Industry•
2026-09-10
AI Coding Agents Are Getting Autonomous — Here's What That Means
From Copilot to autonomous agents that plan, edit and test code. We break down the shift from autocomplete to agency.
D
David Okoro
From autocomplete to agency
The first wave of AI coding tools suggested the next line. The next wave plans a task, edits multiple files, runs tests, and fixes its own mistakes.
How agents differ
An agent loops: it decides what to do next, takes an action, observes the result, and repeats until the task is done. This is a fundamentally different interaction model than chat.
The tools leading the way
Cursor, Devin, and GitHub Copilot Workspace each take a slightly different approach to autonomy. The common thread: they give the model a sandbox, a goal, and permission to act.
What to watch
The biggest open question is reliability. Agents that work 80% of the time still need a human in the loop for the last 20%.