12 best remote working tools

Maciej Zieliński

16 Apr 2020
12 best remote working tools

Remote working has been growing in popularity for many years, but recent events have dramatically increased the need for effective tools to work from home. 

This type of work presents many challenges - the analysis carried out by Buffer shows that many remote workers have problems with disconnection, loneliness and communication. Other challenges include problems concentrating at home, working with people in other time zones and finding motivation. 

It is worth adding that in the Buffer report as much as 99% of the respondents stated that they would like to work remotely at least once during their career.

The tools we have chosen focus on solving not only the unique problems faced by teams permanently scattered around the country and the world, but also those that emerged in connection with the rapidly changing situation and forced many employees to switch to remote working.

Trello

A tool that will make it much easier to deal with many issues at once and avoid unnecessary doubles and work on the same topic by two employees. Main advantages: separation of tasks, setting statuses and importance for individual tabs, managing multiple issues at once. Similar to Trello is Monday - but goes one step further. While the previous project management tool fundamentally redesigned the concept of a to-do-list with boards, here we have a fully functional management platform for team leaders. The main advantages: tracking progress, file sharing, weekly task reviews, managing both projects and tasks, checklists and reports.

The main advantages: tracking progress, file sharing, weekly task reviews, managing both projects and tasks, checklists and reports.

Status Hero

Working remotely, it's extremely easy to fall into the trap of sending dozens of emails and messages daily with reports on tasks done, problems encountered on the road and the status of individual employees. This problem is solved by Status Hero.

The main advantages: setting up statuses with accessibility, catching time zones where employees are currently located, the ability to report, grouping or project management.

Microsoft Teams

Although Microsoft recorded some bandwidth problems at the beginning of last week, at the moment the program is back to normal. According to many, Teams is a much better tool for conversations and meetings than Skype - it works well even with a very large number of people.

The main advantages: conferences in the form of video, the ability to set statuses, efficient operation with many employees.

Slack

If it's not yet a commonly used tool on your team, it's definitely worth changing. Slack is an essential tool to facilitate communication in both smaller and very large teams - up to several hundred people.

The main advantages are: efficient communication, setting up accessible statuses, file transfer, voice and video chat, screen sharing.

Serene

"Multi-tasking is a myth. Single-tasking is super power." - Serene's application slogan actually says everything about its operation. It helps individual team members maximize productivity by focusing on one goal per day. Instead of sharing attention, it focuses it.

The main advantages: blocking sites and apps, smooth sessions (20 to 60 minutes), timers, scheduling of the day, music to help keep the focus.

Spark

Email filter that actually works. Automatically categorizes messages from multiple accounts and divides them according to importance. At the same time, it filters out the ones that are a waste of time.

Main advantages: scheduling of sending messages, reminders, assigning e-mail addresses to team members, intelligent inbox.

Take A Break

The problem with disconnecting from work is, according to Buffer, the biggest bane of remote workers. Take A Break, as the name suggests, helps you disconnect from your computer and take full advantage of the break from work.

Main advantages: configurable work and break periods, display of remaining work time and pre-break notifications, start at login.

Time Doctor

Although some corporations are able to make "control calls" to employees to see how they spend their time, the Time Doctor allows you to do this without wasting time on a phone call. The tool helps you keep track of employee productivity and what they do at work. It can also be used to check customer accounts.

The main advantages: keeping track of employee activity, use of the Internet and applications, monitoring performance, creating reports.

Zoom

Communicator, which in recent days has become one of the most popular in the world. It allows to organize video conferences of whole companies - it works even with hundreds of users.

Main advantages: desktop sharing, file transfer, efficient operation with a large number of people.

Tandem

"Virtual office for remote teams", as its creators write about the application. It allows not only to talk to other employees, but also to check what they do at the moment and fast connections with teammates.

Main advantages: compatibility with many applications, screen sharing, quick operation.

Around

Video chat software that cuts participants into floating circles. Thanks to that there is a lot of space left on the screen for other applications.

Main advantages: auto-zoom, mute background sounds.

Confluence

Combining Slack and Calendar into one tool that allows you to efficiently plan all tasks for your team. Sharing knowledge, goals and tasks is transparent and avoids unnecessary misunderstandings.

Main advantages: planning documents, employee blogs, free flow of information.

Remote working means many challenges, but most of them can be dealt with the right tools. Although they are currently experiencing a temporary siege due to the growing popularity of remote working, they may become a permanent feature of new everyday life in the future. What's more, most of them are worth reaching out to whether you work from home or in the office.

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AI in Real Estate: How Does It Support the Housing Market?

Miłosz Mach

18 Mar 2025
AI in Real Estate: How Does It Support the Housing Market?

The digital transformation is reshaping numerous sectors of the economy, and real estate is no exception. By 2025, AI will no longer be a mere gadget but a powerful tool that facilitates customer interactions, streamlines decision-making processes, and optimizes sales operations. Simultaneously, blockchain technology ensures security, transparency, and scalability in transactions. With this article, we launch a series of publications exploring AI in business, focusing today on the application of artificial intelligence within the real estate industry.

AI vs. Tradition: Key Implementations of AI in Real Estate

Designing, selling, and managing properties—traditional methods are increasingly giving way to data-driven decision-making.

Breakthroughs in Customer Service

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are revolutionizing how companies interact with their customers. These tools handle hundreds of inquiries simultaneously, personalize offers, and guide clients through the purchasing process. Implementing AI agents can lead to higher-quality leads for developers and automate responses to most standard customer queries. However, technical challenges in deploying such systems include:

  • Integration with existing real estate databases: Chatbots must have access to up-to-date listings, prices, and availability.
  • Personalization of communication: Systems must adapt their interactions to individual customer needs.
  • Management of industry-specific knowledge: Chatbots require specialized expertise about local real estate markets.

Advanced Data Analysis

Cognitive AI systems utilize deep learning to analyze complex relationships within the real estate market, such as macroeconomic trends, local zoning plans, and user behavior on social media platforms. Deploying such solutions necessitates:

  • Collecting high-quality historical data.
  • Building infrastructure for real-time data processing.
  • Developing appropriate machine learning models.
  • Continuously monitoring and updating models based on new data.

Intelligent Design

Generative artificial intelligence is revolutionizing architectural design. These advanced algorithms can produce dozens of building design variants that account for site constraints, legal requirements, energy efficiency considerations, and aesthetic preferences.

Optimizing Building Energy Efficiency

Smart building management systems (BMS) leverage AI to optimize energy consumption while maintaining resident comfort. Reinforcement learning algorithms analyze data from temperature, humidity, and air quality sensors to adjust heating, cooling, and ventilation parameters effectively.

Integration of AI with Blockchain in Real Estate

The convergence of AI with blockchain technology opens up new possibilities for the real estate sector. Blockchain is a distributed database where information is stored in immutable "blocks." It ensures transaction security and data transparency while AI analyzes these data points to derive actionable insights. In practice, this means that ownership histories, all transactions, and property modifications are recorded in an unalterable format, with AI aiding in interpreting these records and informing decision-making processes.

AI has the potential to bring significant value to the real estate sector—estimated between $110 billion and $180 billion by experts at McKinsey & Company.

Key development directions over the coming years include:

  • Autonomous negotiation systems: AI agents equipped with game theory strategies capable of conducting complex negotiations.
  • AI in urban planning: Algorithms designed to plan city development and optimize spatial allocation.
  • Property tokenization: Leveraging blockchain technology to divide properties into digital tokens that enable fractional investment opportunities.

Conclusion

For companies today, the question is no longer "if" but "how" to implement AI to maximize benefits and enhance competitiveness. A strategic approach begins with identifying specific business challenges followed by selecting appropriate technologies.

What values could AI potentially bring to your organization?
  • Reduction of operational costs through automation
  • Enhanced customer experience and shorter transaction times
  • Increased accuracy in forecasts and valuations, minimizing business risks
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Want to implement AI in your real estate business?

Nextrope specializes in implementing AI and blockchain solutions tailored to specific business needs. Our expertise allows us to:

  • Create intelligent chatbots that serve customers 24/7
  • Implement analytical systems for property valuation
  • Build secure blockchain solutions for real estate transactions
Schedule a free consultation

Or check out other articles from the "AI in Business" series

AI-Driven Frontend Automation: Elevating Developer Productivity to New Heights

Gracjan Prusik

11 Mar 2025
AI-Driven Frontend Automation: Elevating Developer Productivity to New Heights

AI Revolution in the Frontend Developer's Workshop

In today's world, programming without AI support means giving up a powerful tool that radically increases a developer's productivity and efficiency. For the modern developer, AI in frontend automation is not just a curiosity, but a key tool that enhances productivity. From automatically generating components, to refactoring, and testing – AI tools are fundamentally changing our daily work, allowing us to focus on the creative aspects of programming instead of the tedious task of writing repetitive code. In this article, I will show how these tools are most commonly used to work faster, smarter, and with greater satisfaction.

This post kicks off a series dedicated to the use of AI in frontend automation, where we will analyze and discuss specific tools, techniques, and practical use cases of AI that help developers in their everyday tasks.

AI in Frontend Automation – How It Helps with Code Refactoring

One of the most common uses of AI is improving code quality and finding errors. These tools can analyze code and suggest optimizations. As a result, we will be able to write code much faster and significantly reduce the risk of human error.

How AI Saves Us from Frustrating Bugs

Imagine this situation: you spend hours debugging an application, not understanding why data isn't being fetched. Everything seems correct, the syntax is fine, yet something isn't working. Often, the problem lies in small details that are hard to catch when reviewing the code.

Let’s take a look at an example:

function fetchData() {
    fetch("htts://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts")
      .then((response) => response.json())
      .then((data) => console.log(data))
      .catch((error) => console.error(error));
}

At first glance, the code looks correct. However, upon running it, no data is retrieved. Why? There’s a typo in the URL – "htts" instead of "https." This is a classic example of an error that could cost a developer hours of frustrating debugging.

When we ask AI to refactor this code, not only will we receive a more readable version using newer patterns (async/await), but also – and most importantly – AI will automatically detect and fix the typo in the URL:

async function fetchPosts() {
    try {
      const response = await fetch(
        "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts"
      );
      const data = await response.json();
      console.log(data);
    } catch (error) {
      console.error(error);
    }
}

How AI in Frontend Automation Speeds Up UI Creation

One of the most obvious applications of AI in frontend development is generating UI components. Tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or Claude can generate component code based on a short description or an image provided to them.

With these tools, we can create complex user interfaces in just a few seconds. Generating a complete, functional UI component often takes less than a minute. Furthermore, the generated code is typically error-free, includes appropriate animations, and is fully responsive, adapting to different screen sizes. It is important to describe exactly what we expect.

Here’s a view generated by Claude after entering the request: “Based on the loaded data, display posts. The page should be responsive. The main colors are: #CCFF89, #151515, and #E4E4E4.”

Generated posts view

AI in Code Analysis and Understanding

AI can analyze existing code and help understand it, which is particularly useful in large, complex projects or code written by someone else.

Example: Generating a summary of a function's behavior

Let’s assume we have a function for processing user data, the workings of which we don’t understand at first glance. AI can analyze the code and generate a readable explanation:

function processUserData(users) {
  return users
    .filter(user => user.isActive) // Checks the `isActive` value for each user and keeps only the objects where `isActive` is true
    .map(user => ({ 
      id: user.id, // Retrieves the `id` value from each user object
      name: `${user.firstName} ${user.lastName}`, // Creates a new string by combining `firstName` and `lastName`
      email: user.email.toLowerCase(), // Converts the email address to lowercase
    }));
}

In this case, AI not only summarizes the code's functionality but also breaks down individual operations into easier-to-understand segments.

AI in Frontend Automation – Translations and Error Detection

Every frontend developer knows that programming isn’t just about creatively building interfaces—it also involves many repetitive, tedious tasks. One of these is implementing translations for multilingual applications (i18n). Adding translations for each key in JSON files and then verifying them can be time-consuming and error-prone.

However, AI can significantly speed up this process. Using ChatGPT, DeepSeek, or Claude allows for automatic generation of translations for the user interface, as well as detecting linguistic and stylistic errors.

Example:

We have a translation file in JSON format:

{
  "welcome_message": "Welcome to our application!",
  "logout_button": "Log out",
  "error_message": "Something went wrong. Please try again later."
}

AI can automatically generate its Polish version:

{
  "welcome_message": "Witaj w naszej aplikacji!",
  "logout_button": "Wyloguj się",
  "error_message": "Coś poszło nie tak. Spróbuj ponownie później."
}

Moreover, AI can detect spelling errors or inconsistencies in translations. For example, if one part of the application uses "Log out" and another says "Exit," AI can suggest unifying the terminology.

This type of automation not only saves time but also minimizes the risk of human errors. And this is just one example – AI also assists in generating documentation, writing tests, and optimizing performance, which we will discuss in upcoming articles.

Summary

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way frontend developers work daily. From generating components and refactoring code to detecting errors, automating testing, and documentation—AI significantly accelerates and streamlines the development process. Without these tools, we would lose a lot of valuable time, which we certainly want to avoid.

In the next parts of this series, we will cover topics such as:

Stay tuned to keep up with the latest insights!