Part 2
Lever 2 — AI Workflows
Module 2
Module at a Glance
Reading Time
15–20 minutes
What You’ll Walk Away With
A deep, workflow-oriented understanding of the top AI tools available in 2026 — what each one is best at, how they fit into an AI workflow stack, and how to choose the right combination for your specific business needs.
L2M2.1
Building a Stack, Not a Collection
Most people who use AI tools end up with a random collection — tools they’ve heard about, tried once, and half-forgotten. They open different tools for different tasks with no clear system for when to use what.
A workflow-oriented AI stack is different.
Every tool in your stack has a defined role. You know exactly which tool to reach for based on what you’re trying to produce. The tools complement each other — the output of one feeds into the next. Together they are more powerful than any single tool used in isolation.
This module gives you the full picture of the major AI tools available in 2026 — their strengths, their weaknesses, their workflow role, and how they fit together into a coherent stack for an online entrepreneur.
L2M2.2
Tier 1 Tools: Your Daily Drivers
These are the tools you’ll use every single day. They form the core of your AI workflow stack.
Tier 1
ChatGPT
(OpenAI)
The Generalist
Best For
Brainstorming, first drafts, iteration, research starting points, coding, technical troubleshooting, structured outputs, conversational back-and-forth refinement.
Workflow Role
Your fastest, most versatile tool — the one you open first when you need a quick output, want to explore options, or need to iterate rapidly.
Key Capabilities for Workflows
Custom GPTs
Build your own specialized GPT with a custom system prompt, specific instructions, and uploaded knowledge files. A custom GPT for your brand voice means every output starts aligned with your style — without re-entering context every session.
Code Interpreter
Analyzes data, runs Python scripts, processes spreadsheets, generates charts. Invaluable for analyzing affiliate performance data or processing keyword research files.
DALL·E Images
Creates custom images from text descriptions — useful for blog graphics, thumbnails, and social media visuals without leaving the ChatGPT interface.
Web Browsing
Searches the internet in real time — useful for researching current events, checking pricing, and finding up-to-date information.
💡
Workflow Integration Tip
Create a custom GPT with your brand name, target audience, content tone, and example posts as context. Every session starts with your brand already loaded — no re-explaining who you are.
Free (GPT-4o) covers most needs. Plus unlocks higher usage limits, DALL·E, and custom GPTs.
Free / $20/month
Tier 1
Claude
(Anthropic)
The Writer
Best For
Long-form writing, nuanced content, document analysis, maintaining consistent voice across extended pieces, email sequences, course content, sales pages.
Workflow Role
When output quality and human-sounding prose matter more than speed. Writing that’s more natural, less formulaic, and capable of sustaining quality across long documents.
Key Capabilities for Workflows
Extended Context
Process and analyze extremely long documents — full PDFs, lengthy transcripts, entire content libraries — and summarize, rewrite, or extract insights from them.
Projects
Persistent workspaces where your brand context, writing style, and reference documents are always loaded — similar to custom GPTs but with more nuance for writing tasks.
Doc Analysis
Upload a competitor’s content, a research paper, or a client brief and extract insights, identify gaps, or generate a response. Powerful for content strategy.
Voice Consistency
Holds a brand voice more consistently than most tools across a long piece — critical for course content, email sequences, and sales copy.
💡
Workflow Integration Tip
Create a Claude Project for your brand. Upload your best-performing content as style examples. Upload your brand voice guidelines. Every session opens with full context — outputs that sound like you from the first line.
Free covers basic use. Pro unlocks higher usage and priority access — worth it if writing is your primary output.
Free / $20/month
Use ChatGPT when you need speed and versatility. Use Claude when quality and voice consistency matter most.
L2M2.3
Tier 2 Tools: Specialists With Specific Workflow Roles
These tools don’t replace ChatGPT or Claude — they handle specific workflow tasks where they significantly outperform the generalists.
Tier 2
Jasper
Marketing Copywriter
An AI writing platform built specifically for marketing copy. Unlike ChatGPT and Claude (which are general-purpose), Jasper is designed from the ground up for marketers — with templates, brand voice settings, and campaign-specific outputs.
Best For
Marketing copy at scale — ad headlines, landing page copy, product descriptions, email subject lines, social captions, campaign briefs.
Key Capabilities
→Brand Voice: Upload content, Jasper learns your tone and applies it automatically
→Campaigns: Full campaign outputs (ads, email, social, landing page) from one brief
→SEO Mode: Integration with Surfer SEO for keyword-optimized content
Use Jasper for high-volume marketing copy. Use ChatGPT/Claude for everything else — blog posts, course content, research, and long-form writing.
~$49/month
Tier 2
Midjourney
Visual Asset Creator
The highest-quality AI image generation tool currently available. Creates photorealistic and artistic images from text prompts with a level of quality that outperforms every other image generator on the market.
Best For
Premium blog graphics, product mockup visuals, course imagery, brand photography alternatives, social media hero images, digital product covers.
Key Capabilities
→Photorealistic image generation from detailed text prompts
→Style consistency across a series using reference images
→Aspect ratio control for platform-specific dimensions
Access via Discord. Go to midjourney.com → join Discord → use /imagine commands. Takes 15 minutes to set up. Use for flagship visuals; use Canva AI for day-to-day graphics at scale.
~$10/month
Tier 2
RunwayML
Video Content Creator
An AI video generation and editing platform. Creates short video clips from text prompts or images, removes backgrounds from video, generates B-roll footage, and applies AI effects to existing video.
Best For
Creating video content without a camera — AI-generated B-roll, product demos, social media video, intro sequences for faceless YouTube or TikTok.
Key Capabilities
→Text to video: Generate short clips from a text description
→Image to video: Animate a still image into a video clip
→Background removal without a green screen
→AI editing: inpainting, motion effects, style transfer
Combine with Canva for title cards and ElevenLabs for AI voice to produce fully AI-generated video content.
Free / ~$12/month
L2M2.4
Tier 3 Tools: Automation and Workflow Infrastructure
These tools don’t generate content — they connect your tools together and make workflows run automatically.
Tier 3
Zapier
The Connector — Simple Automations
Free / $19.99/month
The most widely used workflow automation platform. Connects 6,000+ apps and lets you build automated “Zaps” — if this happens in App A, do this in App B. Turns your prompt-based workflows into fully automated systems.
Example Automations
→New form submission → AI generates personalized response → email sent automatically
→New blog post published → AI generates social captions → queued in Buffer
→New subscriber added → AI personalizes welcome email → sent via MailerLite
→New invoice paid → AI generates thank you + onboarding email → sent automatically
Tier 3
Make.com
The Advanced Connector — Complex Workflows
Free / $9/month
A more powerful, more visual automation platform than Zapier. Better suited for complex, multi-step workflows with conditional logic and data transformations. Better value at higher automation volumes. Use Zapier for simple 2-step automations; use Make.com when you need multiple branches, filters, and conditions.
Tier 3
n8n
The Developer-Level Connector — Advanced / Self-Hosted
Free (self-hosted)
An open-source automation platform — more technical than Zapier or Make.com but significantly more powerful, and free to self-host. Not recommended for beginners. Start with Zapier or Make.com and graduate to n8n if and when you hit the limitations of the hosted tools.
L2M2.5
The Recommended Stack for This Course
You don’t need all of these tools. Here’s the recommended stack for different stages of building your online business.
Month 1–3
Starter Stack
Start here
ChatGPT (Free or Plus)
Claude (Free or Pro)
Canva (Free or Pro)
Zapier (Free tier)
Handles 90% of what you need to build in the Foundation and early Lever phases.
$0–$55/month
Month 4–9
Growth Stack
Most common
Everything in the Starter Stack, plus:
Midjourney (~$10/mo)
Make.com (~$9/mo)
Perplexity (~$20/mo)
Add Midjourney when visual quality matters. Add Make.com when you need more complex automations.
~$40–$100/month
Month 9+
Scale Stack
Most leverage
Everything in the Growth Stack, plus:
Jasper (~$49/mo)
RunwayML (~$12/mo)
n8n (free self-hosted)
At this stage, your AI-assisted business should be generating significantly more than this in monthly income.
~$100–$160/month
L2M2.6
Choosing Based on Your Business Model
The right stack also depends on which income levers you’re primarily working. Start with the tools most relevant to your chosen starting lever and add others as you activate more levers.
Primary Lever
Most Important Tools
Affiliate Systems
ChatGPT
Claude
Canva
AI Workflow Services
ChatGPT
Claude
Zapier / Make.com
Digital Products
Claude
Canva
Midjourney
Content Repurposing
ChatGPT
Canva
Buffer / Zapier
Funnel Architecture
Claude
Jasper
Zapier
Faceless YouTube
RunwayML
ElevenLabs
Canva
Email Sequences
Claude
MailerLite
Zapier
Module Summary
Here’s What We Covered
- ✦Why a workflow stack is different from a random tool collection — defined roles, complementary tools, connected outputs
- ✦Tier 1 daily drivers: ChatGPT (the generalist) and Claude (the writer) — deep dive on their workflow-specific capabilities including custom GPTs, Projects, code interpretation, and document analysis
- ✦Tier 2 specialists: Jasper (marketing copy at scale), Midjourney (premium visuals), RunwayML (AI video) — when to use each and how they fit alongside the daily drivers
- ✦Tier 3 automation infrastructure: Zapier (simple connectors), Make.com (complex workflows), n8n (advanced/self-hosted) — the tools that turn manual prompts into fully automated systems
- ✦The recommended Starter ($0–$55/mo), Growth (~$40–$100/mo), and Scale (~$100–$160/mo) stacks with costs at each stage
- ✦Stack selection by primary income lever — which specific tool combinations matter most for affiliate systems, digital products, email sequences, faceless YouTube, and more
Next up Lever 2, Module 3: Building a Content Creation Workflow With AI