk about the "AI bubble" haven't seen the sheer number of tools I'm subscribed to. I might be single-handedly propping up the sector.
So grab your laptop, enter your most curious mindset and benefit from all the money I’ve spent!
Wispr Flow
Hands-down my favourite and most heavily used AI tool.
On a simple level, it's a dictation tool. But calling it that feels like calling a Ferrari "a car."
Unlike standard phone dictation that blindly transcribes one word at a time, Wispr Flow listens to the entirety of what you've said, understands the context, and spits back perfectly punctuated text. No "ums," no "ers," just perfectly formed sentences.
I've always enjoyed writing and typing, so it took me a few days to break the habit. Now? Typing into a keyboard feels like manual labour - I didn't realise what a chore typing was until now.
You need to try it to understand how good it is, but I've had several people tell me this app has changed their life. It seems like only a matter of time before one of the tech giants gobbles them up.
Shameless referral link below.
You'll get a month free, and so will I:
Wispr Flow - 1 Month FreePerplexity
Like a really clever Google search - Perplexity has effectively replaced Google as my default search engine.
Instead of throwing a page of blue links and ads at you, it acts like a digital concierge - parsing the web and presenting a well-researched, referenced summary. It makes the traditional search experience feel incredibly dated.
I only use Google for shopping-specific searches now; for everything else, Perplexity is just plain better.
“Calling it a dictation tool feels like calling a Ferrari "a car."”
Lovable
The promise here is kind of bonkers: describe an app or website in plain English, and Lovable builds it. And it works spookily well.
I've used Lovable to build a variety of bespoke tools: a website for a friend's gardening business, an automated proposal creator for Homeplay, a booking website for my daughter's school camping trip, and even the HTML structure for our Homeplay newsletter emails.
Pairing Lovable with Wispr Flow is like being in a sci-fi movie. You talk to your computer, describe a complex idea, and watch it build the app in real-time. It's futuristic, fast, and incredibly fun.
Try Lovable NowComet Browser
Web browsing with superpowers.
"Agents" could be the AI buzzword of 2026. They're like specialist AIs that can carry out specific tasks for you.
Comet is an agentic browser, meaning it can read web pages and interact with them on your behalf. On a simple level, you could ask it to research a holiday for you and book everything for you. Or order your weekly shopping from your favourite supermarket website.
We've used Comet at Homeplay to solve a challenging IT networking problem. We logged into our networking interface, described the problem we were having, and asked it to check all our settings and see if it could recommend a solution. It did precisely that.
It then asked if we'd like it to apply the solution... we watched with our jaws hanging open, as it clicked around the menus and filled in parameters to solve the problem, all by itself.
Amazing stuff.
“We watched with our jaws hanging open, as it clicked around the menus and filled in parameters to solve the problem, all by itself.”
Google Gemini
Right now, Gemini has the edge on images. Whether you need to generate an image from scratch or blend several assets into a composite, you tell it what you need, and it does a jaw-dropping job. This area of image and video generation is moving at a blistering pace and is changing almost daily.
The 'Visual Turing Test'
I saw a brilliant experiment on Reddit recently that perfectly illustrates how far we've come. And how we can't trust anything we see anymore...
Someone uploaded a photo of some seals lounging in front of a Ferris wheel, with a town in the background, into ChatGPT. They asked the AI to create a highly detailed prompt describing exactly what it "saw."
They then took that description and fed it back into ChatGPT and Google Gemini, asking them to generate a new image based only on the text.
The result? Three images side-by-side - the original and the two AI replications - and I honestly struggled to tell which was which. It's a stark reminder: AI isn't just generating random art anymore; it's understanding and replicating reality with scary precision.
Spolier Alert - Results Below
Bottom Left - Real
Top Left - Gemini
Top Right - Chat GPT
NotebookLM
This is a Google AI product, but slightly confusingly, not part of Gemini.
Anyway, it's fantastic for research and study. If you have kids who are studying, they're probably already using it, but if they're not... tell them to try it, and you might change their lives.
You can upload all sorts of documentation to it - PDFs, Google Docs, slides, white papers, etc - and ask it any question about the material. It can even generate a "podcast" discussion about whatever you’ve uploaded, which is a game-changer for absorbing complex info.
In fact, it's worth trying the podcast feature to witness how good it is, if nothing else.
ElevenLabs
Voice that sounds genuinely real.
We used Eleven Labs for the voiceover in our Serengeti Living showcase at Decorex, and it was a revelation.
We were able to refine the script repeatedly right up to the day before the show. No expensive studio time, no re-booking voice actors, no scheduling headaches. The quality is scary-good; it’s indistinguishable from a human recording, allowing us to craft the perfect atmosphere without the logistical nightmare.
My next project is to add ElevenLabs to this blog page, so that an AI version of me can read my blog posts to you! The messages on our Homeplay phone system are created with ElevenLabs, but you’d never know.
“Pairing Lovable with Wispr Flow is like being in a sci-fi movie. You talk to your computer, describe a complex idea, and watch it build the app in real-time.”
This was cool... in 2010
A few last general tips and thoughts...
- My hammer is AI, and everything looks like a nail: Having a mindset that looks at every problem through the lens of "how can I use AI to help me solve it" really changes the way you work. There are so many things I need to do in my daily work that have been vastly improved in speed and quality by approaching them with an ‘AI first’ mindset.
- Canvas mode: Available in both ChatGPT and Google Gemini - works like a super smart word processor. Instead of asking the AI to rewrite a whole document, you can highlight a paragraph and ask it to tweak the tone or length. Or you can just go in and type what you want. This helps me to keep my writing sounding like me, and not like an AI.
- Projects (or "Gems" in Gemini): This allows you to go deep. You upload specific documents to create a focused workspace where the AI understands the full context of a project, so you don't have to explain the basics every time.
- The right tool for the job: Sometimes it is not clear which tool to use. For example, if I want to create a PowerPoint presentation, I'll ask Perplexity what the best tools are right now, and it will go off and research lots of different websites to bring me a well-researched answer. The nuance here is critical. For instance, some AI tools will generate a stunning presentation entirely in your browser, but they might trap you there, unable to export to a usable format. Others work as agents within PowerPoint itself—crucial if, like us, you need to stick to strict brand guidelines. If you explain exactly what you need (e.g., "I need a tool that works inside PowerPoint to preserve my template"), Perplexity will find the specific tool for that job, rather than just a generic slide generator.
- Don’t worry about ‘prompt engineering’: People often ask me about how to write better prompts, but honestly, you really don't need to these days. You can tell the AI what you want - like you would a human. There are some exceptions to this. If you're using an AI to help you code something complex, or produce a very high-end image or video, then yes, speaking in a particular way will help generate a better output. But you can get a long way just by talking like a normal human being.
But wait - isn't AI really scary?
It's undoubtedly pretty scary, yes. Who knows where we might be in one, five, or ten years?
But that's way too deep to go into here.
One thing is for sure - this is an 'arbitrage moment' - by spending a bit of time learning about this stuff now, you can put yourself so far in front of the average person… because the average person doesn't know what's possible. If the workforce does reduce by 80% over the next few years, the people left with jobs will be those who understand how to use AI.
It certainly pays to be aware of what could happen. Here are some organisations that will help you understand what might be coming and what action we can take:
This is well worth a listen - The AI Dilemma
Sorry to get heavy at the end there - but it's worth noting.
The main thing is to try some of the tools I've listed above and have fun doing so! You'll wonder why you didn't start earlier.
Thanks for reading,
James