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. A hands-on, regularly updated comparison of the two tools founders reach for first. zapier.com Article Perplexity vs. ChatGPT: Which AI tool is better? Zapier
  2. Side-by-side query tests that show concretely when AI search saves time and when Google still wins. felloai.com Article Google Search vs. Perplexity: The Best Search Tool for Daily Use in 2025 Fello AI
  3. A structured teardown of how the answer-engine experience differs from the link-list experience. llmrefs.com Article Perplexity vs Google: A Head-to-Head SEO and UX Analysis LLMrefs
  4. The official quick-start covering Search, Research and Labs modes so you use the right one per task. perplexity.ai Guide Getting Started with Perplexity Perplexity
  5. Video How To Use Perplexity AI For Research - Terrifyingly SMART! AI educator (YouTube)
  6. Video How to Use Perplexity AI 2025 (Step by Step Tutorial for Beginners) YouTube tutorial
  7. The India moment for AI search: Perplexity Pro bundled free for Airtel users, worth checking if you qualify. airtel.in Article Airtel partners with Perplexity: Pro for 360mn customers Airtel
  8. Why web-grounded Claude changed the calculus for founders who prefer Claude's reasoning. venturebeat.com Article Anthropic just gave Claude a superpower: real-time web search VentureBeat
  9. OpenAI's own India-focused session on replacing search with ChatGPT's research stack. academy.openai.com Video ChatGPT for Research: Web Search, Deep Research & Code (OpenAI Academy India) OpenAI Academy India
  10. Video Introduction to Deep Research (launch demo from Tokyo) OpenAI
  11. Video OpenAI's Deep Research Agent in 8 Minutes YouTube explainer
  12. The official how-to including query limits per plan, so you spend your monthly runs wisely. help.openai.com Guide Deep research in ChatGPT (Help Center) OpenAI
  13. Google's launch post explaining the plan-approve-refine flow Gemini pioneered. blog.google Article Try Deep Research and our new experimental model in Gemini Google
  14. Short official playbook on editing the research plan and asking for report revisions. blog.google Guide How to use Google's Deep Research: official tips Google
  15. One page on capabilities and supported inputs, useful before committing to a tool. gemini.google Guide Gemini Deep Research overview Google
  16. Video No Priors Ep. 112: OpenAI Deep Research with Isa Fulford No Priors (Sarah Guo, Elad Gil)
  17. Isa Fulford and Josh Tobin on what the agent is actually good and bad at, from the source. sequoiacap.com Podcast OpenAI's Deep Research on Training AI Agents End-to-End (Training Data) Sequoia Capital
  18. A widely shared operator thread: use a strong model to write your deep research prompt first. x.com Thread How I'm using Deep Research (prompting walkthrough) BuccoCapital Bloke
  19. A fill-in-the-blanks system that reliably turns vague questions into report-grade briefs. ahmadosman.com Guide My Ultimate DeepResearch Prompt Builder Template Ahmad Osman
  20. A living library of proven deep research prompts across OpenAI, Gemini and Qwen. github.com Tool awesome-deep-research-prompts (GitHub) LangGPT community
  21. A startup operator runs the same $5M ARR brief through both tools and shows the raw outputs. gregisenberg.com Article ChatGPT vs Perplexity Deep Research: business ideas test Greg Isenberg
  22. Video Deep Research Battle: Gemini beats ChatGPT, Perplexity & Grok YouTube AI reviewer
  23. A prompting-focused comparison that shows how brief quality changes the winner. newsletter.learnprompting.org Article Deep Research: ChatGPT vs. Gemini. Who wins? Learn Prompting
  24. A clear practitioner explainer of the five-step pipeline behind the reports. gend.co Article ChatGPT Deep Research: How It Works and When to Use It Gend

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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