Stanford MS&E435 Economics of the AI Supercycle | Spring 2026 | Applications, Coding AI
Stanford Online · 49:22 · 3 weeks ago
The future of software is transitioning from static pages and human-written code toward autonomous AI agents that build, manage, and deploy applications. Vercel is adapting its infrastructure to become the primary hosting environment for these agents, treating them as the new fundamental object of the internet.
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Shift to agents — The industry is moving away from serving static web pages toward hosting autonomous agents that can perform tasks, build software, and maintain systems independently .
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Agentic infrastructure — Platforms must evolve to provide "sandboxes" and environments where AI models can run code, experiment, and solve problems without human intervention .
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Token economics — Cloud services are shifting from measuring "pixels" to "tokens," which requires new management tools—like AI gateways—to handle intelligence throughput, caching, and failover .
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Simplified creation — Through "vibe coding," non-technical leaders can now deploy functional software, such as custom business management tools, without needing traditional engineering skills .
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Modular architecture — Success for modern software depends on building with reusable "blocks" that AI agents can easily understand, assemble, and deploy .
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Value accrual — Financial gains are currently concentrating in the foundational layers of the tech stack:
- Computing power — Chips, data centers, and energy production are where most value is settling .
- Agent support — Infrastructure that enables these agents to work reliably is becoming a high-value layer .
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How do coding agents use "sandbox" environments to improve their performance?