Everyone is speaking about AI. However how are individuals really utilizing new automation instruments, and what worth are they getting out of them?
That was our query to attendees on the AI2 Incubator’s annual BBQ celebration on Thursday, hosted on the AI Home at Seattle’s Pier 70 as a part of Seattle Tech Week.
Techies shared a few of their favourite AI instruments and the way they’re utilizing them. Learn on to study extra. Solutions have been edited for brevity and readability.
Joe Heitzeberg, founding father of AI Tinkerers
Favourite instruments: Granola and Amp
Use case: “Granola simply works rather well. It mechanically joins conferences. I can use it for something the place I need to take notes. It’s unobtrusive. And the opposite one is Amp. It’s a coding instrument I’ve been utilizing for two-and-a-half weeks — objectively, it’s higher than Claude Code. It simply does a greater job of taking my directions and determining how one can fulfill my goals in a manner that’s suitable with my code base.”
Mamtha Banerjee, managing director at JPMorgan Chase
Favourite instrument: Perplexity Comet
Use case: “It’s not that I’m utilizing it loads. Nevertheless it’s very fascinating the way it modifications what you consider a browser — it’s virtually like an working system.”
Gayathri (G3) Venkataraman, CEO at Dodda AI
Favourite instrument: Perplexity, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot
Use case: “I take advantage of them loads for just about all of the duties I’ve to do. I provide you with plans and ask them to let me know if I’m overlaying the whole lot or lacking something — I’m utilizing it as a complete completeness instrument. I’m additionally utilizing them for journey planning and for retail and different issues I would like to purchase at house.”
Beth Kolko, funding companion at Pioneer Fund
Favourite instrument: Claude
Use case: “I simply did a bunch of touring and I used Claude to assist me slim down plans. I requested it to inform me the historical past of a spot and the place I ought to go. Professionally, I take advantage of it as a result of I do lots of writing and talking for my profession. I’ll add issues I’ve already written on completely different subjects and get it to do some synthesis work.”
Ti Zhao, companion at Pack Ventures
Favourite instrument: Claude
Use case: “I take advantage of it for the whole lot — to plan my exercises, plan my meal plans. It provides me recipe concepts and concepts to throw a cocktail party or entertain kids. It primarily solves the blank-page downside for me. I don’t belief the whole lot it tells me however it may generate an inventory of concepts and I can work off of it actually simply.”
Joe Golden, founder and CEO at Paper2Audio
Favourite instrument: Google Gemini Flash 2.0; OpenAI o3
Use case: “Our firm makes it so you’ll be able to take heed to analysis papers. We don’t want complicated considering or reasoning, or agentic mode. So Gemini Flash 2.0 is quick and low-cost. It will probably additionally parse pictures properly sufficient and cheaply. One other instrument I’ve been utilizing is o3. A member of the family was lately identified with most cancers. It’s unbelievable for medical analysis. It’s actually invaluable for entering into a brand new subject of analysis.”
Darian Parrish, founder and CEO at PwrOn
Favourite instrument: Poe
Use case: “Poe means that you can entry all of the fashions. That’s the best worth chatbot. And I take advantage of lots of the coding instruments — Windsurf, Lovable, Cursor, Replit. I’ve estimated I’m round 30 instances quicker at software program creation.”
Markiesha Patrice, startup neighborhood lead at Nebius
Favourite instrument: Descript
Use case: “I do lots of video content material and modifying, so Descript makes it quite simple for me. It’s saving time and it’s additionally ease of use. In case you’re not somebody who’s tremendous technical or skilled, there may be not a lot further information that you need to have with a purpose to go into the platform and use it.”
Gregory Kennedy, chief vibe marketer at Vibe Your SaaS
Favourite instrument: Claude, Canva
Use case: “As a writing assistant, Claude might be the very best one. It really works for me like an intern, the place it may get began with an concept. I take advantage of it extra like a extremely superior model of Grammarly. And I believe Canva doesn’t get lots of love, and their AI instruments are fairly good. I do lots of visuals and graphics for advertising and marketing. The instruments are actually highly effective for transferring backgrounds, manipulating issues, no matter you want. It’s actually quick and simple.”
Elizabeth Russo, CEO at adyn
Favourite instrument: Claude
Use case: “Largely to assist as a writing assistant, primarily for emails to potential companions and buyers. It will probably generally unlock author’s block or assist me recover from procrastination of beginning one thing. Even when it provides me a foul draft, I really feel motivated that I can do higher and repair it.”
Xuchen Yao, co-founder and CEO at Seasalt.ai
Favourite instrument: Warp
Use case: “I take advantage of it for vibe coding. I simply open up a terminal and inform it the directions. I take advantage of it to translate blogs into 20 completely different languages to make our firm extra worldwide. I additionally use it to do code critiques.”
Robert Mao, architect at AIGNE
Favourite instrument: AIGNE
Use case: “Lots of people are doing vibe coding, however for me, as a developer, I really get pleasure from coding. However I actually hate writing design paperwork and person paperwork. And so we’re constructing a vibe doc instrument for builders. All you do is feed in your design concept draft and the AI turns it right into a full doc. Or when you already wrote the code, it makes a brilliant cool design doc.”
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