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?

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, come together on the Builders Stage for an insightful session called “Hiring When AI Is a Co-Founder.”

This session will explore how early-stage companies are building teams where humans and AI agents work alongside each other—and how founders can do that without sacrificing speed, accountability, or culture. Register now and save up to $200 on your Disrupt pass before rates increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Bring your community and save up to 30% more when you register as a group.

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. That gives founders an opportunity 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?” That distinction matters. Giving 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?