Unlocking AI Superpowers for Faster Coding

If you're not using AI to accelerate your coding journey, you're leaving efficiency on the table. People are bringing their ideas to life in record time with no-code tools like the ones I’m about to share. And you’d be surprised to hear how much some of those apps are making.

This week, I’m breaking down the best ways to get the most out of four AI-powered tools: ChatGPT, Bolt, Cursor, and Perplexity. And at the end I’ll help you tie them all together to utilize in one big workflow.

🚀 ChatGPT – The ultimate AI assistant

ChatGPT is the first AI tool I started using. It’s a great place to start especially if you’ve heard about this AI wave but have never actually checked it out for yourself. Here are some key tips to get the most out of it:

• Be Specific: Clearly define what you need, including context, audience, and any specific requirements or constraints (ex. “You are a senior software developer tasked with adding [feature] to [project] based on [requirements]. Please create a step by step plan to achieve the desired implementation”

• Set a Tone: Specify the tone and style of your response to avoid generic outputs

• Iterate: Refine your prompts based on initial responses to achieve desired results

ChatGPT has become my starting point for any new project. It’s a great place to organize your thoughts and/or prompts to use within other tools that I mention later in this post.

⚡ Bolt – Rapid full-stack development

Bolt can turn your idea into a real app without you touching a single line of code. It’s been one of my favorite tools in recent weeks to rapidly prototype my ideas, and they just recently announced support for mobile app development (in addition to web).

• Start Simple: Too detailed of a project can (and usually will) cause problems down the line, and debugging can be a real PITA. I have the best experience using Bolt when I have a simple idea and want get a baseline of what the project could look like (design, file structure, etc.)

• Deployment: If you make an app with BoIt and want to send a link to your friend, Bolt can deploy your project and provide you with a working link. That’s probably one of my favorite features for beginners - you can instantly share your work

• Integrations: Bolt can integrate with tools like Supabase (for databases, authentication, and more) so you can actually build more than just a “pretty” website. If you want to level up with Bolt after getting familiar with design prompting, try to create an app involving Supabase - ask it for some ideas!

In my opinion, Bolt is best used for building a proof of concept that can later be refined elsewhere. However, I’m sure they will keep advancing and improving at a rapid pace, allowing more complex apps to be built with less errors along the way.

Here’s an example of how I used Bolt and ChatGPT to build a Habit Tracker:

🖥 Cursor – The AI-powered code editor

Cursor is the AI tool that I use most these days. There are a few core features that I use religiously that save me loads of time:

• Chat: This is the feature I use most - Cursor brings up a chat window where you can reference files and ask specific questions to debug errors, implement new features, etc. This eliminates the need to constantly copy and paste code in another window if you were trying to build an app with something like ChatGPT

• Composer: This mode is similar to Bolt because it can create files, install project dependencies, and basically run certain tasks on autopilot (especially with Agent mode enabled)

• Auto-Complete: The AI will prompt quick edits to your code that you can simply hit “Tab” to complete. It’s a small feature but one that ends up saving a lot of time

Here’s an example where I attached an HTML file and asked it to optimize the page for SEO. You can see an option to “Apply” the changes automatically (top-right), eliminating the need to copy and paste every proposed change:

🔎 Perplexity – Your AI-powered research assistant

I only discovered Perplexity last week, but it’s actually a hidden gem. It’s an AI-powered search engine that has become my new Google.

Instead of bullet points here, I’m just going to tell you straight up - Perplexity will be amazing for capitalizing on new trends and building apps with the latest tools, especially in conjunction with the ones we’ve mentioned today.

If I asked ChatGPT about a cool, brand new project I saw online, chances are it has no information about the project simply because the AI model was trained on older data. But if I saw a brand new project, gave Perplexity a link to its API, and asked how I could integrate it into my own custom app, it will give me a very comprehensive breakdown - and that’s an absolute game changer.

✅ Putting it all together

Now, how could a complete beginner use these apps? Here’s a workflow you could try:

• Use Perplexity to research recent trends and generate ideas for web or mobile apps (or think about how to solve a problem that YOU experience on a regular basis)

• Once you have your idea, tell ChatGPT about your desired features and ask it to generate a PRD (product requirements document)

• Take your PRD and paste it into Bolt (or another no-code development tool like v0) to generate a mockup of your app. Bonus points for adding Supabase integration (ex. making users sign up/log in to use your app’s features)!

• Once you’re happy with that app - or if it becomes too much for Bolt to handle - import your project to Cursor for more granular control of the project. Note: I’d only recommend this step if you have some prior coding experience, otherwise a code editor like Cursor can be very overwhelming

Want a challenge?

Make an app for yourself (web or mobile) using a workflow like this. Then tag me on X/twitter with a quick video demo, or even just a picture of the project - I’d love to see what you come up with!

🌟 Honorable Mentions

New AI tools are appearing left and right. It’s honestly becoming hard to keep track. But here are a few that have been on my watchlist:

• No-code, full-stack development: Lovable, Replit, and v0. They’re all pretty similar to Bolt in the sense that they can bring apps to life with zero coding on your part. I’ve played with each one except Replit, and the best one for design in my experience has been v0

• Photo AI: Stability, Midjourney, and Dall-E3 - there are a ton of image generation AI tools which I haven’t even covered - I’m actively testing one for a new project though, so I’ll try to share more soon!

I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of my favorite AI tools. Let me know if you want to see more content like this!