The AI Showdown - Comparing Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and Manus. Who’s Leading the Future?

In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, understanding the nuances between various AI assistants is crucial for technology professionals.

In this episode of the Inspiring Tech Leaders podcast, I review a number of prominent AI tools, offering insights into their unique strengths, limitations, and optimal applications.

The comparison of AI tools included:

💡 Anthropic Claude: Known for its strong emphasis on ethical alignment, safety, and constitutional AI.
💡 OpenAI ChatGPT: Highly versatile with seamless integration for code interpretation, browsing, and DALL-E image generation.
💡 Google Gemini: Backed by DeepMind and deeply integrated into the Google Workspace ecosystem. Excels at data extraction, web summarisation, and providing real-time information.
💡 Microsoft Copilot: Essentially OpenAI's models embedded within Microsoft 365 applications.
💡 DeepSeek: A Chinese-developed model gaining traction for coding and technical reasoning.
💡 Perplexity AI: More of an AI-powered search engine than a traditional chatbot, focusing on real-time knowledge with citations.
💡 Manus AI: A newer entrant, currently in beta but with impressive capabilities.

Which AI Tool should you use? Tune-in to learn more and decide for yourself.

Link to the full Manus review episode - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1702192/episodes/16920742

Listen Again - End User Computing (EUC) and the strategies for managing it effectively.  Discover why there is more to EUC than meets the eye, and learn how organisations can tame its complexities to unlock significant savings and enhance security.  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1702192/episodes/14935280

Chapters

• 0:39 Claude
• 2:27 ChatGPT
• 4:51 Gemini
• 6:29 Copilot
• 7:18 DeepSeek
• 8:10 Perplexity
• 9:15 Manus

Transcript

Welcome to the Inspiring Tech Leaders podcast, with me Dave Roberts.  Today we are talking about the ever-evolving world of AI assistants, comparing some of the most talked-about platforms in the space, these being Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Perplexity, and now Manus AI.

Whether you are a tech leader, developer, researcher, or simply an AI enthusiast, this episode will break down what each of these tools offers, where they shine, where they fall short, and how you can leverage them strategically in your work or organisation.

So, let’s jump in.

Claude is built by Anthropic, a company focused heavily on safety and constitutional AI.  The current flagship is Claude 3.7 Sonnet but with Claude 4 expected mid-2025.

The strengths of Claude centre around a strong focus on ethical alignment and reasoning.  It can handle long context lengths extremely well, ideal for large document analysis.  Claude also excels at summarisation and thoughtful analysis. Although, many people feel that Claude is perhaps more cautious, avoiding certain tasks that other models will attempt.  Depending on the usage tier, Claude can be slower in performance, and it not as widely integrated into tools and platforms compared to others in this comparison.

There are 3 Plans that Claude offer to customers, with a Free version, a Pro version, and a Max plan.  The Pro Plan will cost £13 per month and is billed annually, while the Max Plan is from £75 and is billed monthly.

The free version enables you to write, edit, and create content, analyse text and images, and also generate code and visualise data.  The Pro plan allows for more usage, along with access to Projects to organise chats and the ability to use more Claude models.  The Pro Plan also enables extended thinking for complex work.  The Max Plan provides the ability to scale usage based on specific needs with priority access at high traffic times.  It also allows early access to advanced Claude features, such as Research, which is in early beta and currently only available in the US, Japan, and Brazil.

Claude does not train on your data by default, enabling you to control your data and delete chats or your account at any time.  Claude has automated safeguards to protect chats from creating violent, abusive, or deceptive content.

The typical use cases for Claude could include legal reviews, policy drafting, and enterprise teams seeking a compliance focused assistant.

Next up is Open AI’s ChatGPT, which I have spoken about frequently on this show.  ChatGPT has 3 personal plans and 2 business plans.  The free ChatGPT plan lets you explore how AI can help with everyday tasks.  It provides limited access to GPT-4o mini and reasoning with real-time data from the web with search.  There is also limited access to file uploads, advanced data analysis, and image generation.  Based on my testing, you typically get to create 2 images within a 24-hour period.

The Plus Plan costs $20 USD per month with expanded access to the features available on the free plan, along with access to deep research and multiple reasoning models, including a research preview of GPT 4.5 and limited access to Sora video generation.

The Pro Plan jumps up to $200 per month but you get unlimited access to all reasoning models and advanced voice.  You get extended access to deep research and sora video generation, and also get access to research previews of GPT-4.5, which uses more compute for the best answers to the hardest questions.

The is also a Business Team plan, which is very similar to the features available with the Personal Plus Plan and costs $25 USD per month per person.  This plan provides high message limits for GPT-4o but more importantly allows you to protect your data with multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and data being excluded from training by default.

The Enterprise Plan provides your workforce with enterprise grade AI, with comprehensive data practices aligned with SOC2 Type 2 standards, and support with privacy laws, such as GDPR.

ChatGPT’s strengths reside in the fact that it is incredibly versatile, and it has seamless integration with tools like code interpreters, browsing, and DALL-E for image generation. Open AI offers an ecosystem through ChatGPT Plus, plugins, and custom GPTs.

ChatGPT is probably the fastest and most responsive AI chatbot at the moment and is good at general problem-solving and question answering.

However, the context window maxes out at 128K tokens, which is less than Claude.  There are occasional hallucinations with outdated information or unsupported claims if browsing is off, and the best features are only available on the paid plans.

ChatGPT is ideal for creators, developers, marketers, and general business productivity.

Next on the list is Gemini.  Google’s Gemini is backed by DeepMind and integrated into the Google ecosystem with native integration with Google Workspace apps, such as Docs, Gmail, and Sheets.

Gemini offer a free plan and also an advanced plan that costs £18.99 per month, along with a range of business plans to suit your requirements.  The free plan uses the 2.0 Flash model and experimental models, including 2.5 Pro.  Gemini Advanced enables large book and report uploads with up to 1,500 page files.  There is also extended limits to Deep Research and new features like Whisk Animate and soon to be available Veo 2, enabling high quality video generation.

Gemini is excellent at data extraction, web summarisation, and real-time information.  Gemini lacks the same level of customisation as ChatGPT and there are also some privacy concerns, given it’s close ties to Google accounts.

Gemini is best suited for knowledge workers in Google environments, researchers needing real-time data, and data analysts.

Now onto Microsoft Copilot, which is essentially OpenAI’s models embedded into Microsoft 365 apps such as, Excel, Word, Teams, and so forth.  As you would expect, there is a free version and also Copilot Pro, costing £19 per month per user or a business plan user costing £23.10 per month as part of a yearly subscription.

Copilot’s greatest strength is the integration with Microsoft Office apps for ease of use.  Copilot uses GPT-4 under the hood, so it benefits from OpenAI’s strengths.  It remains very business-focused and comes with enterprise-grade security and compliance.  However, there is limitations outside of the Microsoft ecosystem and can become very expensive for enterprises to roll-out at scale.

It is best suited in enterprises that have heavily invested in Microsoft 365 and are looking to boost productivity.

Next up is DeepSeek, which is a Chinese-developed model that is gaining attention, especially in coding and technical reasoning tasks.

Its greatest strength is that open models are available, which is useful for self-hosting.  DeepSeek has strong performance in code generation and mathematical-heavy reasoning.  It has been designed with bilingual support in mind, especially English and Chinese.  DeepSeek is still maturing in conversational flow and general-purpose creativity.  The ecosystem and documentation are not as developed as the other solutions reviewed and therefore there is limited support and integrations outside of research circles.

DeepSeek’s pricing model is also more complex, and I would recommend that you take a closer look at their website to understand what pricing structures are right for you.

However, DeepSeek is recommended for technical researchers, AI developers, and those exploring multilingual or custom model deployment.

The next one on my list for consideration is Perplexity.  However, Perplexity is less of a chatbot and more of an AI-powered search engine, focusing on real-time knowledge and citations.

It is fantastic at answering factual questions with sources and uses a blend of different LLMs including OpenAI, Mistral, and Anthropic under the hood.  It is ideal for research, writing, and quick fact-checking.  It is free to use, with premium tiers for pro access, costing $20 per month.  The free version allows unlimited free searches, 3 pro searches per day and 3 file uploads per day.  The Pro version allows 300+ Pro searches per day and the ability to select different AI models from DeepSeek, OpenAI, Claude and so forth.  There is also unlimited file uploads allowed with custom knowledge hubs and collaborative spaces.

However, Perplexity is not designed for deep, multi-step reasoning and sometimes relies too heavily on search snippets.   It also lacks creative capabilities like storytelling or image generation.

Perplexity is best for writers, journalists, and researchers who value reliable sourcing and real-time web access.

Finally, Manus AI is still in beta but is charging $39 per month for 3,900 credits per month, enabling you to run 2 tasks currently.  Manus Pro on the other hand costs a $199 per month for 19,900 credits and allows you to run up to 5 tasks concurrently, with access to the high-effort mode and other beta features.

I have covered my first-hand experience of using Manus in a recent episode of the Inspiring Tech Leaders podcast.  If you’re interested in Manus, perhaps take a listen to that episode, which I will provide a link to in the description below.

So how do you choose which tool to use?

If you need a safe, aligned AI for thoughtful work, then I would go with Claude.  If you want versatility and customisation, then ChatGPT still leads the way.  If you are in the Google ecosystem already or want long context then perhaps try out Gemini.

For enterprise productivity and Microsoft workflows, then Copilot is the obvious solution.  If you are working with code, bilingual tasks, or custom models, then I suggest you explore DeepSeek.

For real-time, citation-backed research then Perplexity is brilliant.

If you had chance to look at Manus, then you can see how the future is evolving and how the tools are getting smarter all the time.  However, it’s still a very new solution and the pricing plans are not geared to encourage wide usage.  I hope Manus reconsider their pricing plans to make it a more accessible resource.

However, as I have said before, you don’t need to choose just one.  Many organisations are adopting multi-model strategies, using each for its strengths.  Think of them as tools in your AI toolbox.

Well, that’s a wrap on this AI assistant showdown!  As we move deeper into 2025, these tools will continue evolving rapidly. Staying informed and agile is key for any tech leader.

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network.  You can find more insights, show notes, and resources at www.inspiringtechleaders.com

Thanks again for listening, and until next time, stay curious, stay connected, and keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in tech.