Best AI for career advice
You want a realistic plan to change careers - real courses, what they cost, what the first job pays, and a straight answer on your chances. We gave nine assistants the same brief, a bookkeeper in Lisbon with EUR 500 and eight hours a week who wants to become a data analyst, then opened every link and checked every number.
People also look for this as career guidance, career change, career coach, what career should i do or career path advice.
Our picks, side by side
Rated for this task · 0–3
Measured
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tier
From
Why
★ Best overall
ChatGPT
$8/mo · free tier: usableMeasured8/8 course links right · 2/2 salary sources exact
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tierUnlimited text chat on the default model, with limits on uploads, images, voice and deep research
From$8/mo
Why
The only plan where every link opens on the course it names and both salary sources say what it says they say. It separates a course-completer's odds from a portfolio-builder's, refuses to promise a job in six months, and is the one tool to warn that the Microsoft exam price depends on your country. It is also three times longer than anything else, so budget an evening to read it.
Best reality check
Kimi
$19/mo · free tier: usableMeasured3/3 course links right · salary sourced to PayScale exactly
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tierUnlimited basic chat, file upload and web access on the free plan
From$19/mo
Why
The soberest answer of the nine. It quotes PayScale's entry-level figure to the euro, spots that Glassdoor's junior page is showing a monthly number as a yearly one, and is the only tool to say the first analyst job may pay less than eight years of bookkeeping does. Its one paid item, the Google certificate, has no link, so get that from Coursera yourself.
Best if you want it short
Microsoft Copilot
$19.99/mo · free tier: usableMeasured3/3 course links right · bluntest odds
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tierThe Copilot app on web, Windows and mobile with usage limits
From$19.99/mo
Why
A one-screen plan with three links that all open, a budget that adds up, and the bluntest odds in the set - 30 to 40 percent from outside, better from inside your current employer, and "certificates do not get jobs". Its junior salary range runs higher than the entry-level references, so read the top of it as year two.
Evidence
8 of 8 course links right - three Coursera courses and five Microsoft Learn pages, each opened on the resource named. Indeed €21,468 on five salaries and Glassdoor €32,000 median both matched the pages exactly. Its PL-300 budget of €150–170 was high against the €126 Portugal price it told you to check.
Not on our roster
Coursera — Where seven of the nine plans send you anyway. Its course pages carry the real regional price and the financial-aid form, which no assistant could show us.
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All 9 tools we tested
Rated for this task only · 0–3| Tool | Quality | Effort | Cost | Free tier | Measured | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPTFree: Unlimited text chat on the default model, with limits on uploads, images, voice and deep research | 8/8 course links right · 2/2 salary sources exact | $8/mo | ||||
| ClaudeFree: Chat with web search and file uploads, with a usage cap per five-hour session | 0 course links given · salary sourced | $20/mo | ||||
| GeminiFree: The default model with usage limits, plus Gemini inside Maps, Gmail and Docs on a free Google account | 4/7 course links right · 2 prices wrong | $19.99/mo | ||||
| PerplexityFree: Unlimited basic searches with a weekly cap on Pro-model searches | 2/3 course links right · salary target high | $20/mo | ||||
| Microsoft CopilotFree: The Copilot app on web, Windows and mobile with usage limits | 3/3 course links right · bluntest odds | $19.99/mo | ||||
| DeepSeekFree: The full chat app with web search and file uploads; there is no paid consumer tier | 0 course links given · salary below every source | Free | ||||
| GrokFree: Chat with web and X search within generous limits, no card required | 2/3 course links right · says 8 courses, it is 9 | $30/mo | ||||
| QwenFree: The full chat app; there is no paid consumer tier | 0 course links given · cites facebook.com for Microsoft Learn | Free | ||||
| KimiFree: Unlimited basic chat, file upload and web access on the free plan | 3/3 course links right · salary sourced to PayScale exactly | $19/mo |
How we tested
One brief, sent once to each of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Grok, Qwen and Kimi on their free tiers, with account memory switched off wherever the tool has it. The brief asked for a six-month plan with specific courses or certificates and their links and current prices, what to skip, a realistic first salary in Lisbon with a source, and an honest assessment of the odds. The person is fictional.
Every course link each tool gave was opened the same hour and counted right only if it opened on the course named, was enrollable, and any price quoted with it matched the page. Salary figures were compared with Glassdoor, Indeed, PayScale and Levels.fyi opened the same hour, and the Microsoft PL-300 exam fee was checked with the country set to Portugal. Odds cannot be checked, so they were scored on whether the tool named the real obstacles - no degree, the competition, the time - or cheered.
Every tool kept the plan under budget and nearly all of them recommended the same core, the Google Data Analytics certificate plus free SQL and Power BI practice. Where they differed was in the links and the numbers. Four of the nine gave no course link at all in answer to a brief that asked for them. Five quoted the Microsoft exam at €165 when the Portuguese price is €126. One put the first salary below every reference and one put it above.
The test was run by, or under the direction of, the one person who runs this site, with AI assistance, and every output and fact-check was reviewed by them. The surrounding text was drafted with AI assistance from our own ratings and evidence, then checked and edited by the same person. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say so.
Questions people ask
Can an AI give real career advice or just generic tips?
The advice itself was specific in every case - all nine read the bookkeeping background as an asset and pointed at finance-adjacent analyst roles rather than generic data jobs. What separated them was the facts around the advice. Ask for links and prices and a sourced salary, and you will find out quickly which tool checked and which one remembered.
Which one was most honest about the odds?
Kimi and Copilot. Kimi is the only one that says the first analyst job may pay less than your current one, and it puts the odds at 40 to 55 percent within a year. Copilot says 30 to 40 percent from outside and that certificates do not get jobs. Qwen's 70 to 80 percent was the outlier; nothing in the references supports it.
Do I need to pay for anything the plans recommend?
Not much. Every plan lands well under EUR 500 and most of the recommended study is free - Microsoft Learn, SQLBolt, Mode's SQL tutorial, Kaggle. The one paid item they agree on is the Google Data Analytics certificate on Coursera, which is billed monthly and priced by region, and which has a financial-aid form on the course page that several tools mention and none could link to.
Why check the links at all if the plan is sensible?
Because the brief asked for them and the answers diverged most there. Gemini's budget table linked the Coursera home page and priced two items wrongly, Qwen's citation for Microsoft Learn resolved to facebook.com, and four tools gave no links at all. A plan you can act on tonight needs the page, not the name.