If you’ve spent more than five minutes on LinkedIn lately, you’ve probably seen a dozen 'Top 10 AI Tools' lists that look like they were written by a bot—mostly because they were. Most of these lists are junk. They recommend tools that are nothing more than thin wrappers around ChatGPT, offering zero strategic value to a business owner in Brisbane or the Gold Coast trying to move the needle.
At Local Marketing Group, we take a different stance. We don't care about what’s 'cool.' We care about what’s billable, scalable, and reliable. Most agencies overcomplicate AI because it makes them look smart. We’d rather simplify it so you actually make money.
Here is the honest, no-fluff breakdown of the AI tools we actually use and recommend to our clients this quarter.
The 'Brain' of the Operation: Claude 3.5 Sonnet
While the world is obsessed with OpenAI, we’ve shifted the majority of our strategic work to Anthropic’s Claude. Why? Because it actually sounds like a human wrote it.
If you are using AI to churn out generic, SEO-slop blog posts, you are wasting your time. Google knows it, and your customers definitely know it. We use Claude to synthesise complex data and draft content that actually follows a brand’s tone of voice. It’s less 'hallucinatory' than other models and handles Australian nuance—like our unique spelling and cultural references—far better than its competitors.
The Workflow Engine: Make.com over Zapier
Zapier is great for beginners, but it's overpriced and restrictive once you start scaling. For serious AI marketing automation, we’ve moved almost entirely to Make.com.
Make allows us to build visual workflows that connect your CRM to your lead magnets and email systems without the 'per-task' tax that kills your ROI. If you want to build a business that runs while you’re at the beach, you need to scale your team using logic-based workflows rather than just throwing more bodies (or more expensive subscriptions) at the problem.
The Content Workhorse: Descript
Video is non-negotiable in 2026, but editing is a soul-crushing time sink. Descript is the only AI video tool that has fundamentally changed how we work. It allows you to edit video by editing a text transcript.
For a local business owner, this means you can record a quick 5-minute update for your clients, delete the 'ums' and 'errs' with one click, and have a professional-looking clip ready for social media in minutes. It’s practical, it’s fast, and it doesn't require a degree in Premiere Pro.
The 'Don't Do This' List
Before you go out and sign up for ten new subscriptions, let’s talk about what not to do.
1. AI Chatbots on your homepage that can't book appointments: If your chatbot just says "I don't know, call our office," you are actively killing the customer experience. AI should solve problems, not create hurdles. 2. Fully automated social media posting: If a tool promises to 'write and post 30 days of content in 1 click,' run away. It will be generic, it will ignore local Brisbane trends, and it will get zero engagement. 3. AI Logo Generators: Your brand identity is worth more than a $5 generated icon that three other businesses in your suburb are also using.
How to Build Your Own Stack
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start small. You don't need a 20-tool stack. You need a strategy that solves a specific bottleneck.
Step 1: Identify the task that takes your team the most time (usually data entry or first-draft writing). Step 2: Use a single tool (like Claude) to assist that task, not replace it.
- Step 3: Once the process is proven, use an integration tool (like Make) to automate the data flow.