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Tom's Guide
7 days ago
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Tom's Guide AI Awards 2025: 17 best AI tools and gadgets right now
Across all of the areas of tech, we here at Tom's Guide are certain artificial intelligence is leading the charge. It's in your smartphones, TVs, fridges and just about any product with a screen these days. More than that, AI models and chatbots are changing the world, bringing a new kind of productivity to both individuals and companies alike. With that in mind, our inaugural Tom's Guide AI awards are a chance to celebrate the industry and the best implementations of the tech we've seen over the last 12 months. From the best AI chatbots and image generators, to the best fitness trackers and AI sleep tech — it's all here. Our AI awards recognize the best in the industry, rewarding innovation and real-world impact in a market that feels increasingly crowded. These awards have been judged by our in-house experts on the Tom's Guide team. Bringing together a wealth of tech experience, every product in this list has been tested extensively. After hours of AI prompting, device testing and generally making the most of the AI revolution, these are the winners of the Tom's Guide AI awards 2025. A late addition to the game, Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro has been topping the leaderboards of some of the best-known AI benchmarks. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Excelling at coding and app development, educational tasks and mathematical thinking, Gemini is showing the potential that AI has to offer over the next few years. While the competition is strong, with OpenAI's reasoning models equally topping an array of leaderboards, and the likes of DeepSeek offering a much more affordable alternative, Gemini's recent announcements at Google I/O 2025 secures its position as the leading power right now. This won't last for long with the speed that AI is currently moving, but with advancements in deep reasoning, video generation voice assistants and AI agents, Gemini is excelling everywhere right now. - Alex Hughes DeepSeek has carved out a spot as a scrappy contender in the AI chatbot space, standing out for its strong performance in coding, creative writing and logical reasoning — all driven by its impressively efficient V3 model. After winning our AI Madness competition earlier in the year, this underdog continues to gain traction with a clean interface, mobile apps, and built-in image generation, offering a flexible toolset for developers and creatives alike. While more polished platforms like ChatGPT tend to play it safe, DeepSeek's looser content filters make room for edgier, more experimental responses — though that freedom can lead to more hallucinations and factual missteps. It's available in both free and paid plans ($10–$20/month), but its China-based servers and avoidance of sensitive topics have raised some concerns. Still, for those comfortable double-checking the facts, DeepSeek proves that budget-friendly AI can still deliver big results. - Amanda Caswell Photo generation has come a long way in recent months, but no company has shown this more than ChatGPT. Yes, there has been fierce competition from the likes of Gemini, Midjourney and new comers like Freepik, but since its latest image update, ChatGPT has shown no signs of slowing down. While it doesn't like to stray too far into the world of creativity like Midjourney, ChatGPT's image generation is consistently producing top-tier AI images. More importantly, the model has developed its prompt understanding far beyond the competition, generating high-quality images from incredibly simple prompts. - Alex Hughes A relative newcomer to the scene, Kling only launched last year. And yet, it has quickly dominated the space of AI video generation. Sure, this technology is fairly new in general but with Kling's second generation that launched in the last couple of months, it has quickly asserted itself into the world of AI. There are plenty of other great video generators out there, like OpenAI's Sora or Runway, but for the blend of pricing, creativity and quality, Kling snags the top spot in our eyes. However, it's worth noting that this space is growing rapidly. Gemini has just updated its AI-generated video tool and is turning heads with its Veo 3 model and Flow video creation tool. Watch this space. - Alex Hughes Perplexity has cemented itself in the world of AI thanks to its impressive search capabilities. Think Google, but with more generative AI and detail. While it's still a chatbot — like Gemini or ChatGPT — Perplexity has made the most of searching the internet, guiding you through buying advice, giving directions or simply helping answer the burning questions on your mind. We even tried replacing Google with Perplexity as a daily search engine, and we were impressed by it's sheer versatility and helpfulness. With recent news of a partnership with PayPal — meaning this could be the first chatbot to allow in-app purchases — Perplexity is taking AI search to a level no competitor has yet to reach. - Alex Hughes A research tool developed by Google, NotebookLM has become one of the best AI tools out there. It's described as a note taking and research assistant which, on the face of it, doesn't sound too exciting. However, when it comes to any research project, NotebookLM does exactly what you need. Upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, Google Docs and pretty much any type of online file and NotebookLM can search through them. These files are all then analyzed, providing timelines, FAQs, study guides and briefing documents. With more recent updates, you can even get audio overviews in a podcast style or mind maps. While other AI brands have started to offer similar systems, this remains the best AI research tool we've tried at Tom's Guide, especially considering how well it is able to analyze large chunks of data. Don't have a project in mind yet? NotebookLM can also generate research around a random topic, searching the internet for the best sources of information for you to learn. - Alex Hughes Google's Gemini Live, now free for all users, sets itself apart from traditional voice assistants by offering a more dynamic and context-aware experience. Instead of relying solely on spoken commands, it allows both Android and iOS users to share their smartphone's camera and screen, enabling real-time assistance based on what the AI can see. This multimodal approach means Gemini Live can identify objects, provide visual step-by-step guidance and offer insights on content users are actively interacting with. The assistant also supports natural, free-flowing conversations, adjusting to interruptions or shifts in intent without losing track. Its integration with Google services like Gmail, Drive, and Calendar (with user permission) allows it to deliver personalized and contextually relevant responses. With support for over 45 languages and recent expansion to iOS, Gemini Live is designed to be both versatile and accessible — positioning it as the leader in the evolving voice assistant space. - Amanda Caswell Grammarly has been around for years now, offering up one of the internet's best grammar checkers. However, by making the most of advancements in AI, Grammarly has managed to remain ahead of the competition. It excels when it comes to refining existing text, and fixing those little mistakes that sneak through. On top of that, for an AI tool, it's surprisingly human-like in its suggestions for style changes and how to add some character to your writing. Grammarly can detect AI writing, and is available across a huge range of platforms, including as a Chrome extension or a standard word processor like Microsoft Word. It's not that Grammarly is necessarily the most impressive AI writing tool out there, but it thrives in its usefulness, utilizing AI in a way that is necessary for millions of people. - Alex Hughes Trying to decide the best AI laptop was an interesting discussion with the Tom's Guide computing team. Do we go for the best overall system that can do some good AI stuff on the side (like the HP OmniBook X), or do we go for the full-blown AI PC with the monster horsepower to train its own models and run complex AI tasks offline? We decided to go for the latter, which is why the crown goes to the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18. It's a gaming laptop at heart, but that pairing of RTX 5090 and Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (combined with a huge total wattage of power) leads to some crazy AI feats for power users. You see, an NPU is good for everyday AI tasks. But to really push it to the limit, you need a GPU, and the 1,837 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of AI performance quite frankly embarrasses any typical Copilot+ PC. This means lightning performance on demanding creative AI tasks, like Photoshop neural filters on RAW images, and even the ability to run complex AI models offline for training. - Jason England The world of smart glasses is getting increasingly more competitive, with the likes of Android XR coming around the corner and Apple working on a pair of AI glasses of its own. But the Ray-Ban Meta specs remain on top for now. Why? Simple: an ever-growing list of new AI features that are actually useful. At first, they started as a glorified pair of audio and camera glasses — nothing much to write home about except for the stylishness of them. But Meta's biggest AI drops have almost been perfectly timed to moments where our team needed them. Our managing editor of computing at Tom's Guide used these as a visual AI model that helped him get more information about the sights of Costa Rica, to set reminders based on what he was looking at, and most recently as a live translator. Glasses are one of the best ways to wear AI on the go, and not only are these the most sleek-looking, they're the smartest too. - Jason England Google's latest Pixel phones stand out for their cameras just as much as their AI-powered features. And the two come together beautifully in the Add Me feature for Google Photos. The person behind the camera has previously had to take a selfie to get in on a group shot, or accept they won't appear in it. But Add Me allows you to tag out with someone else, letting you find a spot to join for a second photo while showing the outline of the previous shot to make sure you don't accidentally overlap. The Pixel will then combine those photos for a final image where everyone who should be in frame is present and accounted for. It's a complex feat to accomplish, requiring AI and augmented reality working in tandem. But it's also easy to understand and use, as all the best smartphone feature ought to be. It's not just for group shots. Google notes that it can be fun to use the tool to make one person appear twice in the same frame - but however you use it, there's a lot of potential for fun and meaningful picture-taking. And all without needing to hire a professional photographer to follow you around. - Richard Priday Samsung debuted its Galaxy AI feature package last year, but it's been taken to another level with the Galaxy S25 series. From the base model to the fully-armed Galaxy S25 Ultra, or the new Galaxy S25 Edge, Samsung offers users all kinds of productive and creative AI tools as a key part of the experience. As soon as you unlock the S25, you can do things like order Gemini to complete a task involving multiple apps with cross-app actions (compatible with both Google and Samsung-made apps) or open up Now Brief for a personalized look at what's happened today and what's coming up. If something piques your curiosity, you can find out more with Circle to Search, or strike up a conversational search with Gemini Live. In your Photos album, which you can now search with natural language rather than tags and keywords, you can use Generative Edit to tidy up or add more to your shots. Auto Trim and Audio Eraser are also available to help cut together and improve the sound of video clips. Plus, the usual text-based tools of transcribing audio, translating between languages or tweaking your text to better match a given style are still here too. And that's not even mentioning the health advice and tracking enabled by using a Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Ring wearable. It's safe to say there's an enormous variety of AI tools at your disposal on the Galaxy S25 series. And that should mean that whoever you are, there's something you'll find useful. - Richard Priday Eight Sleep is at the forefront of smart bed technology using AI primarily in its sleep analyzer and coaching systems to enhance sleep quality, which is why we rate it as one of the best smart mattresses on the market today (despite not being a mattress at all.) The Eight Sleep Pod 4 is a smart mattress cover that can turn any mattress into an AI-powered bed that heats up and cools down through the night to keep you at the best temperature for sleeping. It also tracks your sleep metrics without you having to wear anything and wakes you up gradually with a vibration and thermal alarm. Where does AI come into play? Eight Sleep's AI, 'Autopilot', is trained on nearly 10 million hours of sleep data. This in-bed system learns about your individual sleep habits and makes real-time adjustments to keep you sleeping peacefully. The cover is laced with sensors that track your individual biometrics, including heart rate and sleep stages, while the AI sleep coach translates this data into personalized sleeping tips, which you access via the compatible app. - Nicola Appleton Runna is one of the best running apps on the market, and for good reason — it's like having a running coach in your pocket. The clever app uses AI to provide runners with tailored training plans and then make adjustments based on their goals and performance. Like a real coach, the AI tool will analyze data from your sessions and make suggestions on pace targets and your overall training. Unlike other fitness AI products, which regurgitate information you've already submitted, Runna really adds something to your training and takes the guesswork out of analyzing your progress. During testing, we were impressed with the easy-to-use interface and how the app breaks training down into easy-to-understand sessions. You can also easily download the sessions onto your running watch, as the app easily syncs with Garmin, Coros, and Apple Watches. In fact, our senior fitness editor used Runna for 16 weeks to train for her fifth marathon and ended up taking 14 minutes off her PR. - Jane Mcquire Despite what they're advertising, few TVs are leveraging AI in new and exciting ways. For 2025, LG has added a chat assistant in its new OLED lineup, while Sony continues in its efforts to re-brand its basic upscaling tech as cognitive AI. Of all the TV makers out there, however, Samsung seems to be the one putting in the work to make AI a useful aspect of its OLED TV lineup with its AI Vision technology. This is available on sets like the Samsung S95F. Part of AI Vision's mission is better upscaling via a content pattern recognition algorithm, but it also supports Galaxy Watch's Universal Gestures and adds Live Translate that detects and translates the dialog in movies and shows into your preferred language in real time. Less useful features like AI-generated wallpaper and a smarter version of Samsung's Bixby voice assistant are also available here. But, by and large, Samsung feels like it's taking TV AI in the right direction compared to the competition. - Nick Pino The Plaud NotePin is one of the most interesting products we've reviewed — and our team at Tom's Guide reviews dozens of new devices every month. We approached the NotePin with a degree of skepticism after the likes of the Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin. However, we experienced a simple yet helpful solution when we tested the Plaud NotePin. It's basically just an AI-powered dictaphone. Instead of you transcribing the contents of your audio files, the NotePin deals with all that for you. Thanks to this wearable, you can even configure the transcriptions to format precisely how you need. We also loved the design and versatility. At just two inches long it can be worn as a watch, necklace, pin or clip. On top of being super inconspicuous, it's also pretty adept at turning hours of speech into easily-digestible writing. - Erin Bashford In a world where Ring is synonymous with security cameras, Eufy is quietly cleaning up with an AI-enabled indoor camera that offers an easy, clean interface, useful features and a high-quality image day or night. The C220 is comparable to many other indoor security cameras, but after testing it for a short period of time I found a lot to recommend about it. The 2K video is clear, as is the audio, which makes the C220 useful no matter what room it's in. The 360-degree pan and tilt lets you check on every corner of a room or area, and the Privacy Mode allow you to shutter it when necessary. The AI motion detector catches any movement in the room, whether it's an intruder or simply your cat heading out for a stroll. The camera can identify human figures, recording their entire route and ensuring they remain in sight. While this (hopefully) shouldn't be needed for intruders, it is a nice way to watch back moments that happen in your daily life (and is there for safety if needed). And because the C220 can use a microSD card, it doesn't require a subscription in order for you to play back video. - Amber Bouman
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
New Survey Says 67% Of Jobs Use AI, But Do Leaders Understand Its Limits?
In a survey of 1,000 knowledge workers, 67% of respondents said that their companies use AI, with 56% of companies encouraging AI usage. Owl Labs created the survey, and they found that Gen Z employees are more likely to report being 'heavily reliant' on AI, with 70% of the youngest generation leaning in on the tech for a multitude of tasks. That lines up with the observations of OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, who recently shared that Gen Z workers view ChatGPT as a 'life adviser". Embracing technology is a good idea, but is Gen Z sqeezing LLMs too tightly? What do these current and future workforce leaders need to know, about what AI can (and can't) do? 'Older people,' Altman told an audience at Sequoia Capital's AI Ascent Event, 'use ChatGPT as a Google replacement. People in college use it as an operating system.' Tech Crunch reports that younger adults have fairly complex prompts memorized, which also means saved in the notes on their phone, and they rapidly and frequently pepper the program with problems and queries. Altman goes on to say that, "they [Gen Z and Gen Alpha] AI expert Amanda Caswell, a writer for Tom's Guide, says, 'Personally, I've used ChatGPT to tackle everything from project summaries to panic attacks, and have found it to be a great sounding board when facing tough choices. While it's no substitute for human guidance or a therapist, ChatGPT can be a great assistant in a pinch.' There's definitely an upside to having a second opinion on various aspects of your life and work - especially when that perspective has access to trillions of data points, the works of Freud, Jung, and James, as well as most of recorded history. But there are risks that can come with using AI, and leaning in too heavily on the platform. Experts say that it's important to be careful how much you share with AI - and how you use the tool at work. Your AI girlfriend may disagree, but how you embrace AI is where the conversation really begins. The rewards are many, but so are the risks - and using LLMs wisely is good counsel for every generation. What to Watch Out For With AI: Experts Weigh In 'AI has no world model,' according to process scientist, Sam Drauschak. Questions that require real-world context can be a challenge for ChatGPT and other AI platforms. 'When you ask it to read this picture of a clock, it's strictly pattern prediction.' Louis Rosenberg, Stanford professor and author of Our Next Reality, says that large language models really struggle with the simple task of reading a clock. While the platform has incredible advantages, sometimes the simple stuff is not so simple. Rosenberg says that sometimes AI is dyslexic. And, as someone who is dyslexic, Rosenberg's perspective gives an interesting read on why AI struggles to tell time. 'When I recall things in my mind (objects, environments, images, or text), I don't visualize them from a fixed first-person perspective. I think about them from all directions at once, more as a vague cloud of perspectives than a single, grounded orientation,' he explains - articulating the AI point of view. That's how large language models see things - and it often means that vector orientations (such as 'clockwise') are elusive to AI platforms. 'When you ask AI to interpret a tissue sample," he says, using an application from healthcare that is becoming more and more common, 'accuracy is not impacted by orientation.' But innovative problem-solving and creative thinking is. While AI can generate novel combinations for text and produce creative works in art and music, its capacity for truly original thought and breakthrough innovation remains limited. But the speed of the platform can be astonishing. So, should we treat AI like just another voice in the room, or the voice of God? 'Think about it more like an intern,' Drauschak advises. "AI doesn't do anything new. It synthesiz
Tom's Guide
13-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
I've been using ChatGPT since it launched — this is the one prompt that never fails me
AI can do some incredible things. It can code entire websites, run complicated security programs and help discover entirely new drugs. However, day to day, where AI is most useful is in the most basic of uses. Take ChatGPT, for example. I, and many other people, use ChatGPT every single day. It's a tool that can help you in so many ways. But there is one particular prompt that I use the AI chatbot for more than anything else. Our AI writer, Amanda Caswell, listed something similar as one of her top five prompts for AI chatbots, and I couldn't agree more. Since AI chatbots first appeared, I've been asking them to 'explain it to me like I'm a child.' This simple prompt has helped me understand complicated scientific concepts, tariffs, and, to be perfectly honest with you, concepts that I probably should understand. By asking ChatGPT a prompt along this line, the model will quickly condense any concept into a manageable explanation, usually complete with metaphors or visual explanations to help you out. For example, if I ask ChatGPT to explain black holes to me like I'm five, this is what I get back: 'Imagine a black hole like a big invisible vacuum cleaner in space. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. So if you get too close, you get sucked in and can't get out, just like toys getting sucked into a vacuum. That's why it's called a black hole — because it doesn't let any light out, so we can't see it. But don't worry — they're very far away and can't hurt us!' Sure, it's a bit condescending, but it explains an arguably complicated subject in a short period in very understandable language. This kind of prompt was incredibly popular in the early days of AI chatbots, but these models have come a long way since then. Because of this, you don't necessarily need to be as simple in your prompt to get this kind of answer. For example, instead of asking it to treat you like a child, you can simply explain your level of understanding on a given topic. When asked, 'explain black holes to an adult who has no understanding of science at all', this is what ChatGPT responded with. One of the things I like about this kind of prompt is how much it makes use of the conversational nature of ChatGPT. Set out your level of understanding on a topic, and you'll get an explanation at your level. If it still doesn't make sense, ask for it to be simplified further, ask for a metaphor to explain it, or even a visual explanation of the concept. Equally, if ChatGPT has dumbed things down a little bit too far, ask for a clearer, more advanced explanation. Or if you're adopting the aging system, up your level. 'Explain this concept like I'm a University student,' or if you're feeling really confident, try something like 'explain this concept like I am an expert in this subject and we're discussing it together.' Be warned, when I tried this on the black hole topic, this was what I was met with: Lost? So am I! It might feel a little bit ridiculous to simplify your knowledge base to that of a child but I love this feature. Over the years, ChatGPT has oversimplified topics to me on a daily basis, with us having a back-and-forth conversation until I understand a subject fully. So often I have found myself having to work backwards with subjects until I understand them. This is just starting the opposite way!
