Subvolts take Notion builds AI agents that code and integrate themselves, shifting work from humans to agent management. Mar 12, 2026 - Developers
- Learn how Notion is enabling AI agents to build integrations and code, offering new possibilities for developer tools.
- Business
- Understand how managing AI agent swarms could redefine productivity and team workflows in the near future.
This interview with a co-founder of a major productivity platform provides a firsthand look at advanced agent development.
From Coder to Manager: Navigating the Shift to Agentic Engineering with Notion Co-Founder Simon Last
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From Subvolts
Summary and analysis by Subvolts editorial, AI-assisted.
In this No Priors episode, Notion Co-Founder Simon Last discusses the company's evolution toward building AI agents capable of autonomous integration and code generation. Last details the technical challenges of indexing diverse data and the internal shift to using coding agents for Notion's development. He highlights a transition in productivity where humans manage agent swarms instead of performing tasks themselves.
Notion is building smart computer helpers, called agents, that can not only use tools but also write their own code and connect to other software. This means people will soon manage teams of these agents to get work done, rather than doing the work themselves.
This episode offers insight into how a major productivity tool is fundamentally rethinking its architecture to support advanced AI agents. Listeners will learn about the technical hurdles in creating agents that can build and code, and how this impacts team dynamics and product development. It's for engineers and product leaders interested in the practical application of agentic AI beyond simple tool use, mirroring current trends in frontier AI labs focusing on agent capabilities.
- HostSarah Guo
- HostElad Gil
- GuestSimon LastCo-Founder, Notion
- Guest: Simon Last, Co-Founder of Notion
- Show: No Priors
- Length: 29 minutes
- Notion AI Capability: Agents can autonomously build integrations and write code.
- Productivity Shift: From humans doing work to humans managing agent swarms.
- Development Practice: Internal shift toward using coding agents to build Notion.
Notion isn’t designing AI agents that just use tools. Their agents can autonomously build their own integrations, as well as write the code needed to finish a task. Sarah Guo sits down with Notion Co-Founder Simon Last to explore Notion’s rapid evolution from a simple writing assistant to a sophisticated platform for custom AI agents. Simon discusses the technical hurdles of indexing disparate data from sources like Slack and Google Drive, as well as the internal shift toward using coding agents to build Notion itself. Plus, Simon elaborates on what he sees as a fundamental transition in productivity: moving from a tool where humans do the work, to one where humans manage a swarm of agents.
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Chapters:
00:00 – Cold Open
00:05 – Simon Last Introduction
00:26 – Genesis of Notion AI
04:10 – Challenge of Semantic Indexing and Retrieval
07:16 – The Six-Month Rewrite Cycle
08:12 – Notion’s Coding Agent Era
09:44 – Impact on Team Dynamics
12:49 – Launching Custom Agents
15:39 – Notion as the ‘Switzerland’ for Models
17:33 – Designing APIs for Agent Customers
20:09 – Simon’s Personal Agentic Workflows
24:48 – Notion: Tool for Work is Now A Tool for Agents
27:28 – How Building Has Changed for Simon
29:00 – Conclusion
- Agentic Engineering
- Simon Last
- Building AI systems that can act and make decisions on their own to complete tasks.
- Semantic Indexing
- Simon Last
- Organizing information based on its meaning, not just keywords, to help AI understand and retrieve it better.
39 min1 h 1136 minQuestions people ask
- What is Notion's approach to AI agents?
- Notion is developing AI agents that can autonomously build their own integrations and write code to complete tasks, moving beyond simple tool usage.
- How is Notion changing the nature of productivity?
- Notion is shifting from being a tool where humans do the work to a platform where humans manage a swarm of AI agents.
Page generated Oct 19, 2026. Summaries are Subvolts' own; the audio, artwork and notes belong to Conviction.