How did Windsurf, CloudCode and Cursor compare as coding tools?

Every PM is asking the same question: Which AI tools actually make me faster?

There are hundreds of apps. Most are hype. Some are game-changers.

Today, I sat down with Anshumanni Rudra - VP of Product at Hotstar, now Group Product Manager at Google leading all APAC payments - to rank 70+ AI tools tier-list style.

We didn’t hold back. S-tier tools got crowned. D-tier tools got exposed.

And we revealed the single best AI tool for product managers in 2025.

Watch the full episode for a chance to win a 1-year free subscription to my newsletter.

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Check out the conversation on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

Brought to you by:

* Miro: The innovation workspace

* Vanta: Leading AI security & compliance platform

* Testkube: Leading test orchestration platform

* Kameleoon: Leading AI experimentation platform

* Dovetail: abc

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Key Takeaways

1. Claude Code is the absolute best AI tool for PMs - Anshumanni runs 6 terminal windows simultaneously doing different things on different parts of his directory. It understands your entire codebase and lets you go from idea to working code in minutes.

2. superwhisper is the S-tier dictation tool that has Anshumanni shouting debugging commands at his screen like Tony Stark. His typing speed has actually fallen since he started dictating everything, making typing feel obsolete.

3. Lindy.AI is the S-tier agent builder PMs actually want because you can prompt it with natural language instead of building flows. Create email responders, meeting prep assistants, and podcast-to-blog converters without touching code.

4. Replit is the ultimate AI prototyping champion that can plan and work for hours building complete applications with minimal guidance. Even before AI, Replit was a strong web-based IDE with deep developer understanding that shows.

5. Granola is the S-tier meeting tool that learns your style and auto-generates talking points based on previous conversations. Unlike Otter or Fireflies, it has intelligent context awareness like a personal assistant.

6. Perplexity gets C-tier as Anshumanni's usage has "gone down quite drastically" since the early days. AI mode in other tools now does what Perplexity used to do with deep search rabbit holes.

7. Cursor gets A-tier as the only IDE with the agent on the right side of the screen, which matters for how PMs think. Anshumanni's usage is "way higher" than other tools purely because of this UX choice.

8. Bolt is Anshumanni's pick for best AI prototyping in A-tier with the best structure from the start. It thinks about both front-end and back-end by default, letting you go from prompt to deployed app in minutes.

9. GitHub Copilot is the first D-tier tool because it's "just not as good" - very ChatGPT focused, not enough Claude. Developers are leaving for Cursor and Claude Code for a reason.

10. Don't chase shiny tools - analyze how you spend your week, find what takes the most time, then find the specific tool that solves that problem. Pick tools for your workflow, experiment, then measure if they improve productivity.

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Related Content

Podcasts:

* How to Use Google’s Latest AI Tools | Jaclyn Konzelmann Episode

* How to PM Production Changes with Devin | Sahil Lavingia Episode

* Complete Course: AI Product Management

Newsletters:

* How to Become an AI Product Manager with No Experience

* How to Write a Killer AI Product Manager Resume

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