AI chat assistants: 18 tools for office work

Updated October 13, 2026 · By Robert Breen

A chat assistant is the first AI tool most offices pick up, and the one that pays back fastest: a reply that took 20 minutes takes 2, a 40-page contract gets a one-page summary, and a messy export becomes a clean table. The real question is not which model is smartest but which one fits how your team works, what it connects to (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) and where your client data is allowed to go. These are the general-purpose assistants and the apps to run them, from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to private models that run on your own laptop.

18 tools15 free or with a free plan0 with a free trial3 paid only

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18 tools added since October 8, 2026. New tools are added every day.

TypingMind LM Studio Ollama Duck.ai Pi Poe Kimi Qwen Chat DeepSeek Le Chat by Mistral Grok Meta AI+ 6 more

18 AI chat assistants

Each card says what the tool does for a working professional and whether it is free, has a free plan or trial, or is paid. 4 have a free Stepthrough lesson where you practice it step by step.

ChatGPT: Free plan. OpenAI’s chat assistant drafts emails, summarizes documents, analyzes spreadsheets and answers questions in plain English. Projects and custom GPTs keep your instructions and files in one place. Free lesson: Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format
Claude: Free plan. Anthropic’s assistant is strong at long documents, careful writing and analysis. Projects, artifacts and skills let it reuse your files, brand rules and templates. Free lesson: Your First Chat with Claude: Models, Files and a Great First Prompt
Gemini: Free plan. Google’s assistant answers questions, writes and researches, with Deep Research for cited reports. It connects to Gmail, Docs and Drive when you allow it. Free lesson: Gemini Deep Research: Build a Cited Brief Before a Client Meeting
Microsoft Copilot: Free plan. Microsoft’s free assistant for chat, writing, web answers and images. A good everyday option for teams that already work in Windows and Edge. Free lesson: Choose the AI Assistant Your Team Should Use, Tested on ChatGPT…
Microsoft 365 Copilot: Paid. Copilot inside Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Teams, grounded in your work files and email. It drafts documents, recaps meetings and finds information across your tenant.
Gemini for Google Workspace: Paid. Gemini built into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet for business accounts. It drafts, summarizes and organizes work inside the apps your team already uses.
Meta AI: Free. Meta’s free assistant for quick answers, writing help and image generation. It is also built into WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.
Grok: Free plan. xAI’s assistant for chat, writing and research, with live search of the web and X. Useful for quick takes on current events and trends.
Le Chat by Mistral: Free plan. Mistral’s fast assistant for writing, research and document questions. A European option many teams pick for data residency.
DeepSeek: Free. A free chat assistant with strong reasoning and coding models. Its open models can also be run on your own servers.
Qwen Chat: Free. Alibaba’s free assistant for writing, analysis, coding and image work. Its open Qwen models are widely used in business apps.
Kimi: Free plan. Moonshot AI’s assistant handles very long documents, research and slide drafts. Handy when you need to read a stack of files at once.
Poe: Free plan. One app for many AI models, including GPT, Claude, Gemini and image models. Compare answers side by side without separate subscriptions.
Pi: Free. Inflection’s conversational assistant for talking through ideas, plans and tricky conversations. Friendly for thinking out loud before you write.
Duck.ai: Free. DuckDuckGo’s private AI chat gives anonymous access to several popular models. Chats are not used to train the models.
Ollama: Free. Run open AI models such as Llama, Qwen and Gemma on your own computer. Nothing leaves your machine, which helps with sensitive client data.
LM Studio: Free. A desktop app to download and chat with open AI models offline. A simple way to try private, local AI without any code.
TypingMind: Paid. A polished chat interface for your own API keys from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others. Teams use it to share prompts and control costs.