By now, there’s hardly a coder in the world who isn’t using AI copilot in some way. But using GitHub Copilot or Cursor.AI to ask technical questions and get help with debugging can be just the start. AI coding may one day include agents that can write their own programs based on natural language prompts. Such programs can also replace human engineers.
AI coding startups that can generate code from natural language prompts include Ripplet and Bubble.
Eventually, some VCs believe that companies will hire fewer human engineers and manage each human AI coding agents. “It’s not pie in the sky. It’s in the near future, but it’s not today,” VC Corinne Riley, a partner at Greylock, said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt last week.
Coding assistants are already typically allowed during coding technical interviews for potential jobs at Greylock’s portfolio companies, he added.
However, she doesn’t believe that really young companies should replace human engineers with AI agents to save cash. At the seed stage, “What you’re doing is, you’re building the foundations of the company, right? And so if you’re doing a big engineering trade at that stage, that’s probably not the right decision. These decisions are what you can take in the future,” he said.
Still, cash management is why young startup engineers should be using AI coding assistance as much as possible, said Hustle Fund co-founder and general partner VC Elizabeth Yen on stage. can do
“One of the big challenges in the early stages, you don’t know exactly what problem you’re solving and exactly what ICP is. [ideal customer profile] And that’s exactly what they need. So you’re going to end up doing a lot of work. So the faster you can go, and the faster you can iterate, the better you can learn quickly,” Yen said.
He believes that early-stage startups should be open to any tool that lets founders hack together prototype products to move forward quickly, even if it’s all more thoughtful later. Had to rebuild. “I would actually be in favor of it if it meant you could learn faster,” she said.
This is in contrast to the pre-AI days, when every pilot had to be coded by someone who had the skills. Today, an engineer can point up a model, use some AI debugging, and take a peek.
The deal includes VC Renata Quintini, co-founder of early-stage Renegade Partners.
“If it’s about product-market fit or testing, you should take advantage of that, but I wouldn’t worry about improving it at the seed stage,” he said on stage.
Interestingly, as startups emerge out of the gate using AI development processes in 2024, we may witness the seeds of the first AI agent workforce of the future. And the first people to get AI agents as co-workers will be the coders themselves. It’s a thought that equals irony and prophecy.
Credit : techcrunch.com
