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 360 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. The prompt-plus-code original that showed founders how to simulate angels, VCs, and PE investors with distinct personalities. linkedin.com Article GPT Venture Capitalist Bot: Practice Your Startup Pitches Reuven Cohen
  2. The seven questions every pitch must answer succinctly, the exact list to drill until your AI interrogator cannot trip you. ycombinator.com Guide How to Pitch Your Company Y Combinator
  3. Shows how deep context plus structured prompts turns Claude into a genuine stress-tester of your narrative instead of a... climateinsiders.substack.com Article The Claude Prompts That Are Closing Climate Rounds in 2026 Yoann Berno (Climate Insiders)
  4. A practical prep sequence combining rehearsal reps, question banks, and delivery feedback into one routine. yoodli.ai Guide How to Prepare for an Investor Pitch & Win Them Over Yoodli
  5. Two decades of proven model templates rebuilt around AI: start from structure that works, customize with Claude or ChatGPT,... hemrock.com Tool Hemrock (formerly Foresight) Taylor Davidson
  6. Model your SAFEs, rounds, and exit waterfall properly so the dilution answer you give investors is actually right. hemrock.com Tool Cap Table and Exit Waterfall Tool Taylor Davidson (Hemrock)
  7. The startup-CFO firm behind hundreds of venture-backed companies lays out exactly what financial diligence will probe. kruzeconsulting.com Guide Finance Due Diligence for Startups: A Guide Kruze Consulting
  8. The stacked-SAFE dilution surprise that ambushes founders at Series A, explained with real numbers before you sign the next cap. kruzeconsulting.com Article How SAFE and Convertible Notes Impact Your Series A Dilution Kruze Consulting
  9. A lawyer-written cap table guide with worked dilution examples and vetted templates, a trustworthy skeleton to iterate on with AI. promise.legal Guide Free Cap Table Template: Track Equity, Dilution & Ownership Promise Legal
  10. A VC shows the reclassification audit investors now run on ARR, and the Claude prompt to run it on yourself first. the-founders-corner.com Article The Claude Prompt That Found My Real ARR. Then I Raised. Chris Tottman (Notion Capital)
  11. If you build with AI, data provenance is now a diligence killer; this explains what documentation keeps your round alive. startupsmagazine.co.uk Article The new due diligence: why VCs are walking away from AI startups with hidden legal risk Startups Magazine
  12. A stage-appropriate checklist so your early-stage diligence folder is complete without being bloated. raisetalks.com Guide 2025 Ultimate Data Room Checklist for Pre-Seed & Seed Startups RaiseTalks
  13. Written from the investor's side of the table, so you assemble numbers in the order diligence will actually read them. goingvc.com Guide VC Checklist Guide: Everything Investors Expect In Your Data Room GoingVC
  14. The prompt library investors point at early-stage companies; run it against your own numbers before they do. 22ndcenturyfrontier.com Article AI-Powered Due Diligence: The VC Prompt Library for Pre-Seed & Seed Analysis Petar Dimov (22nd Century Frontier)
  15. Hard evidence that half the 'better AI' effect is the user's prompting skill, the clearest answer to why identical tools... mitsloan.mit.edu Article Study: Generative AI results depend on user prompts as much as models MIT Sloan (Ideas Made to Matter)
  16. Video The Skill That Separates AI Power Users From Everyone Else (Why "Clear" Specs Produce Broken Output) Nate B Jones (AI News & Strategy Daily)
  17. Data from OpenAI's own enterprise usage showing the gap is behavioral, not access, everyone has the same tools, few use them... venturebeat.com Article OpenAI report reveals a 6x productivity gap between AI power users and everyone else VentureBeat
  18. Video AI prompt engineering in 2025: What works and what doesn't | Sander Schulhoff Lenny's Podcast
  19. A practitioner's deep dive with real prompts from AI companies, separating research-backed techniques from folklore. news.aakashg.com Article Prompt Engineering in 2025: The Latest Best Practices Aakash Gupta (Product Growth)
  20. An empirical test of popular tips against a recent model, showing which are measurable wins and which are myths. dreamhost.com Article We Tested 25 Popular Claude Prompt Techniques: These 5 Actually Work Brian Andrus (DreamHost)
  21. A top VC walks through a real founder's Claude Project setup, a concrete, copyable example of putting business context into an... sarahtavel.com Article Getting started with Claude Projects: Starting the day off right Sarah Tavel (Benchmark)
  22. A billion-dollar founder shares his exact custom-instruction templates so ChatGPT permanently knows who you are and how you work. simple.ai Article The ChatGPT Feature 90% of Users Ignore (But Shouldn't) Dharmesh Shah (simple.ai / HubSpot co-founder)
  23. Video Creating a contextual workspace in ChatGPT OpenAI
  24. Explains what ChatGPT remembers about you, how to view and edit it, and how to keep sensitive business info out, essential... help.openai.com Guide Memory FAQ OpenAI Help Center

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 20 Databases & Internal Tools 11 AI Agents 15 Design & Prototyping 14 AI in Your Product 15

Research & Knowledge

Search & Research 16 Market Research 13 Data Analysis 13

Marketing & Growth

Content Creation 14 Video, Image & Audio 27 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 5 Workflows & Automation 3

Strategy & The AI-Native Founder

Fundraising 6 Prompting 4 Building Your AI Stack 5 AI as a Thinking Partner 5

Everyday AI

Choosing Your AI Assistant 15 Learning with AI 8 Working with AI Agents 8 Using AI Safely 9 AI in Indian Languages 8 Quick Fixes for Files, Photos and Video 26 AI for Your Line of Work 12
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