Newyork Central Post 
Software development is often seen as a highly creative process, yet much of a developer’s day can be consumed by mundane tasks like writing unit tests, managing dependencies, and updating documentation. These routine, repetitive jobs—referred to as “toil-oriented tasks” by All Hands AI co-founder and CEO Robert Brennan—can detract from the more innovative aspects of coding. While AI may not be a creative force, it excels at handling these types of repetitive tasks, freeing developers to focus on their core skills and high-value work.
In an effort to tackle this issue, All Hands AI recently announced it had raised $5 million in seed funding led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Pillar VC, Betaworks, and Rebellion. The startup aims to build model-agnostic, open-source AI agents that can take over these routine tasks, giving developers more time to engage in the creative and problem-solving aspects of their work.
A Response to AI Innovation: The Birth of OpenHands
Earlier this year, Cognition AI showcased an AI agent called Devin, which was capable of executing complex engineering tasks, including the end-to-end process of building and deploying new applications. This demonstration sparked excitement within the developer community, including Brennan and his team, but also raised concerns about the closed-source nature of the project. Many felt that its proprietary status limited the potential for contributions from the broader development ecosystem.
In response, All Hands AI launched an open-source initiative originally named OpenDevin, now rebranded as OpenHands. What began as a simple text file on GitHub has grown into a project with over 30,000 stars and more than 150 contributors. The project’s ambitious goal is to build an AI assistant that helps developers with tasks such as writing tests, deploying applications, and managing code changes that affect multiple parts of a project. For instance, if a developer renames a function, the AI agent can identify other files impacted by this change and proactively ask whether updates should be applied across the codebase.
“AI is going to completely change how developers work. But it’s not going to change their preference for adopting open source,” said Joff Redfern, partner at Menlo Ventures and former chief product officer at Atlassian. Redfern emphasized that All Hands AI’s open-source approach aligns with the software engineering community’s long-standing preference for transparent, community-driven development. By ensuring that AI agents are built openly, All Hands AI aims to create an ideal, AI-enhanced development experience that puts developers in control.
The Team Behind the Vision
The All Hands AI founding team is composed of experts in natural language processing (NLP) and AI agent development, with a wealth of experience in machine learning and software infrastructure. CEO Robert Brennan previously worked at Google, focusing on document summarization, and has held executive roles at startups centered on machine learning. Graham Neubig, the company’s chief scientist, is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University with deep expertise in NLP, while Xingyao Wang, the chief AI officer, has paused his PhD research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to focus on developing interactive language agents powered by foundation models.
Their collective experience is critical to All Hands AI’s mission of creating intelligent agents that don’t just help with code but can assist throughout the entire development lifecycle.
Beyond Code Completion: AI for the Entire Development Process
While tools like GitHub Copilot have made significant strides in assisting developers with code completion, they don’t yet cover the full range of tasks that make up the software development process. Brennan explained that All Hands AI’s vision is to develop agents that can manage the complete “agentic loop of writing code,” likening it to the ambition of creating self-driving cars for software development. These AI agents could eventually handle everything from managing dependencies and writing tests to deploying applications and addressing issues across an entire codebase.
However, Brennan acknowledges that this goal is still in the early stages, and human developers remain integral to the process. The AI agents won’t be clearing an entire JIRA backlog on their own just yet, but they represent a step toward more automated and efficient development workflows.
A Glimpse into the Future: User Integration and Enterprise Solutions
As All Hands AI continues to build out its platform, the team is focused on refining the user experience. Currently, the system operates somewhat independently of traditional development environments, but the company plans to integrate the AI agents with popular code editors like VS Code to streamline adoption and make the tool more accessible to everyday developers.
Like many open-source startups, All Hands AI plans to generate revenue by offering enterprise-level features alongside its core open-source tools. Brennan noted that the company’s strategy is to build complementary software tailored for large enterprises while ensuring the main project remains open-source. This approach not only ensures the sustainability of the open-source project but also offers added value to companies looking for robust, AI-driven development solutions.
The seed funding will enable All Hands AI to further develop its technology stack before transitioning to its monetization phase. The startup has already attracted significant attention, with notable angel investors like Thom Wolf, co-founder of Hugging Face; Jeff Hammerbacher, co-founder of Cloudera; and Soumith Chintala, creator of PyTorch, lending their support to the project.
A New Era for Software Development
With the development of OpenHands and its mission to simplify toil-oriented tasks, All Hands AI is setting the stage for a new era in software engineering. By harnessing the power of AI to handle the repetitive aspects of coding, developers will have more time to focus on creativity, problem-solving, and innovation. While it may take time to reach the full potential of AI agents in software development, All Hands AI’s open-source philosophy and commitment to developer empowerment make it a company to watch in this rapidly evolving space.
