Stanford MS&E435 Economics of the AI Supercycle | Spring 2026 | Applications, Coding AI

Guillermo Rauch, founder of Vercel, details the evolution of modern web infrastructure as it shifts from human-centric page delivery to agentic systems. Coding agents now serve as a primary driver for software creation, necessitating a new "agentic infrastructure" that prioritizes composability, rapid deployment, and token-based scaling. Vercel facilitates this transition by providing the necessary primitives—such as AI gateways and sandboxed compute environments—that allow agents to build, test, and deploy software autonomously. This shift renders traditional, static software development models obsolete, as businesses increasingly rely on malleable, AI-generated applications that adapt to specific operational needs. Ultimately, the future of the internet lies in self-driving cloud infrastructure where agents handle optimization, security, and maintenance, significantly accelerating the velocity of software production while reducing the reliance on manual, seat-based SaaS models.