Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an essential part of learning and work, helping students and professionals complete tasks more efficiently. While tools like ChatGPT and Gemini dominate the spotlight, several lesser-known AI tools are designed for specific purposes and can significantly improve productivity. Here are five such AI tools that deserve more attention.
NotebookLM
NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking assistant developed by Google. It helps people understand, organise and work with their own information. Unlike traditional AI chatbots, NotebookLM helps students and professionals find answers from their own uploaded documents, such as PDFs, Google Docs, websites and presentation slides, instead of relying primarily on external sources. By grounding its responses in the user’s uploaded content, NotebookLM can generate accurate summaries, study guides, FAQs, timelines and other insights while citing the relevant sections of the source material, making it an excellent tool for studying, researching and analysing large amounts of information.
Elicit
Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Elicit focuses on academic research workflows by helping users find relevant research papers, extract key information, compare studies and understand complex findings. It is very useful for literature reviews, research preparation and analysing large amounts of scientific information, helping users save time and improve their research process.
Napkin
Napkin AI is an AI-powered visual communication tool developed by Napkin. It converts plain text into professional-looking diagrams, flowcharts, infographics, mind maps and presentation visuals within seconds. Instead of designing graphics manually in tools like Canva, PowerPoint or Figma, simply enter a prompt or paste your text and Napkin AI automatically generates editable visuals that can be customized, shared and exported. It is ideal for students, educators, researchers and professionals who want to present ideas quickly and clearly.
Consensus
Developed by Consensus, Consensus AI is an AI-powered academic search engine that, unlike most AI tools, uses more than 220 million academic research papers to gather information. This helps ensure that its responses are based on scientific evidence and established research rather than general internet sources. Students can use it to simplify research for assignments and projects, while professionals can rely on it for evidence-based insights, fact-checking and informed decision-making.
Gamma
Developed by Gamma Tech, Inc., Gamma AI is an AI-powered platform that helps students and professionals create presentations, documents and webpages in minutes by simply pasting text or entering a prompt. Instead of manually designing content using tools like Microsoft PowerPoint, Canva, Microsoft Word or Google Docs, users can generate polished, editable presentations, documents and webpages automatically. Gamma also offers built-in AI-powered design and formatting, allowing users to focus on their content rather than spending time on layouts and visual design.
These are five of the most useful yet lesser-known AI tools for students and professionals. Each is designed to solve a specific problem, from research and note-taking to presentations and visual communication. By automating repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows, these tools can help users save time, improve productivity and focus on more important work.
Subscribe Deshwale on YouTube
