How Founders Use AI

How people use AI, and the tool for each job.

The AI map of which tool is for which job, checked on 29 October 2026, what changed since July, and every video, thread, guide, podcast and tool behind 278 answered questions on putting AI to work.

The AI map: which tool is for which job, as of 29 October 2026

Models and assistants AI assistants Frontier models Open-weight models Decision models

Building with AI Coding agents App builders Design and presentations Spreadsheets, data and internal tools

Agents and research Agents that do tasks for you AI browsers No-code automation with AI steps Research and search Meeting notes and everyday productivity

Making media Video generation Images Avatars and voice Music and audio Video editing

AI at work Prospecting and sales Marketing, ads and AI search Customer support agents Legal and contracts Finance and accounting Hiring and HR

What changed since July

  1. 28 Oct 2026 GitHub began including Copilot with GitHub Enterprise licences and added projects to the Copilot app, where several agents work across repositories. Coding agents github.blog
  2. 27 Oct 2026 n8n released the 3.0 beta, a reliability and security release with breaking changes; self-hosting now runs on Docker only and the stable release is due in early December. No-code automation with AI steps blog.n8n.io
  3. 27 Oct 2026 Hex released Hex 4.0, rebuilt for analysts and AI agents working together, with a $100 million raise. Spreadsheets, data and internal tools hex.tech
  4. 26 Oct 2026 Replit launched Replit for Business, and the next day Cloud Agents that let non-engineers propose changes to a company codebase. App builders blog.replit.com
  5. 26 Oct 2026 OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra at $1 / $5 per million tokens, half the price of GPT-6.1 Sol. Frontier models openai.com
All 108 changes

What founders use most, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. Includes 'the competitor spy', a prompt that has an agent sign up for your top three competitors and report every new feature... x.com Thread 9 cool GPT 6 Astra prompts worth trying Greg Isenberg
  2. What Work is (an agent for longer jobs that end in a spreadsheet, report or presentation), which plans include it and how its... help.openai.com Guide ChatGPT Work and Codex OpenAI
  3. The launch of Claude in a Sheets sidebar: formulas, pivot tables, native charts, and Python for joins and cleanup written back... claude.com Article Claude now works with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides Anthropic
  4. OpenAI's own guide to its spreadsheet sidebar: who gets it, how to install it, and the review steps it asks you to follow. help.openai.com Guide ChatGPT for Excel and Google Sheets OpenAI
  5. Google's note that each cell Gemini fills from the web now shows its source, so you can check the values before using them. workspaceupdates.googleblog.com Article Fill with Gemini now provides cell-level citations for web sources and supports larger requests Google Workspace Updates
  6. The launch of Claude Dashboards: connect BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks or Salesforce, ask in plain words, and get a dashboard... claude.com Article Build live dashboards and animate explainers with Claude Anthropic
  7. A BI founder on why cheaper answers create more follow-up questions for someone with data in their title, and why agents may do... benn.substack.com Article How to find insights Benn Stancil
  8. A rep's four-agent research system, from domain to drafted sequence in under five minutes, shown step by step. clay.com Article How Clay Runs Cold Outbound to Enterprise Accounts Clay
  9. From 231,818 cold emails: frame the value to the reader's seniority and match the tone of their department. lavender.ai Article 5 Takeaways from Our Latest Cold Email Benchmark Report Will Allred (Lavender)
  10. Brex's growth lead on aiming for relevance rather than personalization, and why targeting comes before messaging. clay.com Article Top 1%: How Brex Scaled Its Outbound Engine and Made Operations More Efficient Clay (with Michael Tai, Brex)
  11. Briefs before each call, notes during it, and follow-ups and CRM updates drafted after it, as one team actually runs it. granola.ai Article How sales teams use Granola Granola
  12. A job-change play from detection to same-day drafted outreach, with the exact rules, also published as an installable skill. clay.com Article How We Turn a Champion's Departure Into a Buying Signal Fadeke Adegbuyi and Andrew Morris (Clay)
  13. Microsoft's own rules for domains sending over 5,000 emails a day: SPF, DKIM and DMARC required, with non-compliant mail now... techcommunity.microsoft.com Article Strengthening Email Ecosystem: Outlook's New Requirements for High-Volume Senders Microsoft
  14. Eight email providers tested against 4,238 known-valid emails, and why no single one covers everyone. clay.com Article Best B2B Email List Providers: Tested and Ranked (2026) Eric Nowoslawski and Mishti Sharma (Clay)
  15. Granola's pre-meeting brief, built overnight from past notes, email and web research, so call prep takes no work. granola.ai Article New: Briefs prepare you for your next meeting as you join Granola
  16. Agents filled in 6,346 demo forms: two-thirds of companies never replied and human replies took 26 to 40 hours on average. clay.com Article We asked 6,346 companies for a demo. Most never wrote back. Clay (Alex Lindahl)
  17. The open standard Meta and Sierra are building for how customers' own AI agents sign in and act with a business, with partners... sierra.ai Article Introducing Personal Agent Protocol Sierra (Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor)
  18. Decagon's October launches: Voice 3, a gateway that detects and serves customers' personal agents, and modules that take the... decagon.ai Article The AI concierge for every customer [and their agent] Decagon
  19. Zendesk's launch of ready-made Industry Agents (commerce first) and Custom Agents built without code, which can also run inside... zendesk.com Article Zendesk Introduces Specialized AI Agents Purpose-built for Your Business Zendesk
  20. Replit's CEO on why companies will build their own software with agents, introducing Replit for Business. replit.com Article The Rise of the Self-Driving Company Amjad Masad (Replit)
  21. Notion's release notes for 3.8 (agents connected to 150+ tools through MCP) and the rebuilt Notion Agents with their own... notion.com Article What's New: Notion releases Notion
  22. Instagram's own post: the AI creator label is now 'AI-generated profile', unlabelled profiles featuring an AI-generated person... creators.instagram.com Article Bringing More Transparency to AI-Generated Profiles on Instagram Instagram
  23. Reddit's own account of how it now uses LLMs to catch coordinated fake behaviour and artificial hype, and asks suspicious... redditinc.com Article How We're Keeping Reddit Real and Safe in the AI Era Reddit
  24. The maker's own launch post for Intake, which turns employees' legal requests in Slack into tracked work its agent drafts for a... legora.com Article Legora launches Intake: an agentic front door for in-house legal teams Legora

Show the next 24

Playbooks

A goal, and the route through it a step at a time.

Start using AI well Pick an assistant, learn with it, hand it real work, and keep yourself and your data safe. 5 steps Build your product with AI From a prompt to a shipped product: prototype, build, and wire AI into what you ship. 6 steps Code and ship with AI Write, ship, and maintain real software as a founder, with AI as your pair. 4 steps Design and prototype with AI Go from idea to a clickable prototype without a designer. 3 steps Build AI agents and automations Wire up agents and internal tools that do real work for you. 3 steps Put AI inside your product Ship AI features users actually feel, not a bolted-on chatbot. 3 steps Research your market with AI Size the market, study competitors, and read data in hours, not weeks. 3 steps Market and grow with AI Content, creative, and distribution: fill the top of the funnel without a big team. 5 steps Create content with AI Write, film, and design a content engine that runs without a team. 3 steps Get found in AI search Show up when founders and buyers ask AI, not just Google (AEO/GEO). 3 steps Run ads with AI Brief creatives, read the numbers, and optimize spend with AI. 3 steps Find and serve customers with AI Research the market, prospect, close, and support, with AI doing the heavy lifting. 4 steps Sell and prospect with AI Find leads, personalize outreach, and run better sales calls. 3 steps Support customers with AI Answer faster and deflect tickets without losing the human touch. 3 steps Run the back office with AI The unglamorous grind: workflows, finance, legal, and hiring, automated where it counts. 5 steps Automate your workflows Stitch your tools together so the busywork runs itself. 3 steps Hire and manage your team with AI Source, screen, and onboard faster, and keep the team in sync. 3 steps Handle legal and finance with AI Draft contracts and stay on top of the numbers without a big spend. 2 steps Be more productive with AI Get more done and think sharper with AI as a daily habit. 3 steps Become an AI-native founder The meta-skills: build your stack, prompt well, and use AI to research, think, and decide. 6 steps Build your AI stack Pick the tools worth paying for and the prompts worth reusing. 3 steps

The questions, by topic

Building & Product

Vibe Coding 15 Databases & Internal Tools 11 AI Agents 15 Design & Prototyping 12 AI in Your Product 13

Research & Knowledge

Search & Research 13 Market Research 13 Data Analysis 13

Marketing & Growth

Content Creation 12 Video, Image & Audio 14 Getting Found in AI Search (AEO/GEO) 12 Ads & Performance Marketing 14 Social & Community 12

Sales & Customers

Sales Prospecting 13 Customer Support 6 CRM & Sales Calls 12

Operations & Back-office

Legal & Contracts 13 Finance & Accounting 3 Hiring & HR 3 Productivity 3 Workflows & Automation 3

Strategy & The AI-Native Founder

Fundraising 6 Prompting 3 Building Your AI Stack 3 AI as a Thinking Partner 4

Everyday AI

Choosing Your AI Assistant 8 Learning with AI 7 Working with AI Agents 7 Using AI Safely 8 AI in Indian Languages 7
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