Which is the best LLM for your purposes? On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released to the world its large language model (LLM), called ChatGPT. By January 2023, OpenAI had 100 million active users. By comparison, TikTok took nine months and Instagram over two years to achieve this milestone. It seemed that overnight, the world was prompting and talking about tokens. More LLMs followed, adding to a level of tech buzz we had not seen since the 1990s.
In less than 48 months, roughly the length of a copier lease, LLM usage moved from 100 million early ChatGPT users into a global habit touching hundreds of millions of people. For you, the question is no longer whether LLMs are real. The question is which one helps write better emails, research accounts on the go, prepare for meetings, and sound less like every other rep in the country.
An LLM is a type of AI that works with language. This is important to understand: you give it spoken or written language, and it uses that language to predict, organize, draft, summarize, analyze, and respond.
Of course, the mechanics behind the LLM are complex. Compare it to knowing the seven steps of the xerographic process, but concentrating on the double-sided document that comes out after the green button is pushed. We don’t care how the marks get there, we care about how legible they are and what they say.
So don’t waste too many cycles trying to understand tokens, transformers, or agentic thingamabobs.
Choosing an AI LLM
So, which is the best LLM for you? It depends. Don’t you hate answers like that?
Start with the boring question: which LLM is your dealership already providing?
Similar to your LinkedIn account, if your employer hasn’t paid for it, it isn’t theirs to manage or control. On the other hand, if you’re expensing Navigator, that is a horse of a different color. Do what they say, it’s their dollar.
Same goes if your organization standardizes and provides access to an LLM. Stay within the set boundaries.
If your employer has a “We don’t want anyone using AI” policy, that changes the answer.
I have a few choice words for this type of leadership: “Luddite” comes to mind. Regardless, adhere to the policy while on the job.
That covers the work account. Your personal learning is a separate decision. Even if your company gives you an LLM or blocks one at work, get your own.
The best LLM is your personal LLM. The more you use it, the more it understands your writing habits, your customer language, your territory, your objections, and your communication style.
The more you use it, the more it understands you and your communication requirements. Depending on your settings, it also remembers preferences, writing patterns, and recurring context. Ergo, the more you use it, the better it gets.
Once you understand the work rules, test the tools like a salesperson, not a software reviewer. Here is a simple evaluation process for anyone trying to make quota.
The best LLM tools worth testing right now (in alphabetical order):
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Copilot
- Gemini
- Meta AI
- Perplexity
The evaluation process, for you:
Don’t pay yet.
Soon you will, but not yet. Get to know it and then shell out the twenty bucks a month. We both know you spend three times that on Starbucks or In-N-Out.
Use several at the same time.
This may seem like a pain, but while they are free, use them all, and here’s the trick: create a prompt and give it to each LLM at the same time. Light up six tabs and go forth.
Judge the answers like a customer would.
Does it work for you? Is the response understandable? Is it real? How does it sound? Which response feels the best? Pick that one and start using it every day.
I know what you’re thinking, if not saying out loud, “Okay, fine. I sort of have one LLM to try, but how do I start using this thing?” Great question. Probably the best question ever asked about everything new, and if I had a dime every time someone asked me that, I’d have lots of dimes.
But don’t ask me, ask your new, freshly minted LLM assistant. You could start with this prompt, grammatical errors included:
“I’m new. How can I use you? What can you do for me?”
The response will be generic because your question lacks context. It is a generic question.
A better prompt gives the LLM a clear goal, a role, useful context, the output format, and a definition of a good answer.
“I sell copiers in Toledo/Flint/Davidson/Rancho Cucamonga/Oconomowoc/Scottsdale/Provo, and I’ve been doing it for three days/five months/forty years. I am tasked with selling 5/10/15/500 copiers each month. How can you help me?”
Hit the little arrow and off you go.
The Greg Walters June 2026 Rankings
These rankings are written for copier salespeople, not coders, researchers, students, or Silicon Valley product managers.
Which one of these is the best LLM for you, the copier salesperson?
First, the disclaimer: I am not getting paid by an LLM, and I’m not selling any “How to use the LLM” seminars, books, webinars, or boot camps. I am, however, biased in my ranking as an individual who started using and creating content with ChatGPT in December 2022. One of my very first “conversations” with ChatGPT was over an MPS study—I gave the study to the LLM, and it spit out a proposal. My bias is not really toward a company. It is toward the copier salesperson.
Also, life moves pretty quickly, but nothing moves faster than LLM evolution. Anyone’s rankings can change at a moment’s notice and will change over the next few years. That isn’t a hedge, it is a fact, but here ya go:
My Rankings
One to five, where five is the best LLM:
ChatGPT: ★★★★★
Gemini: ★★★★½
Claude: ★★★★
Perplexity: ★★★
Copilot: ★★
Meta AI: ★
ChatGPT: The easy number one pick, for now.
- When other LLMs announced features like Gems, voice, custom assistants, and reusable instructions, ChatGPT had already implemented that kind of flexibility. It remains the easiest general-purpose pick for a copier salesperson who wants help with prospecting, account research, email drafts, meeting preparation, proposal language, and everyday thinking.
Gemini: More than Adequate
- Especially strong if you already live in Google apps. My opinion of Gemini is rising, mostly because integration turns a decent LLM into something more useful during the workday.
Claude: Adequate
- Strong writer, often formal by default, and useful for longer documents. For the average copier salesperson, it may feel a little buttoned-up unless you spend time shaping the tone. Usage limits have also been a frustration at times.
Perplexity: Excellent for research
- Strong when you need to gather facts, compare sources, or get oriented quickly. Less natural for customer-facing sales copy, at least for the way I like sales language to sound.
Copilot: Low ranking as a standalone LLM
- I know the Microsoft loyalists are out there. Some of them probably cheered every time the blue screen of death popped up. But as a standalone LLM experience, Copilot does not win this list for me. That said, keep reading, because Copilot becomes a different animal inside a Microsoft 365 company.
Meta AI: Consumer first
- Useful, but it feels more consumer-centric to me. That is fine for casual use. For dealership work, I prefer a more natural business tone.
But wait, there’s more. There is one exception big enough to change the chart.
Reevaluatinig Copilot and Gemini
Remember when I said Copilot was three levels below the worst? Despite that, there is one reason, and it is a great reason, that can make Copilot and Gemini stand well above all others.
If your organization is a Microsoft 365 or Google house, no other LLM will beat these on integration. As much as I’m not enamored with either, if your company implements Copilot because they use Office, dive in. Same with Gemini in a Google Workspace. The integration is powerful.
Microsoft 365 shop: Copilot ★★★★★
Hands down, don’t fight it, engage deeply. Microsoft is embedding Copilot in the entire MS-Stack, from Word to Office.
Google Workspace shop: Gemini 2.5 Pro ★★★★★
Again, easy integration with existing functions is a plus. Google Drive, Meet, Sheets, and Gmail all connect as your specific, personal LLM.
AI rules to live by
If you are brand new to AI and your company is not forcing a specific LLM on you, start with ChatGPT.
If your employer is rejecting AI entirely, get your own personal account, learn on your own time, and keep your résumé current.
If your dealership runs on Microsoft 365, dive deep and use Copilot at work.
If your dealership runs on Google Workspace, use Gemini at work.
Outside the company system, keep building your own LLM habit. Your personal account may become the most useful sales tool you carry, right after your phone, your calendar, and your ability to hear what the customer is actually saying.
The LLM landscape shifts nearly every 30 days. There is so much more to come.
Get in now. Teach the LLM how to help you, and it will.
AI Columnist Greg Walters
About the columnist: Greg Walters is a writer, analyst, speaker, and longtime technology operator who has led managed print and IT initiatives for several organizations. He is a founding member (and past president) of the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) and creator of The Death of the Copier blog. Walters also co-founded the Cricket Continuum, which works to convert office technology dealers into robotics resellers and service partners. Future columns will continue to focus on artificial intelligence in the copier dealer community. If you have curiosity about the subject, drop us a line, and we’ll see if we can come up with something.
