Five AI tools that actually make people money, and three that are just fun

We used one test: after three months of paying for it, had it earned back more than it cost? Five passed. Three didn’t.

The five that passed

Copy (Claude), product cut-outs and compositing (two of them), short-form captions (one), automated support replies (one). Each comes with a real monthly cost and time to break even. The fastest was the cut-out tool, which paid for itself on the first job.

The three that are just fun

AI music, AI avatars, AI slide generation. Not bad tools. We just couldn’t find anyone who had actually been paid for work made with them.