Feature
Improving employee productivity remains a key leadership objective, but it is an uphill battle.
According to Gallup, employee engagement declined to 21% in 2024, only the second time it has declined in 12 years. The result is employees all around the globe struggle at work, leading to direct consequences for organizational productivity.
Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy $9.6 trillion, or 9% of global gross domestic product (GDP).
Hope may be on the horizon. The introduction of AI at scale and the advances in a variety of productivity tools and apps could be the answer to higher engagement and improved employee productivity.
Table of Contents
- 10 Best Productivity Apps and Tools for Today’s Digital Workplace
- 1. Sunsama
- 2. Asana
- 3. Jasper
- 4. Miro
- 5. Pictory
- 6. Colossyan
- 7. Platstack
- 8. Doodle
- 9. Zapier
- 10. Typeset
- How to Choose the Right Productivity Tools
- How to Determine if a Productivity Tool Is Effective
- Embrace Productivity Software for a Happier Workplace
10 Best Productivity Apps and Tools for Today’s Digital Workplace
Productivity software comes in all shapes and sizes: solutions for solo use or productivity tools for teams to AI-based productivity tools. The capabilities that support employee productivity vary from task management to video creation to whiteboarding tools.
The perfect tool for you or your team will depend on your work style, role, organization and industry as well as your existing digital workplace technology. Here are some of the most popular expert-recommended productivity apps, many of which have integrated AI into their core offering.
1. Sunsama
Organization is an important part of being productive for many of us. Sunsama is a digital planning app that aims to “help you feel calm and stay focused.” The app helps busy individuals or small teams plan each day, set daily goals and assign themselves tasks.
The tool's real strength lies in its ability to integrate tasks from other platforms, including Trello, Asana, Click-Up, Notion, Jira, Monday and Github. Any changes in a task's status automatically update in the original system. Emails, Slack and Teams messages can also be included in a task list so you don’t forget them.
Learning and development consultant Janifer Wheeler said she uses the platform daily. "For leaders, Sunsama provides a clear overview of team activities, facilitating better management of workloads and deadlines,” she said.
Sunsama comes with both a desktop app and mobile app, the latter making it easy to keep track of your tasks and schedule on the go. Other capabilities offered by Sunsama include calendar synchronization, weekly objectives, focus mode and analytics.
2. Asana
"Many companies do not effectively manage their projects and provide transparency of project risks, files and activities," said Penny Zenker, business coach and author of "The Reset Mindset." Project management apps like Asana can help underpin employee productivity, by tracking progress, assigning tasks, providing transparency and ensuring accountability across departments, she explained.
One of the most popular project management apps on the market, Asana project management software features include:
- Project and task management
- Status updates
- Workflows and automation
- Capacity planning
- Time tracking
- Reporting dashboards
- Integrations with key systems.
Asana also includes extensive AI-powered features to further boost team productivity by surfacing smart insights such as risks and blockers, designing intelligent workflows using natural language, automatically generating reports, answering questions and more. Asana has both a desktop and mobile app.
3. Jasper
Before ChatGPT and generative AI revolutionized productivity around writing and content generation, Jasper was one the major AI-powered writing assistants around. Today Jasper is still aimed at marketers but it now incorporates a much wider set of AI-tools to supercharge the productivity of marketing teams, far beyond being a writing app.
Features include a suite of over 100 marketing apps that can perform tasks like generating content, automating marketing flows, helping manage social media, maintaining brand consistency and optimizing paid advertising campaigns. Meanwhile the AI-powered “Canvas” feature includes an AI editor to create content at scale and the ability to generate images.
The “Jasper IQ” feature is one of the product's strengths. Jasper IQ acts as an intelligent layer that optimizes content for brand consistency and impact based on brand guidelines you set. It also offers in-depth marketing intelligence.
Jasper also launched Jasper Grid on November 4, an "intelligent, sheet-like interface for marketing teams," designed to provide a structure for content creation and orchestration across channels and campaigns.
4. Miro
Miro is one of the most popular whiteboarding apps and examples of productivity software on the market and is extensively used within organizations of different sizes and across multiple sectors. In many ways it is the ideal productivity app for visual learners in the workplace. Zenker described it as "a collaborative whiteboard platform where teams can brainstorm, map out workflows and visually organize ideas, especially useful for remote teams.”
AI is extensively baked into the app, not only offering up automatic summaries of board changes and comment thread, but it can also provide feedback and make recommendations. It can also generate product briefs from a brainstorm on your board, directly supporting innovation and turning ideas into something more tangible.
Another strength of Miro is the extensive library of integrations with over 160 tools including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Jira, Microsoft Teams and Slack, that can help improve team collaboration across the workplace.
"These tools are great ways to run workshops and collect all team members’ input and quickly group and categorize data to create action plans," Zenker said.
5. Pictory
If you need to speed up and simplify the video creation process, Pictory could be the productivity app for you. With it, said Wheeler, "teams can transform written content into videos effortlessly, making it ideal for marketing, training and presentations."
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The tool uses AI to generate videos from blogs, articles, PowerPoint slides, images, scripts — even from a web page — just enter the URL. You can then add other elements such as music, transitions, captions and voice overs through the tool. Pictory also has an AI video editor, an AI voice generator and a way to turn screen captures into videos.
"I really like this tool for making videos from blogs, but it can help you transform any written piece of content into a video," Wheeler said.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on Nov. 4, 2025 to reflect new data and information.
6. Colossyan
Another option when it comes to AI video creation is Colossyan. Colossyan positions itself as a video tool to support workplace training. Learning and development practitioners can transform files such as PDFs or PowerPoints into training videos delivered by realistic AI avatars. Users can choose between multiple avatars, voices, languages and localization options personalize the video by role or region.
A video editor allows L&D teams to easily edit the AI-generated video for brand alignment, consistency and updates to ensure training remains relevant.
"Colossyan supports workplace productivity by enabling teams to produce diverse content for global audiences without extensive resources," said Wheeler. "Leaders can use it to enhance training, marketing and communication strategies, ensuring inclusivity and engagement across different linguistic and cultural contexts."
The AI video platform includes additional features such as:
- Generative AI for script generation.
- Brand kits to keep L&D videos on brand.
- A screen recorder.
- Option to export to SCORM format.
- Interactive quizzes.
- Analytics to track the success of learning initiatives.
7. Platstack
Raise your hand if you have more than 20 open browser tabs on your computer right now. If that sounds like you, you could probably benefit from Platstack. Platstack is a cloud-based platform that allows teams to save, organize and share any type of digital content from the web.
"It allows users to group their projects or frequently used apps, sites and links into categorized collections called 'stacks,'" said Zenker. "It allows you to close all windows when you move on to another task and then open them all up again when you come back to the project. These stacks can be shared with others, making it easier to collaborate on projects, share knowledge or recommend resources."
8. Doodle
One tasks that always seems to take longer than it should is scheduling meetings. When packed diaries, inaccessible calendars and different time zones are involved, finding that elusive time that works for everyone can be a nightmare.
Doodle helps you schedule those hard to schedule meetings via polls. Users select the days and times that work best for them, giving participants several options, then schedule the meeting based on the poll results.
This productivity tool "helps groups quickly find a common meeting time, reducing the back-and-forth emails usually required for scheduling," said Zenker.
Although Doodle is best known as a meeting scheduling app, its growing capabilities now include event registration and payment collections when people book your time. Integrations with online meeting services such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams allow for a seamless handoff once a meeting is booked.
9. Zapier
Nothing can tank productivity quite like having to toggle between dozens of platforms and apps. Productivity tools like Zapier can help calm the chaos and improve productivity. Zapier is an AI-powered automation platform for non-IT professionals to “build and ship AI workflows in minutes” using a no-code interface.
Zapier offers “robust automation tools that allow users to connect apps, transfer data and automate processes in an intuitive way," explained Zenker.
One of Zapier's key strengths is its extensive library of integrations, with over 7,000 apps including:
- Google Apps and Google Workspace
- Slack
- Mail Chimp
- Calendly (and other calendar apps)
- HubSpot
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Slack
- Jira
- Microsoft Teams
Process automations involving more than one app can use Zapier to help orchestrate the workflow. Additionally, Zapier provides a space to store workflow data in tables to establish consistency across different processes, as well as the ability to create dashboards and client portals to help manage the automation.
10. Typeset
The workplace productivity tool Typeset is an “AI design platform helps you or your team create amazing digital content 10X faster." The creation process works in three steps:
- A generative AI interface to produce the content
- An editing mode to refine designs and
- An export option for the finalized product in multiple formats, including webinar slides, eBooks, social media posts, banners, adverts, sales videos and courses.
"Marketing teams can utilize the platform to quickly design professional-quality materials reducing the time spent on production while maintaining a high standard of creativity” said Wheeler.
One of the most useful aspects of the productivity app is how quickly it allows you to repurpose content. For example, you can turn an eBook into social media posts within moments, saving countless hours of work.
Other Typeset features include design templates, built-in search and the ability to search for assets via color, to more easily find items that are on-brand. Some subscription levels also provide access to Getty images.
How to Choose the Right Productivity Tools
You can browse productivity platforms all day, from note-taking apps to time tracking software to to-do list generators. You’ll also hear endless promises about the power of AI to improve productivity. But which productivity tool is best for you or your team?
"If possible, I recommend forming a small group of employees from ALL teams and departments who can weigh in on the tool and help you implement it," said Wheeler. She recalls in a previous role, the group developed a rubric for evaluation while exploring software demos and free trials. "I highly recommend not making productivity tool decisions in a vacuum."
This same group also helped with implementation, she added. "Once we chose the tool, we trained each of our campus leads first so that they could coach and troubleshoot."
How to Determine if a Productivity Tool Is Effective
You've selected the productivity tool or tools to implement, but how do you know if they're actually making a difference in the workplace?
Wheeler and Zenker offered up several key performance indicators that leadership can track:
- User Adoption Rate: Wheeler recommends companies track how quickly and extensively the tool is being used by the team. High adoption rates often correlate with perceived usefulness and user-friendliness.
- Task Completion Rate: “Measure the rate at which tasks or projects are completed before and after tool implementation,” said Zenker. "An increase in on-time task completion is a good indicator of improved productivity."
- Time Savings: Measure the amount of time saved in processes or meetings. Tools that effectively reduce time spent on routine tasks can significantly enhance productivity. Prior to the rollout, said Wheeler, choose two or three of the most important tasks you want to track. Determine how long it takes to complete. After the rollout is complete, do the same and compare.
- Employee Feedback: Regular surveys or feedback sessions can reveal whether employees find the tool valuable and easy to use, said Zenker. Plus, it's also helpful if you're working with an outside vendor, as these tools can often be tweaked or customized to meet specific needs, added Wheeler.
- Error Rate: For process-related tools, Zenker noted, measuring the reduction in errors, missed deadlines or the need for rework can demonstrate improvements in quality and output.
Embrace Productivity Software for a Happier Workplace
By embracing these productivity apps and approaches, leaders can cultivate a more joyful and productive workplace, said Wheeler. "Remember, the key is to empower your team with the right resources and support to thrive."
Editor's Note: How else can tool selection improve digital employee employee?
- How to Pick the Right Kind of Tool for Each Digital Conversation — The digital workplace is teeming with tools. Sometimes you need them all, and sometimes you really don’t. How do you choose?
- Multi-Tasking Is a Myth. How to Reclaim Focus and Productivity — If you’re moving between budget reviews, time-off approvals and confirming the correct images in a PR all at once, you are likely to make a mistake.
- Generative AI Comes for Project Management: How Asana, ClickUp, Wrike and Monday Are Evolving — A look at how four project management platform leaders have incorporated generative AI features to improve project management.
