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. Simple reachable-customers-times-revenue logic you can hand to an AI to compute and sanity-check. visible.vc Article Bottom-Up Market Sizing: What It Is and How to Do It Visible.vc
  2. A seed fund explaining exactly what it wants to see on the market slide. forumvc.com Article Market Sizing for Startups: TAM, SAM, SOM Explained Forum Ventures
  3. Reverse-engineers the evaluator's checklist so your AI-assisted numbers answer the real questions. goingvc.com Article How Investors Use TAM, SAM, SOM to Evaluate Startups GoingVC
  4. A practical sizing guide from an Indian product studio, useful for India-market examples. f22labs.com Guide TAM, SAM & SOM: How To Calculate the Market Size? F22 Labs (India)
  5. The evergreen reference with formulas and examples to ground your AI prompt. blog.hubspot.com Guide TAM, SAM & SOM: What Do They Mean & How Do You Calculate Them? HubSpot
  6. A pitch-deck consultancy's view on presenting the numbers investors will not roll their eyes at. spectup.com Guide TAM, SAM, SOM: The Founder's Guide To Market Sizing Spectup
  7. Benchmarks to sanity-check whether the number your AI produced is even plausible for your industry. worthbuild.io Article What Is a Good TAM for a Startup? Benchmarks by Industry WorthBuild
  8. One well-constructed research prompt, dissected so you can adapt it. inc.com Article This Single ChatGPT Prompt Can Do Hours of Market Research in Minutes Inc. (Ben Sherry)
  9. A VC's view of the founder use cases where deep research replaces a hired consultant. iaglobal.vc Article How to Grow Your Startup Using ChatGPT Deep Research IA Global VC
  10. Ready-made Perplexity prompts tuned for market questions. useme.com Guide Quick Guide to Perplexity for Market Research (with Prompts) Useme
  11. Nine real tests that show where Perplexity's reports are strong and where they thin out. secondtalent.com Article Perplexity Deep Research Review: 9 Real-World Tests Second Talent
  12. Prompt patterns you can adapt from marketing research to market research. godofprompt.ai Guide 10 ChatGPT Deep Research Prompts For Marketing God of Prompt
  13. Covers Gemini's killer feature: editing the research plan before the agent runs. digitalapplied.com Guide Google Gemini Deep Research: Complete Guide Digital Applied
  14. The gentlest on-ramp if deep research agents are new to you. exploreaitogether.com Guide How to Use Gemini Deep Research: Complete Beginner's Guide Explore AI Together
  15. Business-research-specific comparison including cost per useful report. aryabhconsulting.com Article Deep Research AI Tools Comparison: Gemini vs ChatGPT vs Perplexity for Business Research Aryabh Consulting
  16. A ready question bank that keeps your AI-drafted guides non-leading. getperspective.ai Guide 60 Customer Discovery Questions (Mom Test-Approved) Perspective AI
  17. Updates Mom Test practice for the AI-moderated interview era. koji.so Article The Mom Test for Customer Interviews: How to Ask Questions That Get Real Answers Koji
  18. An honest technical account of what LLM qualitative analysis gets right and wrong. skimle.com Article Using ChatGPT and other LLMs to analyse interviews and qualitative data Skimle
  19. A reusable Claude workflow that converts messy transcripts into themes and actions in 90 seconds. sidsaladi.substack.com Article AI User Research Skill 101: A Claude Skill That Turns Raw Interview Dumps Into Themes Sid Saladi
  20. A copy-paste transcript analysis prompt to start with before building anything fancier. genaiuniversity.com Guide Analyze Transcripts with Claude AI (Free Prompt) GenAI University
  21. Shows Claude Code processing many interviews in parallel, the power-user version of this workflow. marketbetter.ai Article AI Customer Interview Analysis: Mining Discovery Calls for Intel with Claude Code MarketBetter
  22. A professional research firm's assessment of Claude for qualitative analysis, limits included. cascadeinsights.com Article A Market Researcher's Review: Claude Cascade Insights
  23. A working researcher's real AI workflow rather than a tool vendor's pitch. userinterviews.com Article How a UX Researcher Uses AI in Their Daily Workflow User Interviews
  24. Primary research on AI running interviews at scale and feeding results back to humans. anthropic.com Article Introducing Anthropic Interviewer Anthropic

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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