Good webcam setups have a sharp depth of field, which makes the speaker look sharp and the background blurred. This requires auto-focus because a few centimetres matters to be in field.
I'm guessing you mean "shallow depth of field" rather than "sharp" here.
And you probably don't want it to be so shallow so a few centimeters would matter, then your nose could be in focus but your ears not, or vice-versa. That's a bit too shallow.
It also doesn't require auto-focus, it requires you to be able to put the camera at a good distance with the correct f-stop, or being able to change the f-stop one way or another.
Auto-focus is more for cases when the subject/object moves a lot forward/backward from the perspective of the camera, so you don't have to manually adjust things.
I doubt a small sensor auto-focus camera will achieve that though.