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 free and paid tiers by model: Gemini 3.8 Flash is free on the free tier ($0.75 / $3.75 per million tokens paid until 31... ai.google.dev Tool Gemini Developer API pricing Google
  2. OpenAI's first steps: create an API key in the dashboard, export it as an environment variable and make your first call. developers.openai.com Guide Developer quickstart OpenAI
  3. Which kind of key to use for your own testing, a deployed app or automation, and why one developer's key should not run... developers.openai.com Guide API keys and service accounts OpenAI
  4. Pro plans include $100, $200 or $500 of API credits a month and Business seats $20 or $100, claimed by linking the subscription... developers.openai.com Guide API credits for ChatGPT subscribers OpenAI
  5. The same steps for Anthropic's API, if you want a Claude key as well. platform.claude.com Guide Get started with Claude Anthropic
  6. An AI research assistant for academic papers, with a free plan, for screening and extracting data from many studies. elicit.com Tool Elicit pricing Elicit
  7. Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands: branded web mentions correlate most strongly with AI Overview visibility (0.664), well ahead of... ahrefs.com Article An Analysis of AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands) Ahrefs
  8. A tool that tracks how often ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers mention and cite your brand against competitors. tryprofound.com Tool Profound Profound
  9. How to keep sessions, files, instructions and connected tools in one shareable workspace. perplexity.ai Guide What are Projects? Perplexity
  10. The discounted plan for verified students and educators, with everything in Pro. perplexity.ai Guide What is Education Pro? Perplexity
  11. Video How To Use Perplexity AI (Best AI Research Tool) Paul J Lipsky
  12. Google's help page: how AI Mode searches subtopics at once, and the full list of countries (India included) and languages it... support.google.com Guide Get AI-powered responses with AI Mode in Google Search Google
  13. Google's launch post on what AI Mode is for and how it differs from AI Overviews. blog.google Article Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode Google
  14. Google's own page: AI Overviews are a core feature that cannot be turned off, the Web filter shows only text links, AI in... support.google.com Guide Find information in faster & easier ways with AI Overviews in Google Search Google Search Help
  15. How to add a custom site search in Chrome and make it the default, which is how the udm=14 Web view becomes your everyday search. support.google.com Guide Set your default search engine Google Chrome Help
  16. The article that found the udm=14 parameter behind Google's Web filter and shows how to set it as the default in each browser. tedium.co Article How I made Google's 'Web' view my default search Ernie Smith (Tedium)
  17. A free page that runs your search straight into Google's Web view with no AI Overview, from the people who documented udm=14;... udm14.com Tool &udm=14 Tedium
  18. What AI Mode is and how it differs from AI Overviews, so you know which of the two you are looking at. support.google.com Guide Get AI-powered responses with AI Mode in Google Search Google Search Help
  19. Claude inside Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook: ask about any cell, change assumptions without breaking formulas, build a... claude.com Tool Claude for Microsoft 365 Anthropic
  20. Workspace in rupees: Business Standard, with Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Meet, at ₹1,080 a user a month (₹864 introductory). workspace.google.com Tool Google Workspace pricing (India) Google
  21. A free Community plan and Professional at $36 an editor a month for a data workspace where analysts and agents query a... hex.tech Tool Hex pricing Hex
  22. A scheduler for every social channel, with a free plan and Essentials from $5 a month for one channel. buffer.com Tool Buffer pricing Buffer
  23. Google's own steps for 'Help me write': draft a new email or refine one for tone and clarity, and which Workspace or Google AI... support.google.com Guide Draft emails with Gemini in Gmail Google Gmail Help
  24. A writing tool built for fiction: the Hobby & Student plan is $10 a month, with larger plans at $22 and $44 for novels and... sudowrite.com Tool Sudowrite pricing Sudowrite

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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