At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, a session titled “Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder” will explore how early-stage startups can position humans and artificial intelligence agents on the same team. The session, to be held on the Builders Stage, will feature Gusto CEO and co-founder Josh Reeves, Insight Partners senior vice president Michelle Johnson, and Leland CEO and co-founder John Koelliker.
Artificial intelligence agents have begun taking on work previously assigned to early-stage employees, including engineering, customer support, research, and operations. This is prompting founders to consider which tasks should be owned by humans and which should be delegated to agents, alongside the question, “Who should we hire next?” Agents’ ability to perform multi-step tasks could increase the speed of small teams, but it also raises questions such as who will oversee the work, who will make the final decision, and who will be responsible when an agent makes a mistake.
Reeves, CEO of Gusto, which provides payroll, benefits, compliance, hiring, human resources, and retirement services to more than 500,000 companies, brings a broad perspective on when and how small businesses expand their teams. Johnson works with CEOs and CROs across North America and Europe at Insight Partners on go-to-market strategy, revenue organizations, and artificial intelligence applications. Before joining Insight Partners, she worked in sales and revenue operations on the team that increased Flock Safety’s annual recurring revenue from less than $1 million to $90 million.
Working at the intersection of talent and artificial intelligence, Koelliker is the co-founder and CEO of Leland, a career and talent platform for the AI era. Having held product and growth roles at LinkedIn, Curated, and Uber, Koelliker will share his experience of how people develop and apply their skills in a changing labor market.
The session will also discuss which responsibilities people should take on when AI agents can conduct research, prepare communications, analyze customer data, or manage part of the sales process. Tasks such as making decisions, taking responsibility, understanding customer needs, and building company culture are expected to remain important.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will bring together more than 10,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and technology decision-makers at Moscone West in San Francisco on October 13–15. Attendees who register by 11:59 p.m. PT on September 25 can save up to $200 on tickets, or up to 30% with group registration.
Why it matters
The central issue in the session is that AI agents are becoming not only productivity tools at early-stage startups but also a factor affecting team structure and hiring decisions. For founders working with limited human resources, this approach requires reassessing the division of tasks, oversight mechanisms, and which need a new employee would address. As agents take on multi-step tasks, the roles of human employees in making decisions, taking responsibility, understanding customer needs, and building company culture become more pronounced. However, who will have ultimate authority and accountability in the event of an error remains among the key questions this working model must resolve. The speakers’ experience in human resources, investment, revenue organizations, and career development will address the subject from the perspectives of different stakeholders.
Background
Disrupt is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we have published 7 articles mentioning the name, the most recent dated September 16, 2026.
Term: agent
An AI agent is software that calls tools and carries out multi-step tasks to achieve a goal rather than generating a single response.