Are You ‘Agentic’ Enough for the AI Era?
#AI coding agents #Human agency #Silicon Valley #Notion #Tech skills #Job transformation #AI collaboration #Coding automation
📌 Key Takeaways
- AI coding agents are automating technical work, making human 'agency' the most valuable skill in tech
- Companies like Notion are shifting their workforce to focus on directing AI rather than manual coding
- Silicon Valley is changing hiring practices to prioritize those who can effectively work with AI tools
- The term 'agentic' has developed negative connotations despite representing valuable qualities
📖 Full Retelling
Silicon Valley tech leaders and companies like Notion are experiencing a significant shift in workplace skills as AI coding agents increasingly handle technical tasks, making human 'agency' - the ability to decide what AI should work on - the most valuable commodity in the tech industry during 2026. This transformation has accelerated as tools like Claude Code and Codex automate much of the coding work that previously defined software engineering roles. The change is particularly evident at companies like Notion, where cofounder Simon Last has stopped coding manually entirely instead managing up to four AI coding agents simultaneously. Last experiences what he calls 'token anxiety' when agents aren't working in the background, viewing the ability to harness these tools as 'the most important skill in the world.' Notion's other cofounder, Akshay Kothari, emphasizes that while AI agents handle implementation, humans are increasingly valued for their taste and judgment in directing these tools' work. This shift is reshaping hiring practices across Silicon Valley, with investors like Jennifer Li of Andreessen Horowitz noting that companies not using AI tools are considered 'red flags.' Job descriptions now prioritize candidates who are 'excited about building the machine that lets us move fast and build features end-to-end with agents' rather than those focused solely on raw coding execution. However, the term 'agentic' has developed negative connotations, with some viewing it as a cringy reference to seeing oneself as a 'main character' rather than an 'NPC' in the world.
🏷️ Themes
AI transformation, Workplace evolution, Human-AI collaboration
📚 Related People & Topics
Silicon Valley
Technology hub in California, United States
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley. The cities of Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto and ...
Agency (philosophy)
Capacity of an actor to act in a given environment
Agency is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment. In some contexts, the exercise of agency is linked to questions of moral responsibility, and may pertain to questions of moral agency. Agency may either be classified as unconscious, involuntary behavior, or purposeful, goal directed ...
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Presidency of Donald Trump
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Original Source
Maxwell Zeff Business Feb 26, 2026 2:00 PM Are You ‘Agentic’ Enough for the AI Era? Silicon Valley built AI coding agents that can handle most of the grunt work. Now, the most valuable skill in tech is deciding what they should do. Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images Save this story Save this story Silicon Valley has always prized “high-agency” individuals—people who impress their ideas upon the world by thinking for themselves and taking action without being told what to do. But as the performance of AI coding tools has surged, so has the industry’s emphasis on humans being "agentic" themselves. “Today’s agents might already be more capable than all three of us here in the room,” says Akshay Kothari, cofounder and chief operating officer of the $11 billion productivity startup Notion . “Taste is something we think is pretty unique to Notion, but you can imagine agents getting pretty good at that too. Eventually, the only thing left for humans is agency.” That idea might sound outrageous to most people, but it will come as no surprise to many in Silicon Valley . A viral Harper's essay brought the subject to a head recently. It followed a few young people in San Francisco and concluded that being agentic has less to do with productivity and “more to do with constantly chasing attention online.” But in my conversations with founders, researchers, and investors, I came to a different conclusion. The tech industry is grappling with a very real shift in how software engineers do their jobs. Millions of developers are using AI coding agents like Claude Code and Codex to automate much of their work (some tech companies are even requiring it ). For many, a massive piece of their value is now tied to deciding what AI coding agents should work on. The shift is unsettling to those who enjoyed the act of sitting down and actually writing code, but for some of the industry’s most “agentic,” it’s an opportunity. Simon Last, another Notion cofounder, uses AI coding agent...
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