AI Startup Engineering Signals in 2026: What Investors Should Watch

AI startups in 2026 show the highest average commit velocity of any sector - but also the highest noise. The key to interpreting AI engineering signals: distinguish model training infrastructure (high compute, low commit frequency, research-oriented) from product engineering (rapid iteration, frequent commits, customer-driven). The strongest AI investment signals come from companies transitioning from research to product - when commit velocity shifts from sporadic large commits to frequent small commits, the team is moving from experimentation to shipping.

References

[1] GitHub Octoverse 2024 - AI Development: GitHub Blog

[2] Stanford AI Index Report 2025: Stanford HAI