TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Session to Examine AI Agents as Startup Teammates

The session is scheduled for October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco. It will feature 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. TechCrunch said the event is expected to draw more than 10,000 startups, investors and technology decision-makers.

The discussion will focus on how early-stage companies build teams in which humans and AI agents work alongside each other, and how founders can do so without sacrificing speed, accountability or culture. For an early-stage company, every hire is a trade-off among capability, cost and speed. AI agents add another option because they can complete multistep tasks rather than simply help an employee complete them. That gives founders a chance to reconsider what their earliest teams should look like.

Instead of asking only who to hire next, the article said, founders can start with what work needs to be done and whether a person is the best way to do it. Delegating work to an AI agent can help a small team move faster, but it also creates questions about ownership. Who checks the work? Who makes the final decision? What happens when an agent gets something wrong? Which responsibilities are too important to delegate? TechCrunch said those are no longer theoretical questions for companies building AI-native startups.

The three speakers bring different perspectives. Reeves leads Gusto, which supports more than 500,000 companies across payroll, benefits, compliance, onboarding, HR and retirement, combining AI with more than a decade of experience serving small businesses. Johnson works with CEOs and chief revenue officers across North America and Europe on go-to-market strategy, revenue organizations and AI implementation. Before joining Insight Partners, she helped scale Flock Safety from less than $1 million to $90 million in annual recurring revenue as an early sales and revenue operations leader.

Koelliker leads Leland, described as a career and talent platform for the AI era. He has experience in product and growth roles at LinkedIn, Curated and Uber, and now builds a company focused on how people develop and apply skills in a changing labor market. Together, TechCrunch said, the speakers offer three views of the same challenge: how to design a startup team when some work can be done by agents from day one.

The article also pointed to decisions that are difficult to reduce to a workflow. Who understands what customers really need? Who challenges a bad strategy? Who takes responsibility when something fails? Who builds relationships, motivates a team, or decides when the data is pointing in the wrong direction? As AI agents become more capable, those questions could become more important. The role of an early employee may increasingly be defined by judgment, ownership and the ability to direct both people and machines rather than by completing a larger volume of tasks.

TechCrunch said passes for Disrupt can be purchased at a discount of up to $200 before rates increase on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Group registration can save up to 30% more. The session will be held on the Builders Stage.