# What is YC's Multiplayer AI request for startups? One of YC's thirteen Fall 2026 requests asks for AI that teams use together. What it says, and how far the market has got. Published 2026-10-05 by Richard Kaminsky and Mitchell Lipyansky, the co-founders of Poly. Canonical: https://usepoly.co/yc-multiplayer-ai Poly is a multiplayer AI coding workspace: a shared room where your team works with one AI agent, together. Free to start: https://usepoly.co/ **Multiplayer AI is one of Y Combinator's thirteen requests for startups for Fall 2026, written by Aaron Epstein. It argues that the best work tools of the last two decades won by going multiplayer, as Google Docs and Figma did, and that AI agents are still "the one thing people still use by themselves." It asks for AI that is multiplayer by default, where "anyone on a team should be able to drop into the same live agent session to watch it work, redirect it, and hand it off," and it names engineering, sales, support, law, finance and marketing as places that need it.** Several products already do parts of this. The open problems are who can approve what a shared agent does, who pays for it, what it may read, and keeping track of who asked for what. ## Key takeaways - The request: AI agents built for teams from the start, instead of single-user chat boxes. - It's broad: engineers coding together in real time, sales teams working a deal, support teams on a ticket, and lawyers, analysts and marketers. - Products already cover pieces of it, in team chat (Claude Tag, Slack Code) and in shared coding sessions (Poly, Conductor, Zed's Delta, HumanLayer, AQ, Superconductor, Coshell). - YC says its requests are a fraction of what it funds, and you don't need to work on one to apply. ## What does YC's Multiplayer AI request say? The [request](https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#multiplayer-ai) makes four points: 1. **The precedent.** Work tools that turned solo work into team work won: Google Docs replaced Microsoft Word, and Figma beat Photoshop. 2. **AI hasn't had that moment.** Agents are the most powerful new tool a team has, but each person still uses one alone, in a chat box. 3. **Agents need it more as their work gets longer.** A team should be able to drop into a live agent session to watch it, redirect it and hand it off. 4. **It applies well beyond code.** The request lists shared agents for engineers coding together in real time, sales teams working a deal, support teams resolving a ticket, and lawyers drafting a contract, analysts building a model and marketers shipping a campaign. It sits on YC's Fall 2026 list with twelve other requests, among them AI for the aging population, a cloud for small software and AI-native compliance infrastructure. YC says the requests come from its partners and founders, and that they "represent just a fraction of what we fund." ## What does multiplayer AI mean here? Several people working with the same AI in one shared session, rather than each person in a private chat. The term is also used for many agents working together, and for teams sharing AI context. YC's request is about the first: people sharing a live agent session. [What is multiplayer AI?](/what-is-multiplayer-ai) covers all three. ## Who already builds multiplayer AI? - **In team chat.** Claude Tag puts one Claude in a Slack channel, and Anthropic's announcement says "@Claude is multiplayer." Slack Code opens a channel around a coding agent, and Microsoft 365 Copilot answers in Teams group chats. - **For building software.** Poly, Conductor (multiplayer cloud workspaces since July 2026), Zed's Delta (public beta since September 16, 2026), HumanLayer, AQ, Superconductor and Coshell each let several people work in the same agent session, in different ways. YC's own open-source qm puts a company agent in Slack and on the web. - **Closed this year.** ChatGPT's group chats stopped taking new chats on July 9, 2026, and Microsoft retired consumer Copilot Groups from August 18. Prices and verdicts for each are in [Multiplayer AI tools](/multiplayer-ai-tools). ## What is still unsolved? - **Who can approve.** A shared agent acts for the group, and tools disagree on who says yes. In Claude Tag anyone in a thread can steer; Zed's Delta has no agent permission system at all ([Delta](https://delta.dev/docs/privacy-and-security/agentic-safety)); MobSession leaves every prompt to the host; Poly lets any member approve each change. [Coding agent approvals for teams](/coding-agent-approvals-for-teams). - **Who pays.** Per seat, per workspace or per person who runs the agent: in a shared session, each turn's cost becomes a team question. - **What the agent may read.** Claude Tag reads every message in its channels. A team also needs somewhere to talk that isn't a prompt. - **Who asked for what.** With several people, and sometimes several models, in one conversation, attribution gets hard. Models even claim each other's work: [Why AI models claim each other's work](/why-ai-models-claim-each-others-work). - **Two people at once.** Most tools run one turn at a time, turn extra messages into follow-ups, or merge separate drafts. Truly simultaneous steering is rare. ## Where does Poly fit? Poly (usepoly.co), which publishes this guide, is a shared agent session of the kind the request describes, for building software: a browser room where a team watches one AI work, redirects it, approves its changes and picks up where a teammate left off, with Claude, GPT, Grok, Kimi or Muse. A group chat beside the timeline stays out of the AI's view, and every turn ends with a receipt naming who ran it. Free to start. [What is Poly?](/what-is-poly) ## Common questions **Who wrote YC's Multiplayer AI request?** Aaron Epstein. It is one of Y Combinator's thirteen requests for startups for the Fall 2026 batch, at ycombinator.com/rfs. **Do you need to work on an RFS idea to apply to YC?** No. YC says its requests are just a fraction of what it funds, and you don't need to work on these ideas to apply. **What counts as multiplayer AI?** AI that several people use together in one shared session, rather than each person in a private chat. YC's request focuses on teams sharing a live agent session. **Which companies already build multiplayer AI for coding?** Poly, Conductor, Zed's Delta, HumanLayer, AQ, Superconductor and Coshell, among others, each in a different way. Multiplayer AI tools compares them with prices. More guides: https://usepoly.co/guides · Security: https://usepoly.co/security · Pricing: https://usepoly.co/pricing