My Daily AI Arsenal: How I Transformed My Productivity (And You Can Too)

A behind-the-scenes look at the AI tools that power my work as Head of Customer Success at Work Perfect and AI consultant

The 6 AM Reality Check

It's 6 AM, and I'm already three emails deep into what promises to be another packed day. But here's what's different from two years ago: I'm not drowning in my inbox. Instead, I'm having a conversation with my AI assistant about priorities, meeting prep, and strategic follow-ups.

This isn't science fiction—it's Tuesday morning.

As someone who guides enterprise clients through digital transformation whilst managing customer success for APAC's premier monday.com managed services provider, I've become accidentally obsessed with one question: How can AI actually make us more strategic, not just more busy?

After three years of daily experimentation, I've built an AI ecosystem that doesn't just save me time—it amplifies my thinking. Here's the honest breakdown of what actually works.

The Command Centre: Microsoft Copilot as My Digital Chief of Staff

The Reality: Copilot has become my digital chief of staff, but not in the way Microsoft's marketing suggests.

Instead of just "helping with emails," I've trained it to understand my work patterns. It knows I prefer 25-minute meetings (not 30), that I need context summaries before client calls, and that when I'm searching for "that conversation about workflow automation," I probably mean the one from three weeks ago involving both email threads and SharePoint documents.

The game-changer? Integration with my monday.com CRM.

Yesterday, I asked Copilot: "When did we last discuss project management challenges with the team at [Company X], and what was their main concern?"

Within seconds, it pulled from emails, calendar entries, SharePoint notes, and my monday.com client boards to tell me it was two months ago, their concern was resource visibility, and suggested I follow up about their Q1 planning cycle.

I then said: "Draft a follow-up email referencing that conversation and suggesting a brief check-in."

Result: What used to take 15 minutes of searching and reconstructing context now takes 90 seconds.

The Control Centre: monday.com as My AI-Powered CRM

Before I dive into my external AI tools, I need to share how monday.com has become the nerve centre of my customer success operations—and how its AI capabilities have transformed how I manage client relationships.

The Setup: As Head of Customer Success at Work Perfect, I manage relationships with enterprise clients across government, retail, and professional services. Each client has complex implementation journeys, multiple stakeholders, and evolving needs that traditional CRMs simply can't handle effectively.

Here's how monday.com's AI features work in my daily reality:

Conversation Intelligence That Actually Works

Every client interaction—whether it's a discovery call, implementation review, or enablement session—gets logged in our monday.com CRM. I also use Copilot to transcribe my calls, and those transcripts land in our CRM so I have a full picture of the client engagement.

But here's where the AI magic happens:

I use AI to analyse the call recording, and in the context of the project we're working on, the AI can suggest where the risks might come from, suggest a detailed action plan, and help me craft a response—however, this is where you have to be careful to always have a human-in-the-middle. AI is not human and can get things wrong, and thus requires oversight. But it does put things on my radar and speed up my work.

The outcome: I can proactively address clients' concerns with a revised approach, ultimately supporting their needs better and expanding their relationship with Work Perfect.

Document Analysis That Saves Hours

Our clients send us everything—technical specifications, process documents, compliance requirements, org charts. Previously, I'd spend hours reading through these to understand implementation implications. We also participate in project framework documentation.

Now, when a new client sends their 30-page framework governance document (yes, this actually happened), I can have MS Copilot review it and ask follow-up questions.

Within minutes, I get a summary highlighting: • Specific security protocols we need to address • Data residency requirements • Approval workflows that must be replicated • Integration restrictions we need to work around

The Think Tank: My Three-LLM Strategy

Here's where most people go wrong with AI: they pick one tool and expect it to be everything. After months of testing, I've realised different thinking requires different engines.

Gemini: The Research Powerhouse

When I use it: Complex analysis, document review, deep research Why it wins: Massive context window and Google's real-time data access

Last week, I needed to understand emerging trends in a specific business vertical. I fed Gemini research papers, competitor analysis reports, and asked it to identify patterns.

But here's the secret weapon: Gemini Deep Research.

I gave it this prompt: "Research how mid-market QSRs are implementing AI-driven workflow automation, focusing on ROI metrics and common implementation challenges."

It disappeared for 45 minutes and came back with a 15-page research report, complete with industry statistics, case studies, and implementation frameworks. This wasn't just search results—it was synthesised intelligence I could immediately use in client conversations.

Claude: The Strategic Counsellor

When I use it: Complex problem-solving, strategic thinking, sanity checks Why it's different: It challenges my assumptions

Claude has a system prompt feature that includes my role, our company context, typical client profiles, and the kinds of enterprise challenges we solve. This means every conversation starts with full context.

But Claude's superpower isn't just knowledge—it's intellectual honesty. When I proposed a workflow solution last month, Claude responded: "That approach might work for your client's current team size, but have you considered how it scales when they double their workforce next year? Also, what's your backup plan if their compliance requirements change?"

That's not just AI assistance—that's strategic thinking.

ChatGPT: The Creative Catalyst

When I use it: Creative solutions, image generation, out-of-the-box thinking Why it matters: Sometimes logical isn't what you need

When a client needed to visualise a complex workflow transformation, ChatGPT helped me create compelling visual metaphors and generated custom graphics that made the abstract concrete. I can also use plug-ins such as Whimsical for Mermaid code and flowchart creation from natural language.

It's my least-used LLM, but when I need creative leaps rather than logical steps, it delivers.

The Research Arsenal: Tools That Feed the Machine

Google's NotebookLM: My Project Memory

Think of NotebookLM as a long-term research consultant. I feed it large process documents, industry reports, competitive analysis, and past project artefacts. Then I can ask it complex questions like: "Based on all our research, what are the best approaches to do...xyz for a company like [Client X]?"

The magic: It remembers everything and synthesises across documents in ways that reveal patterns I'd miss.

Bonus feature: It can generate podcasts from your research. I've used this to create "executive briefings" for complex implementations that my team can listen to during commutes.

Merlin: The Speed Reader

Whenever I land on an article, research paper, or lengthy document, Merlin (Chrome extension) gives me instant summaries. But more importantly, I can query the content: "What implementation challenges does this article identify?" or "How does this relate to monday.com's automation capabilities?"

Real example: Reading a 40-page Gartner report on project management trends, I asked Merlin: "What does this suggest about the future of work operating systems?" The answer became the foundation for a client presentation two days later.

YouTube Summary: Mining Video Gold

Industry knowledge increasingly lives in conference talks, webinars, and expert interviews. YouTube Summary lets me extract insights from 45-minute videos in 3 minutes, then feed those insights into my other AI tools for deeper analysis.

Perplexity: Mobile Research Engine

Perfect for quick research whilst travelling or between meetings. Clean interface, current information, no ads. I use it for real-time competitive intelligence and quick fact-checking during client calls.

The Development Playground: Where Strategy Meets Code

Even as a business leader, I've started coding again—not because I have to, but because AI has made it accessible and strategic.

Using Claude, Google AI Studio, and Cursor, I've built: • A webapp for analysing web-3 markets • Custom agents to speed up internal SOPs, and analyse business problems and solve in a monday.com architecture • Custom formulas that save hours of manual work

The insight: When you can prototype solutions in hours instead of months, you can test ideas that were previously too expensive to validate.

The Compound Effect: How It All Works Together

Here's where the magic happens—it's not about individual tools, but how they compound:

1. Perplexity surfaces an interesting industry trend during my morning coffee
2. Gemini Deep Research explores the implications for our client base
3. Claude challenges my assumptions and identifies risks I hadn't considered
4. NotebookLM synthesises this with past client experiences
5. Copilot helps me craft targeted outreach to relevant clients
6. monday.com integration ensures nothing falls through the cracks

Result: I'm managing an AI workforce who contribute to my KPIs and company strategy.

What This Actually Means for Productivity

After 18 months of daily use, here's what's changed:

• Time saved: ~15 hours per week on research, email management, and documentation
• Quality improved: Deeper client insights, more strategic recommendations
• Stress reduced: No more scrambling to reconstruct context before important calls
• Opportunities created: Proactive client conversations based on trend analysis

But the biggest change? I'm thinking at a higher level. Instead of being buried in tactical execution, I'm focused on strategic value creation.

The Three Lessons for Your AI Journey

1. Integration Beats Individual Tools

The power isn't in any single AI tool—it's in how they work together and connect to your existing systems.

2. Context Is Everything

Generic AI assistants give generic results. Tools that understand your role, industry, and challenges provide strategic insights.

3. Start Small, Scale Smart

Don't try to transform everything at once. Pick one workflow, optimise it with AI, then expand based on what you learn.

What's Next?

As AI capabilities accelerate, the question isn't whether these tools will transform how we work—it's whether we'll learn to use them strategically or just become more efficiently busy.

The organisations that win will be those that use AI not just for automation, but for augmentation—enhancing human judgement, not replacing it.

What's your experience been with AI productivity tools? Are you seeing similar compound effects, or are you still searching for the right combination?

Comment below with your biggest AI productivity challenge, and I'll share specific tool recommendations based on your situation.

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