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. Structured hands-on intro to prompt-based image editing with your own photos. codecademy.com Guide How to use Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana) Codecademy
  2. Concrete ecommerce transformations, pack shot to lifestyle scene, you can copy directly. marketing4ecommerce.net Article 10 wild examples of how to use Nano Banana Marketing4eCommerce
  3. A PPC agency's prompt patterns for ad-ready product imagery. jumpfly.com Guide How to Write High-Performance Image Prompts for Nano Banana JumpFly
  4. A professional logo designer shows where AI concepts help and where they stop. ebaqdesign.com Guide How to Use Ideogram for Logo Design Ebaq Design (Arek Dvornechuck)
  5. Prompt-level detail for marketing collateral, mockups, and A/B variants. learnprompting.org Guide GPT-4o Image Generation: A Complete Guide + 12 Prompt Examples Learn Prompting
  6. The company powering millions of seller product photos explains what quality actually takes. tech.eu Article Photoroom CEO: We have spent millions on AI training data Tech.eu
  7. The keep-the-product, generate-the-scene workflow spelled out. claid.ai Guide Midjourney product photography: AI backgrounds for your products Claid.ai
  8. A practical two-tool pipeline: Midjourney scenes plus compositing your real product in. scene4.ai Guide How to Use MidJourney for Product Photography (Guide + No-Prompt Workflow) SCENE4
  9. How to get exact typography out of Ideogram, the thing other models still fumble. pixeldojo.ai Guide Ideogram 4 Prompting Guide: Best-in-Class Text Rendering PixelDojo
  10. Tactical fixes, brand colors, negative prompts, style codes, for common off-brand failures. godofprompt.ai Guide 12 Midjourney Prompt Tricks for Perfect Brand Imagery God of Prompt
  11. A maintained per-second price table across every major model, updated monthly. buildmvpfast.com Guide AI Video Generation API Pricing: Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Seedance, Runway BuildMVPFast
  12. Translates opaque credit systems into clips-per-month you can budget against. magichour.ai Article AI Video Generator Pricing: What 10 Tools Actually Cost (And What You Get) Magic Hour
  13. The one decision that swings your bill 10x: subscription seats vs metered API. rangy.ai Article AI Video Pricing Explained: APIs vs Subscriptions Rangy
  14. Free-tier to $200-a-month tiers mapped against actual output volume. blog.laozhang.ai Article How Much Does an AI Video Generator Cost? (Complete Pricing Guide) LaoZhang AI
  15. A named stack, Veo 3.1, Nano Banana, ElevenLabs, Figma, CapCut, with the prompts included. kieranflanagan.io Guide Kieran Flanagan's Substack (AI Video Ad Stack guide + prompts) Kieran Flanagan (HubSpot CMO)
  16. The real cost anatomy of a broadcast-quality AI ad, including the wasted generations. marktechpost.com Article AI-Generated Ad Created with Veo 3 Airs During NBA Finals, Slashing Costs by 95% MarkTechPost
  17. Concise cost-and-workflow summary you can forward to a cofounder. therundown.ai Article AI ads hit primetime with Kalshi's Veo 3 commercial The Rundown AI
  18. The rupee version: lakhs-per-month production budgets cut to a third with AI-assisted flow. atomcomm.in Article AI Ad Creation vs Traditional Production: Cost & ROI Comparison Atom Communications (India)
  19. The official anatomy of a Veo prompt: subject, action, scene, camera, style, audio. deepmind.google Guide How to create effective prompts with Veo 3 Google DeepMind
  20. Google's own worked examples for the current model version. cloud.google.com Guide Ultimate prompting guide for Veo 3.1 Google Cloud
  21. The reference-doc version, useful when you need exact parameter behaviour. docs.cloud.google.com Guide Video generation prompt guide (Gemini Enterprise docs) Google Cloud Documentation
  22. Practitioner-tested Veo patterns from a platform that watches thousands of generations. replicate.com Guide How to prompt Veo 3 for the best results Replicate
  23. Good example gallery for calibrating how much detail a video prompt needs. leonardo.ai Guide Veo 3 Prompt Guide: Tips & Examples Leonardo.Ai
  24. Beginner-safe walkthrough with before/after prompt rewrites. dreamhost.com Guide The Ultimate Veo 3.1 Prompt Guide DreamHost

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
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →