SAN DIEGO – With its latest acquisition, ClickUp is going all in on its latest artificial intelligence tool: super agents.
Whereas agentic AI systems are intended to accomplish specific tasks without immediate human oversight, super agents can complete or delegate entire projects, generate software and build new tools with human-level memory, according to the workplace and product management software company.
The end result is an AI system that can operate and collaborate like a human coworker, according to ClickUp COO Gaurav Agarwal.
“These agents come work with you in your software stack, so you interact with them the same way you would interact with a teammate,” Agarwal said.
ClickUp has been enabled to build its super agent platform with the company’s acquisition of San Francisco-based Codegen, one of the tech industry’s first startups focused on using AI to build, test and review software code.
The acquisition, terms undisclosed, and integration of Codegen’s technology – similar to AI-based coding tools like Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude platform – allows ClickUp users to code AI agents even if they are not a traditionally trained engineer or other frequent AI user.
“They were not just going after the power user, they were going after all business users,” Agarwal said of Codegen. “And they believe that everyone will be a builder in the future, and they’ll be able to build custom software based on what’s needed.”
Platform Addresses ‘Work Sprawl’
The acquisition and ClickUp’s launch of super agents is the newest addition to the company’s “converged” platform that includes single-purpose applications like word processors, task managers, interoffice chat programs and scheduling tools used by digital workforces.
“Work sprawl” – the need for employees to work across multiple different platforms as part of their standard daily workflow – costs companies roughly $2.5 trillion in value and lost productivity each year, according to ClickUp.
Half of ClickUp’s customers use at least five different applications, according to the company, which combines more than 50 workplace applications and tools on its single software platform.
“When I look at the overall market landscape, ClickUp is uniquely positioned to win in the market because there are so many of our big competitors who are struggling to be AI native,” Agarwal said. “We are already seeing, across our sales deals where we compete with some of the big incumbents out there, our AI story, our AI positioning, our AI feature set is allowing us to win big.”
In an effort to maintain that momentum, ClickUp established a new executive position for Codegen founder and CEO Jay Hack, who will become the company’s Head of AI.
ClickUp’s ultimate goal is to become the only AI software platform enterprise workers need, according to Agarwal, which will include continuing to target potential acquisitions that expand the company’s expertise in AI like Codegen and Hack.
“The reason he chose ClickUp was because he firmly believes that for a tool to be successful in this space, you need to go after a big range of users, not just the technical user,” Agarwal said. “And you need all the different apps in one place, because for agents to be able to deliver on great development experiences, you need to be able to have access to all the different tools and the data.”
Contrarian Growth Strategy
The acquisition is part of a horizontal growth strategy rather than a vertical one, he added, a somewhat contrarian bet on the future of the AI and software-as-a-service industry, in which many startups and larger companies are putting significant resources into one vertical.
The vast majority of SaaS products – hiring tools, customer relationship management platforms and more – are, at their core, tools to streamline workflow and can ultimately be integrated into a single platform like ClickUp’s.
“With the horizontal stack, if you can have vertical agents and vertical AI, that will end up outperforming vertical SaaS,” Agarwal said. “Codegen has the same belief system that with one modern software stack, you can go after any use case if you pump in the right AI within that, so our goal is to build the software stack of the future.”
ClickUp
FOUNDED: 2017
CEO: Zeb Evans
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: AI workspace & project management software
EMPLOYEES: Over 1,000
REVENUE: Over $300M annual recurring revenue
CONTEXT: [email protected]
WEBSITE: clickup.com
NOTABLE: ClickUp was named to the 2025 Forbes Cloud 100 list of the industry’s top private cloud computing companies.
Eli is an award-winning reporter primarily covering the tech and life sciences industries. He previously worked as the San Diego City Hall reporter for the regional wire City News Service. He has also covered public health, transportation and state and local politics in the San Francisco Bay Area for Local News Matters, the nonprofit arm of the regional wire Bay City News Service, where he also oversaw the development and daily content management of the outlet’s public health and COVID-19 news and resource webpage. He is also a contributing writer covering Minor League Baseball for the analysis and commentary website Baseball Prospectus. Eli is a graduate of San Francisco State University and a native of Northern California.
