# AI is coming for the bookshelf, too There’s new required reading for founders and engineers. The Brex Behcnmark reveals the books they're buying to build new AI frontiers and scale smarter. **URL Source:** https://www.brex.com/journal/brex-benchmark-top-business-tech-ai-books-2025 --- The Brex Benchmark AI is coming for the bookshelf, too. _The Brex Benchmark is a monthly snapshot of the top software and AI vendors by dollar spend using Brex. With 30,000+ customers spending billions of dollars on Brex, we have an inside look at the top tools driving modern business. This edition explores 2025 book trends among Brex customers._ **AI has made its way into [the modern software stack](https://www.brex.com/journal/brex-benchmark-startup-software-stack) — and our book stacks.** Which books are founders, builders, and business leaders reaching for in 2025? We looked at our deep purchasing data to find out. At the top of the technical list: **“AI Engineering: Building Applications with Foundation Models,”** the defining manual for anyone building smart, agent-powered apps. If you’re coding with LLMs, it’s probably already in arm’s reach.** “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”** is the top business book in 2025, reminding us that things like trust and accountability are still core to every high-performing team. This list is possible thanks to data collected from Brex’s unique L3 transaction-level detail. Through auto-generated, itemized receipts, we can gather insights on the top titles Brex customers bought on Amazon. Brex users get that same level of detail — unmatched visibility into spend, down to item-level data, so you can make smarter decisions, automate reconciliation, and unlock richer insights. Most other fintechs only offer L1 or L2 data like merchant name/ZIP code, transaction amount, and date. Keep reading to see what else is required reading for founders and operators in 2025. We even compared the list with our own Pedro Franceschi’s [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/89900983-pedro-franceschi) to see what top fintech CEOs are consuming. ![Top 10 technical books purchased by Brex customers in 2025](https://brand.brex.com/transform/e7048239-82cb-45f3-afa0-12d1486dab07/top-technical-books-2x) We’re all learning how to scale vibe-coded tools. The most popular tech book in 2025 is **“AI Engineering.”** It’s a must-have for developers who want to build apps that use smart agents and work at a big scale. Last year’s top book, **“Designing Data-Intensive Applications,”** is still a favorite. It’s been a rankings mainstay since its 2017 release and is the go-to guide for architecting fast, stable, and maintainable systems as usage and data grow. And as coding becomes more of an art, “taste” really matters. **“The Pragmatic Programmer,”** in the No. 3 spot, suggests code quality is now strategy, not just style. It’s a timeless guide to writing code that’s clean, intentional, and built to last. ![Top 10 business books purchased by Brex customers in 2025](https://brand.brex.com/transform/2ee4b6ee-0def-4647-9c74-c0b824b70048/top-business-books-2x) Top business reads: From leading smarter to ‘letting them.' Startups are scaling faster than ever, with new $100M ARR milestones hitting every month. In the chaos of hypergrowth, **“The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”** remains essential reading for leaders focused on building strong, aligned teams. “**Atomic Habits”** shares lessons on building products users love and habits that keep them coming back. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) appears twice in the top 10, in **“Traction”** at No. 3 and **“What the Heck Is EOS?” **at No. 7. It’s proving to be an essential guide for some founders to manage the do-it-all position of CEO. The only new top 10 entrant is **“Let Them,” **a book that’s been trending in our own circles. It explores the mindset of stepping back, allowing others to lead themselves in order to build independence and ownership. **Pedro’s Goodreads** Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi's Goodreads list features six of the top 25 business books in our data: - **“The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” (No. 1)** - **“The Challenger Sale” (No. 4)** - **“Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't” (No. 15)** - **“Who: The A Method for Hiring” (No. 21)** - **“The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers” (No. 22)** - **“The Creative Act: A Way of Being” (No. 25)** _Sumeet Marwaha is the Head of Data at Brex, supporting Brex in understanding how customers spend, adopt tools, and grow their businesses._ _All analysis conducted for this report that uses Brex internal customer data is anonymized and aggregated for privacy. To learn more about how we use data in anonymized or aggregated form for these trend reports, email us at privacy@brex.com._ ## Related Articles ### [Brex Benchmark: The 15 newsletters startups are paying for in 2026](https://www.brex.com/journal/august-2026-brex-benchmark) Based on Brex card spend, one writer's Substack can now out-earn a decade of trade press. 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