Codie SanchezFounder @ Contrarian Thinking

You don’t need 50 AI tools.

23 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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0:45

Codie Sanchez says you only need five free AI tools to run a business: Claude for writing, Tidio for customer service, Perplexity for research, Helena AI for marketing, and Lovable for websites and images. Each replaces something you'd normally pay for.

Chapters

What are the only 5 AI tools you need to actually make money? One job for each of them. That's all you need. And by the way, this should be super easy to learn. Okay, writing. Don't use ChatGPT, use Claude for proposals, emails, SOPs. And then when you're done, number 2, customer service, you're going to use Tidio. It answers all your FAQs at 3 AM so you don't have to. It's actually free. Let's say you got to research something. Don't use ChatGPT, don't use Claude, use Perplexity. Faster than Google, cites sources built for this. Marketing, I'd use Helena AI. Basically, outsourced 100% marketer. Pretty brilliant. Let's say you need to make websites and incredible imagery. I go to Lovable. Way better than anything you can make on Canva or on Squarespace. Those are my 5 free tools that are going to completely change your business with AI, and they're basically free.