I Review 50+ AI Tools a Month — Here's My Evaluation Framework

Short summary

Author reviews 50+ AI tools monthly using a framework that filters out novelty-focused wrappers. Key evaluation criteria include time-to-first-value, differentiation beyond raw API access, output format compatibility, and batch processing. Code assistants and writing aids show highest ROI; general chatbots and all-in-one AI agents deliver poor returns.

• •Filter out AI tools that solve problems created by AI or lack differentiation from raw API access
• •Evaluate by time-to-first-value, output quality, pricing vs raw API, and workflow integration
• •Code assistants (Cursor, Copilot) and specialized tools (SQL generation, data extraction) outperform general chatbots

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.