Fact Check: John's Claimed 'Top AI Tools' for 2026 – Mac Bias & Cloud Alternatives

top AI tools that you need that John is using as of today. So, I'm going to go with number one has to be on a Mac

computer, please. Definitely not on a Windows computer. So, you have to be on a Mac, not on a Windows if you really

want to get into AI automation. Then, I would definitely be on Orca as my IDE, ADE, whatever your tool of choice.

Basically, that's what you're going to use to control all of your models. You're going to use Claude code for

sure. And there you got Claude code. You've [snorts] got Codex. You've got

Grok, and you've got Hermes. Sorry for everyone that's trying to do AI. If you're on a Windows computer, you have

set yourself up for failure. I don't care. You can debate this all till the end. I've coached over 1,000

entrepreneurs in AI. All the ones on a Windows computer are the worst in AI. You guys are so massively behind.

Remember when open claw came out? What was the number one computer that they sold out on? Was it Windows? No.

Everyone sold out on Mac minis. Mac minis to get AI agents installed. The game hasn't changed since then. So, the

game is right now if you're on a Windows computer, sorry. You're already behind. Let that I'm just trying to do a PSA.

I'm trying to make your life easier. Then from there, now you can get into Orca IDE. And then from Orca IDE, here

are the four AI agents that you need. You need Claude code as your daily driver. Then get into Codex because

Codex is going to have some cheaper tokens from there. And then you're going to get into your Chinese models. You're

going to get into your deep seek, your Kimmy, Qwen, and then there is GLM. Those are your cheaper models that

you're going to get. I mean, you could get them for straight from the provider or open router. It's just two other

places that you can get basically all the models. This guy is the manager. He is the orchestrator. He does not do the

work. Claude code does not do the work. That's Opus 5.5 and tokens are expensive. Do not use Fable. Please, for

the love of God, whatever you're doing, do not use Fable. Second to that, you could use CodeX or you could use Grok,

which I recommend, because these are cheaper cheaper tokens. And then you've got more even cheaper tokens from here.

And then you can get all sorts of other ones from here. Okay, so that's your AWeber team and they're being Orca so

that you get this plus the mobile app. Why? Because in the mobile app, you can use Hermes without Telegram

or WhatsApp or Slack what some people are using. You can basically use your Hermes with Orca

and you don't need any of these other tools. So that's where things get super nice. Much much better. Oh, I like that.

Then from here, I would definitely go into mandatory Whisper Flow. So Whisper Flow is there is no more typing.

No typing. Do not what if you are typing in 2026, worse worst thing that you could do is

be on a Windows computer typing in 2026. Dear God, that is way behind. You are 10 years behind AI. You are not doing AI in

any shape way or form if you are still typing. And if you are still using Windows computer, I do not consider you

AI fluent in any shape way or form. You've played with some toys and it's cute, but when you want to automate

full-time employees, when you want to build AI systems, these are the tools that you and your company has to have.

So from here, then Whisper Flow no typing. There's absolutely no. Then from there, we're going to use a AI

note-taking. You got Fathom and then you've got Granola. All of the tools John is recommending, it will make you

more money. If you want to say, "John, I have an alternative that's something that's on the list." Good luck and let

that slow you down because you're going to buy it nice or you're going to buy it twice. And I want you to buy it nice so

you buy it once and then you make more money, you grow. This is for business owners that don't have time to waste.

So, from here you're going to be using two AI note-taking tools. Fathom is the one that's going to just be like your AI

forever note-taking, takes video and takes notes. Granola is going to help you close more sales. Why? Because

Granola is in real-time AI note-taking, so you can literally talk to AI, basically be like, "Hey AI, the client

says they have to think about the purchasing decision cuz it's a very high-ticket item. What can I say?" And

it can be like, "You should remind them that if they don't take action, their business is going to go under." And

you're like, "Okay, that's right. You probably should say that." And then you say that and you close more deals and

you're like, "Oh my god, Granola helps me like have an AI coach in real-time on the call with the context of whatever

the meeting's going on, so you get real-time and then Fathom is after the meeting archive, get the notes, get the

video recording, worth it." Next, we're going to go into From here, I would go Obsidian because

everyone should have a second brain for their AI agents. Obsidian is really not for you, it's really for your Hermes,

your Claude, your Grok, your Codex, so they all can talk to each other and share memory because I know I'm sure if

you're working for them, you've been working with like, "Oh my god, it's like talking to a goldfish." Yeah, cuz they

kind of need a brain to share and that's where Obsidian, five bucks a month, is going to allow you to put markdown

files. Basically, there's some threshold of like how many files, don't quote me on it, but it's cheap enough that you

don't have to get into like vector databases and stuff like that. So, easy way to save memory because you should

not be in the browser. You should not be in the browser. I'll say that again. Just stop playing with

AI in the browser. You need to be playing with AI in terminal all day. Terminal. Terminal's going to be doing

all of the heavy lifting. This is your basically AI dev team.