AI Agent Development is the new “stack”

tl;dr: The rise of AI Agent Development is reshaping how we develop software, create professional development pathways, and teach coding.

A recent job post from Firecrawl caught my eye: they’re offering $5,000/month to “hire” an AI Agent—built by someone else—to autonomously perform content creation tasks (Firecrawl Job Post).

I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole “people who build AI Agents” thing, and this job post validates it: a new software stack is emerging, and it’s the AI Agent Development. We’re entering an era where AI Development is becoming a distinct discipline—sitting right alongside Front-end, Back-end, and Database development.

Firecrawl is leaning into this future by treating AI agents as first-class contributors—products in their own right, not just tools. They’re not only contracting these agents, but also providing a potential pathway for their human creators to join the company full-time.

It’s a bold signal: the people who build and orchestrate AI systems are becoming central to modern tech teams.

This shift changes everything. Professional development (PD) for developers will need to evolve, accounting for developing, integrating, collaborating with, and managing autonomous AI systems. The same goes for how we teach programming—skills like prompt design, agent chaining, and orchestration will become table stakes.

Firecrawl’s post is a glimpse into a future that’s already here.