I Burned $2,317 Testing 14 LinkedIn AI Tools – Only 3 Aren’t Garbage

Rich sell delusions. Broke sell ‘truth’.

Amann K.
July 28, 2025

AI-powered usually means:

I tested 14 tools over a period of 6 months. Here’s the autopsy.

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Tools that find viral angles, data, and hooks)

Tool	Cost/Mo	Verdict	Brutal Score
Perplexity Pro	$20	WINNER: Digs DEEPER than Google. Finds hidden reports, competitor leaks & backed stats in 10 secs.	✅✅✅✅ (10/10)
BuzzSumo	$199	LOSER: Surface-level viral data. Overpriced for what Perplexity does free.	💸💸 (4/10)
Keywee	$249	FAIL: “Viral prediction” is guesswork. Ignores niche context.	💸 (2/10)
MarketMuse	$149	OVERKILL: Good for enterprise SEO, useless for LinkedIn hooks.	💸💸 (3/10)

💡 KILLER USE CASE: Perplexity’s “Focus” mode scans Reddit, niche forums, and preprint papers – finds angles NO ONE is using.

(Tools that write posts, carousels, comments)

Tool	Cost/Mo	Verdict	Brutal Score
Taplio	$49	WINNER: Writes HUMAN posts. Learns your voice, adds data-driven hooks, schedules + tracks replies.	✅✅✅✅ (9.5/10)
Jasper	$99	LOSER: Outputs sound like a desperate MBA grad. Generic, cringe, needs heavy editing.	💸💸💸 (1/10)
Copy.ai	$49	TRASH: “LinkedIn templates” = robotic sludge. Zero originality.	💸 (0/10)
WriteSonic	$19	MEH: Better than Jasper but still needs 30 mins editing per post.	💸💸 (3/10)
ChatGPT Plus	$20	SOLO PLAYER: Powerful but no scheduling, analytics, or CRM. You’re still doing manual labor.	✅ (7/10)

☠️ WARNING: Jasper’s “brand voice” feature is a trap – it just repeats your samples verbatim. Sounds like a parody.

(Tools that turn your brain/PDFs/meetings into content gold)

Tool	Cost/Mo	Verdict	Brutal Score
NotebookLM	FREE	WINNER: Reads YOUR documents (PDFs, notes, interviews). Generates hooks, threads, and carousels IN YOUR VOICE.	✅✅✅✅ (10/10)
Mem.ai	$15	LOSER: Fancy notepad. Zero content extraction.	💸💸 (4/10)
Otio	$20	UNDERCOOKED: Summarizes docs well but can’t repurpose into posts.	💸💸💸 (5/10)
Rewind.ai	$29	CREEPY: Records everything you do. Privacy nightmare.	💸 (1/10)

🚀 PRO TIP: Feed NotebookLM a client interview transcript → it spits out a viral thought leadership post in 45 secs.

(Tools that comment, DM, track prospects)

Tool	Cost/Mo	Verdict	Brutal Score
Taplio (built-in)	$49	WINNER: Auto-replies to comments with HUMAN nuance. Tracks hot leads.	✅✅✅ (9/10)
Dripify	$39	SCAM: Automated DMs = spam flags. Kills account growth.	☠️ (0/10)
Expandi	$99	DANGEROUS: Mass-connection scripts get accounts banned.	☠️ (1/10)
MeetAlfred	$59	OUTDATED: Clunky interface. Comments feel like a bot from 2012.	💸 (2/10)

⚠️ RED FLAG: Any tool promising “automated DMs” is selling account suicide. LinkedIn’s AI detectors nuke these FAST.

Tool Type	Cash Burned	Time Wasted	Emotional Damage
Content Research	$628	42 hours	😤 (BuzzSumo’s false positives)
Content Creation	$917	89 hours	🤬 (Jasper’s cringe outputs)
Automation Tools	$772	31 hours	💀 (Dripify’s near-account ban)

Total Loss: $2,317 + 162 hours. Your cost to avoid this: $0.

👉 Do this NOW: Cancel every tool NOT in this stack. You’re lighting cash on fire.

P.S. This email took 6 minutes to write with Taplio + Perplexity. Want my swipe file?

Btw, Authenticity does’nt sell. Here is what I found
Read it here:
→ Your ‘Authenticity’ Is Costing $482/Day. Stay ‘Real’.

P.S. This email took 6 minutes to write with Taplio + Perplexity.

Pps: For most of the tools, I took their trial period on used them tried them and cancelled before the trial ended. 😁 Saved a lot.

Btw, do you know how I took my client's post to 100k for the first time?
Read it here:
→ Make LinkedIn Posts People Can’t Ignore

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