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How do you decide a new AI tool is worth paying for?
That list has been doing the rounds for a while now. It is a few months old, but it keeps coming back up, and I covered it on Twitter the other day.
I thought I would go deeper this time and settle it for good.
The original had 12. I have taken it down to 11, and with the World Cup on, that felt like a fun way to run it.
So here is my starting eleven, lined up in a 4-3-3, a tool for each job and a position that matches what it does, with the alternatives on the bench.
News first, then kick-off.
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The Starting Eleven
A formation is read in bands, and each band does a different kind of work. That is what made the side fun to pick.
The back line is the work nobody claps for until it goes wrong: getting indexed, pulling data, keeping the record, fielding questions, sending the cold email out wide.
The midfield is where the brain sits.
The holding role reads the opposition, which is ad research to a tee.
Ahead of it, music keeps the tempo, and the number ten, the one turning a rough idea into something you would put in front of a client, is your deck tool, so it takes the armband.
Up top is everything people see: the wingers producing the short video and clips, the striker finishing with the creative showpiece.
The forwards get the highlights, and they get them because the work behind them held.
So the positions carry the argument. Each one sits where it does because its job on a pitch is its job in your week.
Goalkeeper: SEO Indexing
The list sold Indexly, a paid tool for a free job.
Submit through Google Search Console and ping IndexNow for Bing instead.
Right back: Cold Email
Instantly is the easiest way in, clean interface and a built-in lead database. S
martlead off the bench if you are scaling hard.
Centre back: Web Scraping
Browse AI holds the no-code spot.
Coders feeding an AI pipeline will reach for Firecrawl instead.
Centre back: Meeting Notes
Fathom has the most generous free tier going, with no minute caps.
Granola off the bench for Mac users who want no bot in the room.
Left back: Chatbots
Chatbase is still the default for a bot trained on your own docs.
Cheaper clones keep turning up, so shop around if budget is tight.
Defensive mid: Ad Research
The list picked Atria, priced for teams spending thousands a month.
Start with the free Meta Ad Library, and add Foreplay when you need a swipe-file workflow.
Centre mid: Music
Suno keeps its place, best vocals going and a generous free tier. The recent label deal narrowed what you own, so read the terms before you monetise a track.
Attacking mid, captain: Slide Decks
Gamma is free to begin and the fastest route from a prompt to a polished deck, and the one I open more than anything here.
The list said Beautiful.ai, still worth a spot when team brand consistency matters most.
Right wing: Vertical Video
The list named Vubo, which barely anyone uses.
InVideo AI builds a captioned vertical video from a prompt, or CapCut handles it free if you would rather edit by hand.
Left wing: Clipping
OpusClip still finds the best bits and ranks them, so it keeps the shirt.
It runs pricey, so Submagic or Klap save you money and CapCut does it for nothing.
Striker: Creative Suite
Higgsfield pulls the top image and video models into one workspace, with cinema-style camera controls for anyone who wants more than a one-click generator.
Handy for ad creative and avatars at pace.
My Take
This squad list is only a snapshot. The jobs on this page are the positions, and they do not change much: someone has to make the deck, cut the clip, write the cold email, take the notes.
The names filling those positions turn over constantly.
Players get transferred or lose form, and a better one comes off the bench.
Back the position and keep an eye on form.
Half of this list will look different by the next tournament, and that is fine, because the line-up is yours to change the moment someone better shows up.
Until next time,
Vaibhav 🤝🏻
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