AI tools: Claude Pro, Claude Co-work, Claude code, Perplexity, ChatGPT Pro

An honest look at Claude, Claude Cowork, Claude Code, Perplexity and ChatGPT Pro – from someone who uses AI every day but is definitely not a developer

Everyone’s talking about AI. Half of LinkedIn is telling you it’ll replace your entire team. The other half is telling you it’s overhyped. Most founders I speak to sit somewhere in the middle: curious, slightly overwhelmed, and trying to work out which tools are genuinely useful and which are just noise.

I’m somewhere in the middle too, and I’ve now spent enough hands-on hours across enough tools to give you an honest take.

I’m not a developer. I’m a founder who works across marketing, strategy, content, and operations support for a handful of clients. I use AI daily. Here’s what I’ve found.

Claude (claude.ai)

My main tool and the one I keep coming back to. Claude is brilliant for writing, strategy, research, content creation, and anything that needs nuance and context. It holds context well and gets better once it understands your tone and way of working. It doesn’t produce the kind of robotic output that you have to completely rewrite. It feels more like working with a sharp-thinking partner who needs less briefing over time.

Good for: long-form content, website mock ups, content (pretty much ALL) newsletters, client strategy, award submissions, emails, LinkedIn posts, and anything that needs to sound genuinely human.

Claude Cowork

This is the desktop version that can work with files on your actual computer – think automating repetitive tasks, organising folders, and working across documents. I use Github with it. The idea is brilliant. In practice, as a non-techie, I found it needed a bit more setup than I expected and occasionally got overenthusiastic about doing things I hadn’t quite asked for.

Worth exploring if you’re comfortable with a bit of trial and error. Not one to switch on and walk away from.

Best for: file management and automation if you’re technically minded or have someone who is.

Claude Code

Genuinely I’m still learning this… and I haven’t yet given it a proper go. Claude Code is a developer tool. It wants to write scripts, schedule tasks via PowerShell, create files on your machine, and automate processes. It’s extremely capable if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, it will very politely try to do things you didn’t ask for and ask permission in ways that make you nervous.

Best for: Anyone that can spend a weekend learning it. Probably not for most founders unless you’ve got a specific build project.

Perplexity

Think of this as Google, but smarter. Perplexity searches the web in real time and gives you summarised answers with sources. It’s excellent for research, checking facts, finding recent statistics, getting trends and real-time analysis (e.g. stocks and shares predictions) and getting a quick overview of a topic without trawling through ten tabs.

I use it when I need current information fast. It’s great for writing and strategy too, but as a research companion, it absolutely earns its place.

Best for: research, fact-checking, and finding up-to-date information quickly.

ChatGPT Pro

The one everyone’s heard of and where most people start. It’s capable, and the ecosystem around it is huge. There are more integrations, plugins, tutorials, and community support around ChatGPT than almost anything else.

I find the writing output slightly more generic than Claude’s, and it sometimes needs more prompting to get the tone right. That said, for image generation, uploaded file analysis, brainstorming, and certain automation tasks, it’s incredibly strong. A very solid all-rounder.

Best for: versatility, image generation, file analysis, brainstorming, and people who want the biggest support ecosystem around them.

The honest summary

None of them does everything.

The best approach is knowing which tool to reach for and when, rather than assuming one platform replaces the others completely. I increasingly think of them less as rivals and more like different members of a team.

If you’re a founder trying to work out where to start, start with one. Learn how to prompt properly. Use it consistently. Then explore from there.

The rabbit holes are very real, but so are the time savings once you find your rhythm.