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Terminal’s acquisition of Miami-based AI startup Stationed is intended to make practical artificial intelligence more accessible to businesses that may not have the resources of a Fortune 500 company. Announced October 22, 2026, the deal establishes the foundation for Terminal AI, a new division that plans to send engineers directly into companies to find ways to apply AI and put systems to work.
The division will be led by Stationed founder Ja’dan Johnson as general manager. Its engineers will work alongside businesses to identify opportunities, automate processes and integrate AI agents into day-to-day operations.
Johnson told Refresh Miami, in an article by reporter Riley Kaminer published October 22, that he was “excited to keep doing this work, and being able to do it at scale.”
Terminal was co-founded by Palantir and 8VC co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Atomic founder Jack Abraham, and CEO Dylan Serota. The acquisition brings Stationed’s AI experience and executive relationships together with Terminal’s established global infrastructure for recruiting and managing engineering talent. The companies did not disclose the deal price.
The deal brings Stationed’s work into a new division
Terminal AI is built around a hands-on model. Rather than limiting its role to advice about what AI might do, the division plans to place engineers directly inside businesses to understand operations and help develop and deploy AI systems.
That approach draws on work Stationed had already done before the acquisition. While organizing workshops to introduce business leaders to emerging AI tools, Johnson was also building the startup, which had deployed AI agents for companies across several industries.
The two companies’ capabilities were complementary, according to the account from Refresh Miami. Stationed brought technical expertise and relationships with executives. Terminal, founded in 2017, brought an existing infrastructure for finding and managing engineering talent around the world.
The deal followed roughly a month of conversations between Johnson and Terminal’s leadership, including Serota. Joining Terminal gives Stationed’s business model resources to grow while keeping engineers close to the companies using the technology.
The division is new and its model remains unproven at scale. Its stated focus, however, points to a specific gap: businesses that see AI’s potential but may not have the in-house resources or large budgets associated with major enterprises.
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From developer gatherings to AI deployment
Johnson’s route to Terminal AI began with community-building. Originally from Jamaica, he spent years organizing developer events before moving to South Florida. He later founded Miami Hack Week, which brought thousands of technologists and entrepreneurs together and attracted support from Atomic, Founders Fund and SoftBank.
The events and workshops helped put Johnson in conversation with business leaders interested in emerging technology. Workshops introduced those leaders to new AI tools; behind the scenes, he was building Stationed and deploying AI agents for businesses in several industries.
That combination, bringing people together while working on practical technology, helped shape the path to the acquisition. After conversations with Terminal leaders, the companies decided to combine Stationed’s technical work and executive relationships with Terminal’s engineering-talent infrastructure.
Johnson will now lead the new division and oversee engineers working directly with client businesses. He told Refresh Miami: “I think many people are starting to realize what AI means for their businesses and their teams, and we get to help companies answer this big question of what comes next.”
What “forward-deployed” engineers do for midmarket companies
For a business leader asking, “What are we supposed to do with AI?”, the forward-deployed approach starts with the company’s own work, not a generic tool or a strategy presentation alone.
Engineers work directly with a business to identify where AI could be useful, automate processes and integrate agents into everyday operations. In practice, that means the work is tied to the organization’s workflows and needs. The details will depend on each company; Terminal AI has not publicly laid out a single, fixed solution for every client.
This model is aimed at midmarket companies, which Johnson believes have received relatively little attention in the enterprise AI conversation. The basic challenge is access: a business may have ideas about where automation could help, but not the engineering capacity or specialized expertise to build and deploy a system itself.
Putting engineers alongside company teams is intended to address that gap. Rather than asking a business to figure out every technical step internally, Terminal AI plans to help identify opportunities and build systems with the people who understand the company’s daily operations. Stationed’s previous deployments provide a starting point for the new division, but the acquisition does not establish how quickly or widely the model will work across new clients.
The arrangement also keeps the work close to the businesses adopting the technology. That proximity is central to the division’s stated approach: engineers are expected to understand operational needs and build or integrate AI systems around them, rather than treating implementation as separate from the company’s everyday work.
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Wynwood hiring signals a bigger local team
Terminal AI has approximately 10 employees and another 10 positions open. The company is actively recruiting engineers in Miami to work from its Wynwood office, a hiring plan that would roughly double the division’s headcount.
“We’re going to keep hiring,” Johnson told Refresh Miami.
The openings give the acquisition a local dimension beyond the creation of a new business unit. The division is seeking to build a larger engineering team in Wynwood while serving companies that want help putting AI into operation.
For Miami’s technology community, Johnson’s background connects the new venture to a network he helped build through Miami Hack Week. Terminal AI now combines that local founder history with a global engineering-talent company’s infrastructure. The coming hires will show how quickly the new division can turn that combination into a larger team.
For now, the clearest measure of the plan is its immediate commitment: roughly 10 open roles, engineers working from Wynwood and a focus on midmarket companies seeking practical answers about AI. The division is at an early stage; its ability to deliver that service at scale remains to be demonstrated.
