Why humans are AI’s biggest bottleneck (and what’s coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)

A coding agent needs context about the team's work to become a useful proactive teammate. In an interview, OpenAI Codex product lead Alexander Embiricos describes an agent that can write code but still needs prompting to consult team discussions or operational information. His intended next step is participation across planning, validation, deployment, and maintenance. That would reduce the need for people to notice every opportunity and package it as an assignment. He presents this broader initiative as a development goal.

“It turns out the best way for models to use computers is simply to write code.”

Alexander Embiricos

“if you want to build any agent, maybe you should be building a coding agent.”

Alexander Embiricos

“The current underappreciated limiting factor is literally human typing speed or human multitasking speed.”

Alexander Embiricos

“the Sora Android app, a fully new app, we built it in 18 days.”

Alexander Embiricos

“previously it would have taken two to three weeks for two to three engineers, and now it's like one engineer one week.”

Alexander Embiricos