(This is Sept 2022. For most recent update, click here.)

Automation is part of our work. The question is whether we are finding the tools to augment our abilities or waiting for our organizations to decide what to automate and who to replace. Research finds that people who craft their work are more productive and employable. In this earlier post with Brett Li of Tonkean, we talk about that research and the steps you can take to craft your work. But what tools can help us?

Bottom-Up Automation Tools

Here is the September 2022 quarterly update of our database of personal automation tools! Nitish Gupta and I collect tools that leverage artificial intelligence (broadly defined) to support work. You likely use some of these tools already (e.g., GMail’s autocomplete). We hope you also find many valuable new tools within our mix. Our criteria include that these be tools:

• for work (again, broadly defined) - generally, not lifestyle. That said, many will help across your work and leisure.

• that individuals or teams can integrate into their work without organizational support. (Many powerful tools for automation would connect directly into an organization’s systems - these are better taken on as top-down and bottom-up efforts.

• leveraging automation either internally (e.g., machine learning or other artificial intelligence) or as part of a process connecting to AI tools (e.g., IFTTT).

Click on the image below to have a look. Mobile users may have a better experience here.

This Quarter

We added over 20 new tools this quarter. We split collaboration and meeting support given the size of the category and the number of new tools. Similarly for art and graphic support. Surprisingly, all of our prior selections are still available.

What’s Next?

We update the list quarterly. Ironically, for now, this is a hand-crafted process. As we looked at earlier lists of automations for personal use, we found many were out of date. Tools may come and go, change names, are rolled into other services, and the like. We will use automation to check our links each quarter and add new tools as we find them — or as you suggest them in the comments ⇓ below ⇓.