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. A code-review company catalogues the failure patterns it sees daily. coderabbit.ai Article Vibe coding: because who doesn't love surprise technical debt!? CodeRabbit
  2. The definitive definition piece everyone else quotes. simonwillison.net Article Not all AI-assisted programming is vibe coding (but vibe coding rocks) Simon Willison
  3. How the line has blurred a year on, from the person who drew it. simonw.substack.com Article Vibe coding and agentic engineering are getting closer than I'd like Simon Willison
  4. The neutral, constantly updated record of the term and its debates. en.wikipedia.org Article Vibe coding (Wikipedia) Wikipedia
  5. The lexicographers' own definition and why usage exploded. blog.collinsdictionary.com Article Collins Word of the Year 2025: AI meets authenticity Collins Dictionary
  6. Two industry legends turn the vibe into a repeatable discipline. itrevolution.com Guide Vibe Coding: Building Production-Grade Software With GenAI (book) Gene Kim + Steve Yegge
  7. The book that formalises the vibe-to-engineering spectrum. beyond.addy.ie Guide Beyond Vibe Coding: a guide to AI-assisted development Addy Osmani
  8. How the startup establishment absorbed the term within a month. x.com Thread YC on Karpathy's coinage and what it means Y Combinator
  9. The practitioner argument over what the word should mean. news.ycombinator.com Article Hacker News debates Ng's 'bad name for a real job' Hacker News
  10. The academic treatment if you want the rigorous version. arxiv.org Article Vibe Coding: toward an AI-native paradigm for intent-driven programming arXiv (academic survey)
  11. Decode tokens, context windows, and RLS before your first session. siteground.com Guide Vibe coding glossary: key terms every beginner should know SiteGround Academy
  12. A builder-platform's plain-English dictionary of the jargon. blink.new Guide Vibe coding glossary: every term you need to know Blink
  13. The terms you will meet in your first month, explained simply. blog.vibecoder.me Guide Vibe coding vocabulary: every term you need Vibe Coder Blog
  14. Definition plus decision framework aimed squarely at founders. sonary.com Guide What is vibe coding? The non-technical founder's guide Sonary
  15. The Software 3.0 framing digested into ten minutes of reading. dulandias.com Article Software is changing (again): key takeaways from Karpathy's talk Dulan Dias
  16. The chaptered summary of his own talk, straight from the source. x.com Thread Karpathy: 'LLMs are a new kind of computer you program in English' Andrej Karpathy
  17. The most-copied spec-first workflow, with the exact prompts. harper.blog Guide My LLM codegen workflow atm Harper Reed
  18. How the workflow evolved after months of real use. harper.blog Article An LLM codegen hero's journey Harper Reed
  19. A trusted second opinion on why the approach works. simonwillison.net Article Simon Willison on Harper Reed's workflow Simon Willison
  20. Backend-aware prompting patterns from the database everyone uses. supabase.com Guide Vibe coding: best practices for prompting Supabase
  21. Plan mode, context hygiene, and step-sizing from the tool's makers. code.claude.com Guide Best practices for Claude Code Anthropic
  22. Data on what workflows actually succeed across thousands of users. anthropic.com Article How Claude Code is used in practice Anthropic
  23. Why GitHub built the antidote to piecemeal prompting. github.blog Guide Spec-driven development with AI: get started with a new open source toolkit GitHub
  24. A hands-on walkthrough of the spec-first loop. developer.microsoft.com Article Diving into spec-driven development with GitHub Spec Kit Microsoft

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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