What AI Coding Tools Developers Actually Use in 2025

TL;DR

Cursor is the go-to AI IDE for hybrid front-end and back-end projects, while ChatGPT handles everything from emails to contract review thanks to years of accumulated personal context. Wispr Flow dictation triples productivity by letting you prompt at nearly 200 words per minute, and specialized tools like Warp, DeepAgent, and Lovable cover terminals, long-running agents, and simple frontends.

Transcript

I have gone over a lot of AI tools on this channel. I've made probably 30 plus videos at this point covering those various tools. So in this video I want to talk to you about which ones I actually use on a day by day basis as a developer, what tools are open on my computer and are getting the most use, stick around. I'm going to go through a bunch ... Read More

Key Insights

• Cursor is the preferred day-to-day AI IDE for hybrid projects that combine back-end, front-end, and many components, because it now outperforms Windsurf after rapidly copying and adding the features Windsurf originally led with.
• ChatGPT gets the most daily use of any tool because years of accumulated personal context (car, travel, plans) let it give more relevant replies than newer AI tools that lack that history, despite security tradeoffs.
• Wispr Flow is a background dictation tool triggered by a keyboard shortcut that works in any application on Windows, Mac, and iPhone, and reportedly triples productivity by enabling roughly 190-200 words per minute versus 60-70 typed.
• Voice dictation produces better AI prompts because speaking encourages more detail and context than typing, since users are lazier when they have to type long prompts out manually.
• Wispr Flow can tag individual variables and files inside Cursor and Windsurf as you dictate, using each tool's built-in features to supply the right context to the AI rather than dumping plain text.
• DeepAgent by Abacus AI handles complex, long-running agent tasks like searching the internet, building apps, generating PowerPoints, or researching nearby construction timelines with high accuracy that ChatGPT cannot match.
• Warp is an AI terminal that generates code and runs commands, excelling at automation, deployment, containerization, and Kubernetes work, and can run multiple agents in parallel across tabs like multithreaded agents.
• Lovable is used only for generating simple frontends such as landing pages and basic sites, not full-stack apps; the dev launch vault landing page was built in Lovable then refined in Cursor.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is the best AI IDE for developers in 2025?

Cursor is presented as the go-to AI IDE, especially for hybrid projects that combine a back end, a front end, and many different components. The creator also uses Windsurf, which performed better than Cursor when it first launched, but Cursor accelerated quickly and copied Windsurf's early features, so it is now used most of the time. These preferences can shift if Windsurf ships a strong update.

Q: How does an AI IDE like Cursor actually work?

An AI IDE lets you open a window, pick a model such as GPT-5, and type a request like changing your website title. The tool then writes code for you, makes changes, and lets you view those changes directly inside the editor. The creator still prefers editing manually, moving files around, and keeping control of the code because he is comfortable working in these editors as a real developer.

Q: Why does the creator use ChatGPT more than any other AI tool?

ChatGPT gets the most use because years of feeding it personal information gave it deep context, so it knows his car, travel, and plans and returns highly relevant replies. He uses it for emails, query responses, contract review, managing students, resume reviews, video scripting, accounting, and random photo-based questions. Even though other tools are better at specific tasks, this accumulated context makes it his everyday default across phone and computer.

Q: How much does Wispr Flow improve productivity?

The creator says Wispr Flow legitimately triples his productivity. He normally types around 60-70 words per minute and is not a great typist, but with Flow he can stream thoughts at almost 200 words per minute, with roughly 190 shown as his average in the tool. This lets his AI prompts become far more detailed and contextual without him having to slow down or type everything out manually.

Q: What makes Wispr Flow better than built-in voice dictation?

Wispr Flow runs in the background with a keyboard shortcut and works in any application, unlike built-in OS voice modes tied to specific contexts. It is faster and more accurate, saves a history of dictations so long prompts are not lost, and works on Windows, Mac, and iPhone via an iOS keyboard extension. In Cursor and Windsurf it can also tag variables and files as you dictate to supply better context.

Q: What is DeepAgent by Abacus AI used for?

DeepAgent handles complex, long-running agent tasks such as searching the internet, building apps, generating PowerPoints, and making documents. The creator used it to design his new apartment's interior from a floor plan, build a roadmap tracker application for his dev launch students, and research nearby construction timelines, floors, and view impact from just his address. These tasks ran for a long time but completed with high accuracy that ChatGPT could not deliver.

Q: What is Warp and when should you use it?

Warp is an AI terminal branded as an agentic AI editor that generates code and runs commands, making it strong for automation, deployment, and back-end work without heavy visuals. The creator built a full Discord bot with it because of the deployment, configuration, and containerization involved. It can switch between normal terminal and agent mode, open files directly, and run multiple agents in parallel across tabs like multithreaded agents, which is useful for containerization and Kubernetes.

Q: When should you use Lovable instead of a full AI IDE?

Lovable should be used only for generating simple frontends like landing pages, basic designs, or relatively simple sites, not entire full-stack applications. The creator generated the complete landing page for his dev launch vault (vault.devlaunch.us) in Lovable, then brought it into Cursor for a few adjustments. The workflow shows Lovable is best for quickly spinning up slick, simple promotional sites before refining them in a more controlled editor.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The creator, a developer who has made 30-plus AI tool videos, shares only the tools he actually uses daily. Cursor is his primary AI IDE for hybrid projects because it now beats Windsurf, though he still keeps Windsurf open and values controlling and editing code himself.

• ChatGPT is his most-used tool overall, kept open for hours on a second monitor for emails, contracts, resume reviews, video scripting, accounting, and random photo questions. Years of fed-in personal context make its replies more relevant than newer tools, despite the security downside he acknowledges.

• Wispr Flow dictation triples his coding productivity by enabling near-200-words-per-minute prompting across every app, and can tag files in Cursor and Windsurf. DeepAgent handles complex agent tasks, Warp serves as a parallel-agent AI terminal for deployment, and Lovable spins up simple frontend landing pages.