Role shifts across the agentic software lifecycle

Origin. On September 28, 2026, Dru asked for this within the Agentic Software area (path agentic-coding), not a separate area: how are product, design and engineering roles changing, and how do downstream marketing, sales and support roles change?

Research questions. Who defines customer intent and acceptance criteria when coding agents can implement larger features? What becomes of prototyping, design decisions, technical architecture, review, release authority, QA and incident ownership? Can domain specialists directly make or steer product changes, and what new collaboration and accountability follows? How do marketing launch timing and assets, sales product knowledge and demos, and support triage and feedback loops change when software can be altered more quickly? Investigate shifts in skills, apprenticeship, bottlenecks and organizational boundaries rather than presuming headcount reductions.

Evidence to seek. Firsthand organizational examples with before/after roles, decision rights, handoffs and customer consequences; counterexamples where speed increased coordination load or uncertainty; measured gains versus aspiration. Link to planning and tracking, review responsibility and value and human time.

Administrative correction. A standalone area was created in misunderstanding and marked superseded. All substantive work belongs here.