The Consultants & Small Business Stack.

Workflow

research (Perplexity) → deliverables & docs (Claude/ChatGPT) → decks (a deck tool) → admin & comms automation (Claude’s agent features) → finance basics (Claude for Excel).

Core stack

Claude or ChatGPT (the all-rounder) · Perplexity · a deck tool.

Verdict

a small team can punch far above its weight — pick one strong generalist model and go deep, rather than spreading across many.

Gotchas

client confidentiality — check data terms; review before billing AI-drafted work as bespoke.

Cowork is no longer a separate mode: Anthropic merged it into Claude on 16 September 2026. No other material change found since 2026-06-03.