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. An off-the-shelf survey instrument if you want the rigorous version pre-built. qualtrics.com Tool Pricing Study (Van Westendorp Model) Solution Qualtrics
  2. Conversational AI surveys that probe answers in real time instead of collecting static ratings. theysaid.io Tool TheySaid: AI User Testing, Surveys & Interviews Platform TheySaid
  3. A connector that pipes live GA4 data into ChatGPT so you skip the CSV export step. windsor.ai Tool Connect Google Analytics 4 to ChatGPT Windsor.ai
  4. Where to graduate when your team needs SQL, notebooks, and shared data apps. hex.tech Tool Hex: the AI analytics platform Hex
  5. An AI-native spreadsheet with a built-in analyst, a glimpse of the category's direction. rows.com Tool Rows AI: analyze and transform data with AI Rows
  6. The best-known open-source route to chatting with your own SQL database. vanna.ai Tool Vanna 2.0: build agents your users can actually use Vanna AI
  7. A free-to-try generator that works from just your schema, no data upload. text2sql.ai Tool Text2SQL.ai: text to SQL and AI query generator Text2SQL.ai
  8. A free schema-aware converter, handy for one-off queries without a subscription. chartdb.io Tool ChartDB Text to SQL converter ChartDB
  9. The product page with current compliance claims, the baseline for comparison shopping. chatgpt.com Tool ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI
  10. Where dashboards go next: agents that build charts and investigate metric changes for you. amplitude.com Tool Amplitude AI Agents Amplitude
  11. The graduate-level tool once feedback volume outgrows copy-paste. dovetail.com Tool Dovetail AI Analysis Dovetail
  12. Record once, auto-generate transcript, clips, show notes, and social posts. riverside.com Tool Riverside AI: Turn One Recording Into Clips, Posts, and Blogs Riverside
  13. Feed it a YouTube link or PDF, get platform-specific drafts everywhere. blotato.com Tool Blotato Sabrina Ramonov
  14. Upload 8 samples and get a managed, team-wide brand voice layer. jasper.ai Tool Jasper Brand Voice Jasper
  15. Paste 3,000 words of your writing, get a selectable voice in every chat. copy.ai Tool Brand Voice by Copy.ai Copy.ai (now part of Fullcast)
  16. Script to avatar video in 175+ languages, no camera required. heygen.com Tool HeyGen HeyGen (Joshua Xu)
  17. The enterprise-grade AI video platform, now a $4B company. synthesia.io Tool Synthesia Synthesia
  18. Marketing-specific AI with brand voice and campaign templates built in. jasper.ai Tool Jasper Jasper
  19. A LinkedIn post generator trained on proven posts, not generic internet text. easygen.io Tool EasyGen Ruben Hassid
  20. Build a digital twin that presents your script in minutes. heygen.com Tool HeyGen AI Video Avatars HeyGen
  21. Product explainers and launch videos localized into dozens of languages. synthesia.io Tool Synthesia for Marketing Videos and Product Explainers Synthesia
  22. An AI co-editor that cuts filler, adds captions, and polishes in minutes. descript.com Tool Descript Underlord Descript
  23. Record studio-quality once; Magic Clips finds the short-form moments. riverside.com Tool Riverside Riverside
  24. Purpose-built engine for repurposing and amplifying across channels. distribution.ai Tool Distribution.ai Ross Simmonds

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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