Prompting · How Founders Use AI

Why do some people get 10x better results from the same AI tools?

Because the output you get depends as much on how you ask as on the model itself: in an MIT-affiliated experiment, about half the improvement from switching to a better image model came from users adapting their prompts, not from the model. Power users treat AI like a smart new hire: they give it background, examples and clear success criteria, then iterate on the answer instead of accepting the first draft. The good news is this is a learnable communication habit, not a technical skill.

On the AI map, 29 October 2026 AI assistantsFrontier models

Go deeper4 sources

• Study: Generative AI results depend on user prompts as much as models

  MIT Sloan (Ideas Made to Matter) · Article · Aug 2025

  Hard evidence that half the 'better AI' effect is the user's prompting skill, the clearest answer to why identical tools produce wildly different results.
• The Skill That Separates AI Power Users From Everyone Else (Why "Clear" Specs Produce Broken Output)

  Nate B Jones (AI News & Strategy Daily) · Video · 2026

  A practitioner breaks down the real gap: instructions that feel clear to you are ambiguous to AI, and how power users close that gap.

  Watch it here

  
• Using AI Right Now: A Quick Guide

  Ethan Mollick (One Useful Thing) · Guide · Jun 2025

  The Wharton professor most founders trust on AI explains which model to use for what and the working habits that compound into better output.
• OpenAI report reveals a 6x productivity gap between AI power users and everyone else

  VentureBeat · Article · Dec 2025

  Data from OpenAI's own enterprise usage showing the gap is behavioral, not access, everyone has the same tools, few use them intensively.