My Complete AI Tool Stack for 2026: What I Use, What I Dropped, and Why

I've been building and refining my AI tool stack for the past two years. Here's exactly what I'm using in 2026, what I dropped, and why.KEEPERS (tools I use daily):- Claude 3.5 Sonnet: My primary writing assistant. Better than ChatGPT for long-form content and following complex instructions.- Perplexity AI Pro: Research and fact-checking. Replaced Google for 80% of my searches.- Midjourney v7: Image generation for blog headers and social content.- Descript: Video editing with AI transcription and overdub.- Notion AI: Note-taking and knowledge management.DROPPED:- Jasper AI: Too expensive for what it offers, Claude does it better for less.- Copy.ai: Same issue - Claude replaced it entirely.- Synthesia: Great product but I found I preferred real video.- Canva AI: Still use Canva but not the AI features specifically.NEW ADDITIONS in 2026:- Suno AI for background music in videos- Cursor AI for any coding tasks- NotebookLM for research synthesisTotal monthly cost: ~$180/month. Sounds like a lot but it replaced about $600/month in freelance costs.What does your stack look like? Always looking to optimize further.