Vercel CEO claims AI agents are making everyone 'mini CEOs'

As AI agents become more prevalent, organisations are restructuring their organisational charts to integrate these novel digital workers.

Some suggest that every human worker will become a manager. Vercel founder Guillermo Rauch believes it will turn us all into CEOs.

Ali Rhode, general partner at Outset Capital, asked Rauch on her new podcast "10 Minutes or Less," a series featuring sub-10-minute interviews, whether he missed being a typical individual contributor, or IC, defined as someone who doesn't manage others.

He replied that he didn't, and believed that role may become obsolete.

"My current perspective is that the IC is now the agent," Rauch mentioned.

For those who strongly associate with a specific expertise, Rauch had a "challenging update." An agent might outperform them at that particular skill, he noted.

AI agents are advancing in proficiency each day. Specifically, jobs in software engineering have been profoundly influenced by tools like Claude Code and OpenClaw.

This period is marked by "leverage," Rauch explained. He questioned the need to write code when we could utilise agentic leverage. "We're all kind of mini CEOs now," he stated.

This type of agent manager is gaining popularity. Rather than managing a team of humans, some companies are employing managers to supervise a group of bots.

Agents are already disrupting organisational charts and redefining the duties of middle managers.

Last year, Vercel downsized its 10-member sales team to one individual overseeing a bot.