The first few hires at a startup can define the company. But increasingly, not every new capability requires a new employee.
AI agents are beginning to take on engineering, customer support, research, and operational work that would previously have been assigned to early team members. For founders, that creates a new question before they even open a job requisition: What should people own, and what should be delegated to AI?
The First 10 People in a Startup May No Longer All Be People
For an early-stage company, every hire is a trade-off between capability, cost, and speed. AI agents add another option.
Engineering tasks, customer support, and operational work can increasingly be delegated to systems capable of completing multistep tasks rather than simply helping an employee complete them. This shift allows founders to rethink what their earliest teams should actually look like.
Instead of automatically asking, “Who do we hire next?,” the starting question can become: “What work needs to be done — and is a person the best way to do it?” This distinction is crucial.
Delegating work to an AI agent can help a small team move faster, but it also introduces new questions around ownership. Who checks the work? Who makes the final decision? What happens when an agent gets something wrong? And which responsibilities are too important to delegate? These are pressing questions for companies building AI-native startups.
Three Perspectives on the AI-Native Team Shared at Disrupt
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Josh Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Gusto; Michelle Johnson, senior vice president at Insight Partners; and John Koelliker, CEO and co-founder of Leland, will discuss how early-stage companies are building teams where humans and AI agents work alongside each other.
Josh Reeves sees the shift across a broad customer base. Gusto supports over 500,000 companies in payroll, benefits, compliance, onboarding, HR, and retirement, combining AI with extensive experience serving small businesses. This positions Gusto close to the realities of companies deciding how and when to grow their teams.
Michelle Johnson brings a startup scaling perspective. At Insight Partners, she collaborates with CEOs and CROs across North America and Europe on go-to-market strategy, revenue organizations, and AI implementation. Her experience raises questions about what human members of a revenue team should focus on if AI agents can handle tasks like researching prospects and managing parts of the sales process.
John Koelliker operates at the intersection of talent and AI. As CEO and co-founder of Leland, he brings experience in product and growth roles, focusing on how people develop and apply skills in a changing labor market.
What Should People Still Own vs. AI?
Some of the most important decisions inside a startup are difficult to reduce to a workflow. Questions about understanding customer needs, challenging poor strategies, and taking responsibility for failures become increasingly significant as AI agents become more capable.
The role of early employees may increasingly be defined by judgment, ownership, and the ability to direct both people and machines, rather than simply completing a larger volume of tasks. This shift has implications across the startup ecosystem.
Learn How to Build the Company, Not Just the Technology, on the Builders Stage at Disrupt
Early-stage companies have always competed on their ability to do more with less. AI agents could take that principle much further.
However, a company is more than the sum of the tasks it completes. Founders still need people who can make decisions, take responsibility, understand customers, and create the culture around which a business grows.
The challenge lies in determining where those people create the greatest value and where an AI agent might be more effective. This conversation will be central to the session at Disrupt.
Join them on the Builders Stage to explore what happens when AI not only assists your startup but also becomes part of the team. Engage with over 10,000 founders, investors, and operators at Moscone West, the Expo Hall, and Startup Battlefield 200.
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