Every AI tool you need to be using in August 2026

0:00 The number one question I get more than anything is which AI tools should I be using right now? I talk about chat GBT voice the number one comment I get should I be using Hermes anymore? I talk about cloud code number one comment should I be using code X anymore? This video is going to answer all of those questions for you. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by all the AI tools out there and how quick they're updating how quick they're releasing this video will get rid of that anxiety for you. I'm going to show you every single model every single tool you should be using right now in August 2026. These are the best of the best. There will be no more questions on should you be using a Hermes over code X anymore or anything like that. You will know at the end of this video exactly what you need to download and also how to use it. If you stick with me to the end of the video you'll be using every best AI tool on planet Earth. You'll know exactly the lay of the land in the AI space right now. So let's lock in and get into it starting off with the best planning model on planet Earth. This is the model you go to when you're doing any sort of plans, overview, brainstorming, idea bouncing and that model is Fable 5 medium. Fable 5 medium is the smartest model on planet Earth right now. Anytime I need to do planning, anytime I need to come up with a way to execute on an idea I go to Fable 5 medium. For instance, I was having an issue earlier today. I'm setting up my buzz community. I'm connecting all my AI lab to it my three Mac studios, my DJ spark everything and chat GBT 5.6 really struggled to set this up. I went over to Fable 5 medium.

1:34 I said, "Hey, check out what they're doing over there. How do we do this better?" It came up with a plan. It came with the best practices. Handed it back to chat GBT. Worked in first go. This is the absolute smartest model on planet Earth. Because it is so freaking expensive, I don't use it for execution. I don't use it to write code. I'll go over that in a second. But for the planning, there is no model that comes close. I'm using this. I also like it on medium. I find that any higher level thinking, one is just way too expensive, burns too many tokens, but two overthinks, and three, just like speaks like an alien robot. You just don't like talking to it or reading what it's saying. So, medium, I think, is the sweet spot for getting ton of usage and getting really readable output. So, anytime you need to brainstorm, bounce ideas, come up with a plan, you go to Fable 5 medium. But, I don't use it for execution. The model I use to write code, move things around on my computer, do actual work for me is Chat GPT 5.6 Soul medium. This is the absolute best model on planet Earth for execution, for getting work done, day-to-day tasks. You go into the Chat GPT app, you switch it over to Codex if you're doing coding, Chat GPT if you're doing work. I think they eventually put this all in one. I don't think there's any need for Chat GPT text, work, and Codex. I think they're all going to be combined soon.

2:56 Anyway, besides the point, you come in here, you turn on full access, you put it on 5.6 Soul medium, you put it on fast mode if you got the $200 a month plan, and you are good to go. This is the best way to write code. I think from a code writing perspective, it is right up there with Fable 5, maybe a teensy-weensy bit under it, but it is significantly more cost-effective. You get significantly more usage. Tibo, the guy from Chat GPT on Twitter, he does a usage reset every 5 minutes, so you basically have unlimited usage. And the hardness is a whole 'nother story. We're going to go into the Chat GPT app harness in just a second, but this model is the absolute best for execution. If you need to build documents, if you need to write code, if you need to do things on your computer, this is the best model to do it. I have it powering everything execution-wise, Hermes, Chat GPT, everything. 5.6 Soul medium is the way to go. And much like Fable 5, I I medium the best. You get way more usage. I think it's just as smart and it doesn't overthink things. When you use extra high and ultra mode, I'll give it like a simple task and it'll take 10 hours to do it. It's ridiculous. Medium's the sweet spot. Medium's the way to go.

4:04 Which brings me to my favorite AI tool. This is just the tool I like to have up the absolute most. And if you've been tracking my channel over the last couple weeks, you've seen me talk about this a lot. They don't sponsor me. Open AI's never paid me a cent in their lives. I'm just truly passionate about a lot of these tools they're putting out right now. And that is Chat GPT voice. If you want a full tutorial on this absolutely incredible tool, make sure you subscribe, turn notifications on.

4:30 Putting out a lot of videos cuz I do believe this is like the future interface of AI. But Chat GPT voice is incredible. I spend literally hours a day walking around outside, AirPod in, talking to Chat GPT voice, getting tons of work done. You can see how I do it here. I tell it what to do. I say, "Spin up a new thread to get this work done." It spins up new tasks, new threads. It delegates work to other agents. It's absolutely amazing. You can get more work done with voice while not being at your desk at all. It really is an incredible workflow. All you need to do is either in the mobile app or the desktop app, hit that button right there. That puts you in voice mode. And then you just start brain dumping out what you want to get done. And when you're ready to do work, you just say, "Spin up a new thread to do that work."

5:17 What that allows your voice agent to do is create new tasks, create new threads that delegate that work to those threads, so you can keep talking to it and get more work done. It's incredible for multitasking. And you can do it all in the mobile app out there in the beautiful world, in the sun, while you enjoy your life. Chat GPT voice, check it out. Which brings me to the AI agent harness. This is probably the most asked question I get every time I do something new. "Oh, you're not using Open Climb anymore. You're not using Hermes anymore. You're not using Chat GPT? What are you Let's put it all to rest. Which AI agent should you be using in August 2026? Is it Open Claw? Is it Hermes? Is it Claude Code? Is it chat GPT? Is it Buzz? Which should you be using? Here's the answer. And by the way, before I reveal this, I do bootcamps on each and every one of these tools in the Vibe Coding Academy, link down below for that. It's my private community, I do live calls, 4 hours of live calls a week. I've done a live bootcamp on each and every one of these tools, recordings in there as well. So, if you join right now, you get instant access to all those recordings. Check that out now, link down below, best decision you'll ever make in your life. The best AI agent harness on planet Earth right now is the chat GPT desktop app. Yes, you heard that correct. I am using the chat GPT desktop app right now more than Hermes Agent, more than Open Claw. That's how good I believe this harness has become.

6:42 I don't know if people realize this, but the chat GPT desktop app has absolutely incredible browser use and computer use. Meaning, when you're talking to chat GPT, it can control and do anything on your computer a human being can do, and I think it does it at a level now that is better than Claude Code, that is better than Hermes Agent, that is better than Open Claw. Let me give you an example. I text my chat GPT agent a couple weeks ago, I said, "Hey, I was scrolling through Twitter, I saw that Deep Seek V4 Flash was just released." I took the tweet, I gave it to chat GPT, I said, "Hey, put this on my DGX Spark and run it." It literally controlled this Mac Studio I'm on right now, went on to my network, found my DGX Spark, searched through all of the models on Unsloth, found the one that's the perfect fit for my DGX Spark, downloaded it, loaded it up, built a harness around it, tested it for me, and got it running. Literally no approvals or anything necessary for me. I said, "Hey, download and install this." Next message it sends to "Done. I installed it. It's good to go. They even loaded it up and actually ran benchmarks on it for me, which is absolutely incredible. This is the best agent harness on planet Earth. And people go, "Oh, but on Hermes I can DM and I can text on my phone. I can do it in Telegram." You don't need Telegram to be using this. You can just download the Chat GPT mobile app. They have really incredible remote functionality. So, if you go to remote in the Chat GPT mobile app, you can control any of the threads from your computer. So, that means when you're on the go, you load up the Chat GPT mobile app, you go in, you start a new remote chat, and it can control your entire computer for you. And if all your devices are on Tailscale, you can control all your devices from your computer. There's basically nothing that the other agents can do that Chat GPT can't. Chat GPT can do all of the agent Open Claw and Hermes use cases, and do it I think better at this point. So, if you want to know what the number one AI agent being is right now, I'd say it's the Chat GPT desktop app. You connect it to the mobile app. You're good to go. It does everything you can do with the other agents, but I think much better, faster, stronger. Which brings us to building UI, UX, video games, anything graphically related. For me, I'm going with Opus 5 inside a Claude code. I know Opus 5 has been getting a ton of hate the last couple of weeks, and I think for good reason. I think there are reasons to hate Opus 5. As I talked about in my review video, it is a big blabbermouth. It is hard to understand at times. It does talk weird. Sometimes it even talks down to you, which is very strange. But at the end of the day, whenever I'm doing something UI or UX related, Opus 5 is the best. It always consistently comes out with the best results for UI and UX. Now, does that mean you got to be using Chat GPT 5 6 to write some code and Opus 5 to write all of it and go back and forth between two?

9:35 No, that can get very confusing. If you're working on something where really tight, amazing UI isn't like the most important priority in the world, you can stick with chat GPT 5 6 soul. But if you're working on something like a production app you're going to sell to thousands of people. If you're building a video game. If you're building something where having amazing UI is stone cold critical, I don't think there's any model out there that's better than Opus 5 at the moment for that. Yes, you'll have to kind of get through it speaking in a kind of weird way. That's fine. You're going to get the best results from it though. All the people on X that are saying Opus 5 is the worst model I ever used. Oh my god.

10:14 Listen, there's a lot of people that are engaged in farming. They get a lot of You get a lot of engagement when you crap on Anthropic. And listen, I think they deserve some crapping on for some of the things they do. But at the end of the day, I'm trying to be objective here. When I use Opus 5, I get incredible UX results. I don't need the extra likes and clicks from saying Anthropic's the worst. Anthropic's the worst. I don't care. Opus 5, it's a great model. Which brings me to the local model. And listen, even if you don't have a Mac Studio, even if you don't have a DGX Spark, this will still be relevant to you cuz you can still load local models even if you're only on a Mac Mini or something like that. Still important. But right now my go-to model is Qwen 3 6 27B on the DGX Spark. That's my go-to for using local at the moment.

10:56 I find it is the perfect mix of fast and intelligent. It seems 40 new AI models come out every other day. I don't think you need to be going and downloading every single one even if it's just a minor incremental improvement on the last one. This one has just been my workhorse, been the kind of the steady dependable model for me. It doesn't really mess up. Has tons of support online. It works really well with the DGX Spark. I think this is the best local model to be using. You can run your Hermes agent off of it if you want.

11:26 That's the one downside with chat GPT. I I think you can actually plug in local models into the chat GPT app, but I I it's not something I really want to do. It feels like Hermes is built for that. So, if you have local models, I would recommend setting up a Hermes agent to run on it. I run this on LM Studio. LM Studio I find the easiest to kind of download and load models through. So, even if you're on like a Mac mini or some other crappy computer, you can go, download LM Studio, then go to your agent and say, "Hey, go on LM Studio and load the best model for my device." And it'll load it for you and work. This is the best local model to be running right now. I know Qwen 3 8's about to be open source very soon as well. So, I will test it out and use it and let you know how it is. Again, subscribe for that video when it comes out. Now, let's talk about other must-haves. These are the other tools I would recommend downloading and using and testing out.

12:17 For me at the moment, that other tools you must be using outside the ones I went through is Buzz. I think Buzz is a really really really cool concept. For those that don't know, Buzz was built by Jack Dorsey. It is an open source project from him, and it is excellent. It allows you to work with multiple AI agents, multiple models all in one. It's basically a Discord or Slack competitor built for working with AI agents. And what's really cool is you can connect it to your local network, so connect it to your local compute, and everyone in your Buzz community can take advantage of your local compute. It's something I'm doing right now. I'm connecting my three Mac Studios, my DGX Spark, my AMD Halo, and it's all going to power the local compute in this Buzz community. So, if you want to take advantage of my local models, use them, build together with other people, Vibe Coding Academy is going to be how you do it. Again, link for that down below. But, Buzz is really sick. I think this concept, the multiplayer AI, is the future. I believe in the future, it's going to be big for multiple people to be working together, working with the same agents, working with the same context, building projects together. I'm really betting on that.

13:24 So, Buzz, it's free. I download it. You can plug it the cloud code codex, you can have your agents all in one place. It's amazing. I made a tutorial video on it I think like two weeks ago now. Check out the channel for that as well. This was the list. If you are using these tools for these purposes, you are in the absolute cutting edge of AI at the moment. I highly recommend go, download them all, use them, take advantage of them, be on the cutting edge. You will get so much done. I hope this was helpful. If you want more of these, you want me to do these monthly, weekly, let me know down below. I want to know if it's helpful. I just get so many questions on what should I be using, what should I be using? I hope that answers the question for you. I'm so grateful you'd watch my videos. It really means the world, and I'll see you in the next one.