This CEO wants AI agents to outnumber his human employees this year

Stackblitz CEO Eric Simons. Fortune via Reuters Connect 2026-02-10T18:47:01.802Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. The CEO of StackBlitz says the software development startup has "gone all in" on AI agents. Eric Simons told Business Insider he's aiming to have more AI agents than humans working for him this year. He envisions a future where your AI agent talks to other people's agents on your behalf. StackBlitz CEO Eric Simons aims to have more AI agents than human employees working at the startup this year, a milestone he sees as emblematic of a broader shift underway across the software industry. Speaking in an interview with Business Insider, Simons said StackBlitz has "gone all in on agents," deploying internally built AI systems across business intelligence, coding, product development, customer support, and outbound sales.AI has become increasingly good at writing software code, to the point where the technology is beginning to change how companies are run. OpenClaw, an open-source AI assistant that works inside platforms like WhatsApp, Slack, and iMessage, is an early example of digital agents communicating and coordinating with one another without direct human involvement. "To me, this is a crystal ball into the wildness of the inevitable future," Simons told Business Insider. "Your AI agents will talk to other people's agents on your behalf, negotiating pricing for a product you want to buy, inquiring about availability for a restaurant, arguing your political viewpoints.""Agents are an extension of yourself," he added. "People will generally trust their agents with whatever they recommend them to buy, reserve, believe, or otherwise." Every time Alistair publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox! Stay connected to Alistair and get more of their work as it publishes. Sign up By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Software sell-off Simons's comments come as software and SaaS stocks have slumped in recent weeks, a move he attributes to growing investor recognition that AI can now build software autonomously. As AI tools become more capable, he said, long-standing competitive moats based on specialized knowledge are eroding.He compared the shift to the transformation of manufacturing over the past century. Craft knowledge once protected businesses, he said, but automation and digital design ultimately displaced many incumbents. "Today, it's a CAD file you can 3D print," Simons said. "While every individual does not use these profound new powers directly (like 3D printing a chair), there's an entire new generation of companies that do — and they have replaced the previous era of companies," Simons explained. "They disrupted those incumbents by leveraging automation that made it far cheaper and at a massive scale not possible previously when moats were just knowledge and bare hands."For businesses, the implications are stark. Even traditionally "safe" enterprise software may be vulnerable if AI agents can migrate or rebuild systems rapidly. "What does it mean when all of software can be written, rewritten, migrated, or otherwise, 100x or 10,000x faster than it could've ever been done before, by a workforce that does not sleep, and can be parallelized near infinitely?" Simons said. "It's daunting and mind-bending, and I think the repricing of SaaS in public markets more accurately reflects this today."Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.