It's crazy how fast AI is moving. I feel like we're in the middle of the first inning of the next "holy s***" thing that will change our lives. What future generations will look back on, like we did with Booms/GenX not having cell phones, and ask, "Wait, so you used to sit and write your own emails/write your own papers in school?"

Even as I write this on Sunday (and it’s how I made the meme above), the news of OpenAI’s new photo gen tool is melting GPUs it’s being used so much:

It's the next printing press, air conditioner, airplane, internet, iPhone, etc. However, it's a crowded space. Which tools are actually making us the most productive?

According to Menlo Ventures' report, code generation is by far and away the most popular way people are using, seeing value, and spending on AI in 2025.

We're even seeing many lean teams making 100+ million with such small teams. They're doing it with efficiency that SaaS didn't come close to.

Because code gen is seeing the most value capture for the average knowledge worker, I wanted to dive into that a little more.

The AI Coding Tool Landscape

As it relates to code generation, there are two main categories:

1. Browser-based tools - Cloud development environments like Replit, Bolt, Lovable, and Vercel’s v0 that work well for non-technical folks

2. IDE-based tools - Local development assistants like Cursor and Windsurf are ideal for software engineers and technical people and are the top products in the market

In my previous article, "How I Built A Sales Co-Pilot App In ~20 Minutes," I showed how I used Replit Agent to quickly build a sales tool that helped with pre-call research, post-call follow-ups, and coaching.

I combined several APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity) to create a simple but effective app that can improve anyone’s GTM workflow.

Last year, I felt forced to use Replit agent because I wasn’t as familiar with the integrated development environment, or IDE - the area where developers live day-to-day.

But now I've switched over to Cursor and Windsurf's agent products, and it's been magical. They feel even better than the experience with Replit. I feel I can get a little more street cred with the developers I work with.

Sales Co-Pilot 2.0

For this second version, I'm rebuilding my sales co-pilot application that addresses the same fundamental use cases:

1. Pre-call preparation: Automating research on prospects and their companies

2. Post-call follow-up: Generating detailed, personalized follow-up messages

3. Sales coaching: Analyzing call recordings to identify strengths and areas for improvement

The key difference is that this time, I'm elevating the technical stack by using the following:

• Cursor - Code editor and agent that is the centerpiece of this all

• Vercel - for it’s beautiful front-end feel and look & to deploy

  • NextJS for the frontend framework

  • TypeScript for type safety

  • Tailwind CSS for styling

• APIs

  • Claude for writing and code generation

  • Perplexity for real-time research

• Database integration for storing conversation history and user preferences

  • This is optional should you actually want to store past information (which is helpful for a real app that you want to re-use)

For this, I wanted to show it via video, so see this Loom link on how to build this in ~15 minutes or so. Hope you all enjoy, and let me know any feedback/other ways in which you all are using these tools.

Cheers,

Chris