A minimal AI stack for a five-person team

By Editorial team ·

Four subscriptions that cover writing, design, meetings and automation without redundancy.

Small teams overspend on AI by buying overlapping products. A lean stack looks like this. One general assistant for everyone — ChatGPT or Claude, one per person. One creative tool — Canva Magic Studio covers social, decks and basic image work. One meeting layer — Otter or Fireflies so nobody takes notes manually. One automation tool — Zapier to connect the rest. That is roughly the cost of a junior contractor for a month, spread across the year, and it removes more repetitive work than any single hire would. Add specialist tools only when a specific person asks for one twice.