New AI tools appear faster than anyone can evaluate them, so most people end up with eleven subscriptions and no new habits. A better approach: five slots, one tool in each, and a high bar for replacing any of them.
Slot one: your general assistant
One paid assistant you use daily for thinking, writing, reviewing and deciding. This is where most of the value is, and it is the slot people under-use while shopping for niche tools.
Slot two: the meeting note taker
Something that joins your calls, transcribes them and produces actions. The payback is immediate because it removes a task you currently do badly while tired.
Slot three: automation
One platform where your repetitive handoffs live. Which one matters less than having exactly one, so your flows are not scattered across three accounts.
Slot four: building things
A tool that lets you produce a small working app or internal tool by describing it. Even non-engineers should have one, because the fastest way to fix a small annoying process is often to build the thing that handles it.
Slot five: search and research
Something that answers questions with sources you can check. Guardrail: if it cannot show you where a claim came from, do not use the claim.
What to skip
Anything that duplicates a slot you already filled. Anything whose main promise is a percentage of time saved. Anything you would have to remember to open — tools that live outside your normal day do not survive contact with a busy week.
Three questions before you add anything
Which slot does this replace? What data does it see, and does my employer permit that? And would I still open it in three weeks? If the answers are unclear, wait a month. The good ones are still around.
Try this today
List the AI subscriptions you pay for, map each to a slot, and cancel the ones that map to nothing.