SHOWNOTES
If you have ever opened ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or another AI tool and felt unsure where to start, this episode will give you clarity.
This is one of the most common questions I hear, and in this episode, I walk you through how to think about AI tools in a way that removes confusion and decision fatigue. Instead of chasing the “best” tool, you will learn how to approach AI strategically so it actually supports your work instead of slowing you down.
Rather than reviewing tools feature by feature, this episode focuses on how to decide which AI to use based on the task in front of you. You will hear how I evaluate different tools, how I think about their strengths, and how I personally use multiple AI tools together without overcomplicating my workflow.
In this episode, I cover:
Why most AI tools can handle the majority of business tasks
What actually matters when choosing between popular AI tools
How to match the right tool to the right task
The mindset shift that eliminates analysis paralysis with AI
How to explore multiple tools without wasting time or money
What to know about free versus paid AI plans
I also share how I personally use different AI tools for writing, research, content creation, and day-to-day business work, along with the framework I recommend if you are just getting started.
This episode is designed to help you stop overthinking AI and start using it with confidence.
After you listen, DM me on Instagram at @jen_lehner and tell me which tool you are most curious to try next. I would love to hear.
RESOURCES:
AI Tool Comparison Cheat Sheet
AI Explored Podcast - Advanced NotebookLM Use Cases You Can Apply Today
Podcast #98 - The One Document That Makes AI Actually Understand Your Business
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01.820] Hey, guys. It’s Gary Vaynerchuk. You’re listening to the Front Row Entrepreneur podcast with our girl, Jen
[00:00:10.260] If you've ever stood in front of your computer staring at ChatGPT, Claw, Gemini, perplexity, and thought, Okay, but which one do I actually use? You are not alone. In fact, that might be the number one question I get asked. Today, I'm going to give you the straight answer. No fluff. No, it depends on your unique journey. Just real talk about which AI to use and when. Let's get into it. Welcome back to the show. I'm Jenn Lehner, and if you're new here, I help coaches, consultants, small business owners, and course creators implement AI systems that actually work, systems that cut your workload in half without making you feel like you need a computer science degree. Because here's the thing, AI should feel like hiring the world world's most wonderful, capable assistant. Not like taking a final exam that you didn't prepare for. Now, today's episode is one that I've been wanting to do for a while because I hear this question constantly. Jen, there are so many AI tools. I don't know which one to use. I started with ChatGPT, but then somebody told me about Claude and said it was better.
Read more...
[00:01:23.940] And what about Gemini? Is perplexity different? I'm so overwhelmed and I haven't even started yet. Does this sound familiar? Good, because by the end of this episode, you're going to have total clarity, not just on what each tool does, but on which one you should be using for your business. Okay? So let's dive in. First of all, let me just level set here. When we talk about AI tools in 2026, we're really talking about large language models, LLMs. These are the brains behind the tools. The big players right now are OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, Anthropic, which makes Claude, Google, which makes Gemini, and there are some specialized tools like Perplexity that are built for specific use cases. Now, here's what nobody tells you. For about 80% of what you're going to use AI for in your business, they all work. Seriously, if you need to draft an email, brainstorm content ideas summarize a document, or write social media posts, any of these tools are going to get the job done. If you've been paralyzed trying to pick the right one, I want you to just take a deep breath. You haven't been making a mistake.
[00:02:44.090] They all work. But, and here's where it gets interesting, each one has a personality. Each one has strengths. When you understand those personalities, you could start using them strategically. Think of it like having access to different team members. You wouldn't ask your accountant to design your logo, right? Same idea here. Let's break down each one. Chatgpt, at this point, is like the granddaddy. It's the one everybody Who knows? It's the first one we all tried for the most part, and it's good at a lot of things. Chatgpt is excellent for general tasks, creative writing, brainstorming, and this one is big. It has incredible simple plugin and integration capabilities. If you want AI that connects to other tools, browsers the web in real-time, generates images, or works with your other apps, ChatGPT is often your best bet. It's also got the largest ecosystem of custom GPTs, which are like little prebuilt expert assistance for specific tasks. I would really argue that of all the LL LLMs that you're currently using, ChatGPT probably knows you the best. But if you listen to our last episode, that's at jennlaner. Com/098, then you know you can make all of the LLMs know you really well by using a core prompt.
[00:04:18.700] So if you haven't created a core prompt yet, you want to go and listen to that episode. There's also a template in the show notes with that episode. Now, Claude is my personal favorite for writing and thinking work, and I'll do a whole episode on Claude. It's made by Anthropic, and it just has a different vibe. I also really like their user interface. I think it's pretty. Just makes me happy. It's more thoughtful, it's more nuanced. It's particularly good at long-form content and maintaining your voice and having actual back and forth conversations where it builds on what you've said. It has a feature called Artifacts, Artifacts, which is just wonderful. Artifacts just means it's like what it sounds like. It actually creates stuff for you. Websites, landing pages, spreadsheets, beautiful documents, slide decks. With Claude Code, you can really build anything that you want. There's also now a Claude Chrome plugin. When you're working on anything, anywhere, even inside another AI. In fact, I just did this today, I brought Claude into a project I was working on inside of Gemini. You can bring the conversation to literally any window, and you can get Claude to do things for you.
[00:05:42.980] It's a little bit agentic. It can fill in forms, it can make changes to a document, and so much more. But I think what you'll hear most AI power users say, however, is that they prefer Claude for writing tasks. It's broadly considered the best writing partner. And I also love Claude projects, but they all have projects now. Gemini has folders, Notebook LM, of course, has notebooks, ChatGPT has projects, and Claude has projects. Gemini is Google's powerhouse AI, which is seamlessly integrated into Google's ecosystem. So if you're already using Google Docs, Gmail, or Google Drive, Gemini is built to work with all of them really effortlessly. It's just incredibly versatile. It's good at research, quick at pulling current information, and it's deeply integrated into Google's search ecosystem. What really sets it apart is just how many Google tools are operated by Gemini. There's Notebook LM, Google AI Studio, Nana Banano, which, of course, is their image maker. There's Google Vids, which is a full video making suite, and then Vio, which is their AI video creator. I would recommend that you visit labs. Google. Com to explore a million other cool tools that are in development.
[00:07:21.660] Gemini excels at deep research, sophisticated content creation, and automations through Google Gems, which are just like custom GPTs. I know this is a lot. Hang in there with me. Then Google's AI Studio lets you build custom tools by simply describing what you want. That's what people mean when you hear the term vibe coding, that's what that means. It's remarkably efficient and very user friendly. And then so specifically, Notebook LM, if you've been listening to me for a while, you know that I just love it. It's fantastic for client work. You You could store all of the transcripts from all of your Zoom calls into a notebook and then talk, so to speak, with the content to plan your next call or track progress or sentiment, so many possibilities. But then you can also add so much diverse content. So more than any other LLM, you can add PDFs, JPEGs, MP3s, YouTube videos, website links. You can copy and paste text directly. You can add CSV files. You could literally add any content into Notebook LLM. And then on top of that, Notebook LM gives you a greater context window than any other LLM, meaning you're not going to get a warning telling you that you're running out of space or capacity because it lets you put in a ridiculous amount of data, even with the free plan.
[00:08:55.220] Although I do recommend the paid plan, which we'll discuss in a minute. When it It's time to create from those sources in the notebook, you could create audio briefs, slide decks, data tables, reports, all sorts of different kinds of reports, and infographics, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes. It's simply remarkable. There's not a day that I don't use it when I do not feel completely in awe of what it does. It's that good. But I better stop here with the Notebook LM stuff and save that for a future episode, which will be all about Notebook LM. But if you can't wait for that, I did appear on Mike Stelsner's podcast not too long ago. It's AI Explored, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes if you want to listen. All right, let's talk about perplexity. Perplexity is different from the others because it's built specifically for research. Think of it as AI-powered search on steroids. It gives you answers with citations and actual links where it got the information. Now, the other LLMs now give you citations, too. They all do it, but perplexity really makes the sources front and center. If you need to research a topic or fact-check something or find current information with sources, perplexity is phenomenal.
[00:10:18.420] I use it almost daily. But it's not really designed for content creation or back and forth conversation in the same way as the others.
[00:10:26.820] Hey, real quick, if you're listening to this and thinking, Okay, I get the tools, but I still need help actually using them in my business, I want to invite you to check out the Front Row AI Club. It's Jenn Lehner's membership, where we focus on real-world implementation. Each month, you get practical trainings, prompts, and templates, plus two live strategy calls where you can ask Jenn anything about applying AI to your content, workflows, and systems. It's designed for solopreneurs and small business owners who want to use AI without the overwhelm. It's $97 a month, and you can cancel anytime. Time. Head to frontrowaiclub. Com to join us. All right, back to the show.
[00:11:04.360] All right, so let's get practical. How do you actually decide which AI to use? Here's my framework. I call it the task-first approach. First of all, identify the task. Not, I want to use AI more or I need to use AI, but specifically, I need to write my weekly newsletter, or I need to repurpose this podcast into social posts, or I need to research research competitors in my space. Get specific. Then step two, match the task to the tool's strength. Here's my cheat sheet. For writing that needs to sound like you, email sequence services, blog posts, course content, I'd go to Claude. For tasks that need web access or integrations, research with current data, image generation, connecting to apps, ChatGPT. For anything deeply tied to Google Workspace, drafting in docs, organizing drive, managing Gmail, then I'd pick Gemini. For research with sources, fact-checking, market research, scientific research, staying current, perplexity. Step three, just start. Seriously, pick one of these LLMs and just start using it. You'll learn more in one week of actually using a tool than And you will in three months of researching which tool to use, right? I see so many people get stuck in analysis, paralysis, and I get it, but the only way through is action.
[00:12:44.320] Now Let me tell you what I personally use because I know you're curious. My primary tool is Claude. I use it for almost all my writing and thinking work, content creation, strategy, course development, email writing, working clients. It just gets my voice in a way that feels almost uncanny. For research, I use perplexity constantly. Whenever I need to look something up or verify information, that's where I go. For image generation and certain integrations, I use ChatGPT, and of course, I also use Nanobanana in Gemini for images. I'm also increasingly using Gemini for anything Google Workspace related. Here's something that might surprise you. Normally, I'm the type of teacher who says, Start with one thing, master it, and then move on to the next. But that's actually not my recommendation with AI and specifically with these LLMs. I think you should explore each of them. There's no cost to do so because they all have a free version. We're in a period where we're not really sure which of these is going to rise to the top. If you are of a certain age, you might remember VHS and Betamax. Vhs came out the winner, but who was to know at that time how it would play out?
[00:14:02.720] Not to mention, as we have discussed today, all these LLMs have a different personality. So it's easy enough to just open up several tabs. When you get to work Open up your computer, open up several tabs, one for each of the LLMs that we discussed today, and then put your input into, let's say, ChatGPT. Let's say you want ChatGPT to create a caption for a YouTube thumbnail for Well, it's easy enough to pop it into each of the LLMs. Cut and paste, baby. It's only going to take you 2 seconds to see which one performs the best. Here's a word about the free version. The free versions are limited, and the paid versions are significantly more capable. It's like $20 a month for most of them, and that's less than a nice dinner out. If AI is going to save you hours every week, that's the best investment that you can make in your business right now. But I'm not saying pay for all of Use the free versions and then pay for the ones that you think you're really going to use. All right. Now, that's a wrap. Here's your homework. Yes, I am giving you homework.
[00:15:11.380] This week, I want you to visit all of the LLMs that we discussed today that you've never been to before, like any that I've mentioned that you've never been to before, and poke around. Explore. There's absolutely no way to get better with AI than to kick the tires and start using it. Then I want you to DM me on Instagram. My handle is @jen_lehner, and tell me about your experience. I want to know. You know I never like to leave you empty-handed. I put together some resources to go with this episode that I think you're going to love. And next episode, we're getting even more practical. I'm going to show you exactly how to build a 15-minute AI routine that you can do every single day. This is the stuff that compounds the small daily habits that add the massive results. You're not going to want to miss it. Until then, keep moving forward, and I'll see you in the next episode.
