Box CEO Aaron Levie — Audience Q&A: AI Agents, AI Talent, Evolution of Work

Channel: Alex Kantrowitz

Published at: 2024-05-23

YouTube video id: 3EuuP9K-UM0

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EuuP9K-UM0

uh I was very interested in the whole
idea of agentic agentic experiences um
are there any current ones that you
already use in life on a day-to-day
basis that you've either hacked together
or created or what are ones that you
think are the most exciting in the near
term and what should I do oh yeah now
I'm gonna come back
up um let's figure this one out cool
okay so on uh agent uh kind of agent
experiences um uh I don't think I have
any that would qualify as a gentic in my
life right now um uh partly because
these things are just so new and I
actually think most of the use cases
will be on the Enterprise side so
they're going to be like things that we
never even see that are just happening
behind the scenes in our technology and
our software kind of every day um uh
there's I'd say I I don't know how this
exactly happened but some something like
six months ago there must have been a
memo that like everybody read uh that
sort of set off this kind of agent kind
of startup wave um because in the past
month or two I've sort of increasingly
seen new startups that all have a a
somewhat similar pattern um that is
basically defined by um or defined as as
um you know traditionally when we you
know when any of us sells software we
kind of say hey like you know your your
employee Act X you know does a
particular business process and here's
software to let them like go and do X
and like we're going to enable them to
do that thing better and all these new
agent startups are kind of saying hey
you uh have a task that that somebody
does or or or maybe you never got around
to so it's not even like you don't even
have anybody doing it we have software
that will do that task for you um QA a
website um do outbound sales uh you know
generate a a marketing you know
translation um and uh and this pattern
is emerging uh pretty rapidly from from
what I can tell where I've seen I don't
know maybe a dozen or two dozen startups
like this but it
feels it feels kind of akin to um uh
honestly like like the early 2010s
almost where where like we finally
figured out like what mobile was going
to look like like there was like a few
years of pretty shoddy kind of you know
kind of approaches to the mobile wave
like 07 08 09 you're kind of like that's
kind of like janky and like the it was a
web app probably and it didn't work
really well and then all of a sudden we
it was just like boom Instagram boom
Uber boom instacart b boom door Dash and
we were just like oh actually so your
phone is this sort of new Command Center
for for just like things and then and
then like everybody got the memo and
then we we were Off to the Races and and
lots of startups didn't work but like we
at least all kind of knew more or less
how this was going to work I think we're
now emerging in the space in AI where
we're kind of getting that memo which is
like no it's it's not going to be like
150 different chat applications maybe
maybe there'll be a couple that that
that kind of make it but it's actually
using AI as more of a brain behind the
scenes for really kind of just taking
work that you would have done otherwise
and automating that and um and that's
that's pretty exciting I think the uh I
think the one thing that that is really
interesting about it is um is that uh it
does really put a lot of pressure on how
you architect you know whatever it is
you're building um so I have a I have a
friend working on a a on a startup and
we'll we'll like you know go through you
know the the the what what what he's
what he's building and at any given day
you know the the updates to a gp4 or a
Gemini are just like basically you know
solving entire you know kind of
components of what you would have had to
go and sort of mask or make up for if
you were building like a GPD 3.5
Paradigm so like pretty wild that just
from 35 to 4 you do a lot less sort of
you know you know kind of constraining
the system and and preventing it from
doing things because now you can take
advantage of of more of that AI model
and so and so it's almost like actually
like like maybe should you be
building a startup only just
anticipating gbd 5 and don't even worry
about gbd4 like it kind of almost begs
the question of like don't launch
anything right now wait till this thing
is even more intelligent but of course
you know at some point like you could do
that um uh uh you know if you
extrapolate that out too much you just
wouldn't launch anything so it's like
hard to know exactly the moment um uh to
uh to launch but uh but but it is it
does really mean that you you need to
Future proof your architecture in a
world of
Agents okay so all right I'm going to go
there and then I'll come
here uh this mic is working so we're in
good
shape we will we stay here with me sure
there you are hi hello uh my name is
Ilia actually ex Endeavor staff and
current co-founder of morphosis so I
wanted to ask uh we mentioned the
beginning like did you say what your
name is Ilia Ilia Ilia yes like the most
famous name in AI okay wow okay well
okay yes different but but yeah okay so
actually in this current Ai and of
course like future AI World we're living
in do we need humans or what do humans
need we have to build the AI at Le so
yeah of course but uh what does what
skills do humans need uh in this current
involving AI world yeah uh I mean a
great question like the question
obviously for for all of us um uh I
think my answer will be be pretty
unsatisfying um because I think honestly
we don't know the answer yet um sorry
let let me actually specify yes we need
humans uh what we should go do about
that I don't know yet I don't think
anybody really knows because again the
pace of of of sort of AI uh development
is is is happening so quickly um uh but
I am I am not convinced yet and I've
I've you know spent hours debating
everybody I can on this I'm not
convinced that that AI doesn't look
fairly similar to Prior kind of uh
technological revolutions it it feels
like it's different this time because it
feels like well the intellectual thing
is now like it's coming after
intellectual stuff and um uh but I'm not
convinced that that it actually like at
a at a in a grand scheme at a at a sort
of macro level looks any different uh in
the sense that that uh what what I
expect to happen is our the tasks that
we do every single day will just begin
to look very different um and and it
it'll look like a little bit different
at first and then it'll and a little bit
different you know thereafter and then
you zoom out and 10 years from now it'll
look totally different so it almost
won't even necessarily like we won't
even feel it probably because it'll just
be these incremental changes that amount
to a a large amount of change but if you
if you like you know if I showed what I
do on a computer screen to my you know
um uh to you know previously my
grandparents they would be like what are
how are you creating value in the world
like you're just on a computer screen
and you're just sending an email to like
back and forth and then you're like in a
in this slack thing just chatting and
it's like that that creates value in the
universe like it would just be confusing
right because like they'd be like well
why are you not like in a in a room and
like and you know with with a chalkboard
and talking about a thing and building a
you know like like so just so imagine in
20 years from now the version of that
which is like like the the you know
person doing work it just says hey I
need you to you know quickly analyze
this market and all the Trends on it and
come back with a an answer about this
thing and like 5 seconds later it comes
back with that thing like that would
obviously have compressed you know let's
say 20 hours of what a human would have
done that doesn't mean that all of a
sudden we're going to not work those 20
hours it just means that we have the
answer to to then move to the next step
in whatever that particular process is
just 20 hours you know sort of sooner
and I think if you just kind of multiply
that out against kind of all of our work
I I'm not convinced it it it then sort
of meaningfully changes the job equation
um now of course like this is one of
these things which is like it would be
like really bad to look really wrong on
this so maybe this podcast will be like
the the uh the end of me in like 10
years um when we is not our goal yeah
exactly like like like I thought the
Tweet reading was the problem but uh it
was actually predicting that jobs are
fine um and we're like totally
but um uh but I I think that in any area
where we can bring automation for the
most part doesn't mean the job won't
change your shift a little bit but for
the most part you generally just get
either more jobs or a shift of what the
labor was doing as a result of that
automation um and my thought experiment
is um uh is and again the whole system
is sort of experiencing this maybe
there's some sort of un unforeseen
factors but but again I'm still still
pretty convinced of it my my general
thought experiment is um is like a very
kind of simple one if I could get an
engineer within box to you know write
20% more code and let's just imagine
it's all perfect you know code or a
sales rep to be 20% more productive I.E
for the same dollars they can sell 20%
more in in Revenue in both of those
examples the benefit I'm going to the
the the the uh Improvement gains that we
see I'm going to reinvest those gains
back into the business to grow even
faster in neither of those cases am I as
CE CEO or my co-founder or CFO or we
going to take those dollars and just be
like happy with higher profit levels
because first because we're going to be
competing with somebody who will use
that productivity gain to compete even
better so it's not like we're any of us
are in a static market so so we will
just have to go and reinvest whatever
that performance Improvement is back
into the business which would mean more
sales reps because if they're if right
now you're paying them X and they can
generate you know x x 3 and now they can
generate x x 3.5 like I want as many of
them as I can humanly get probably up to
the point frankly where it goes back
down to three um uh and and just because
there's sort of a natural rate you
expect kind of a sales you know person
to be productive at so I think that's
going to happen for most jobs again
there'll be nuances so if if today
you're doing like very Frontline
customer support where the customer
emails and they say hey I need to reset
my password and the AI now does that
what does that mean my my hunch still is
is that actually you'll just move to a
higher level set of tasks that the
customer is asking for but maybe some of
those jobs have to shift into more
customer success as opposed to customer
support so and anybody who does be Tob
software we can't get enough people to
spend time with our customers like it's
just like there is a cost equation like
I would like to have more people that
can go spend time with our customers
instead we have to spend a certain
amount of time and and dollars on just
pure inbound like I have to change my
password type emails so I would take
those dollars and reinvest them into
things like customer success it would
actually be the same person like there's
like it's like the skill is is
relatively transferable it would just be
a different set of work that they'd be
doing as a result of what we freed up
again there will be examples that are
exceptions but in in in you know every
other era of automation this is more or
less what we get um and uh and I'm not
convinced this is that different of uh
of a component of automation Aaron can I
ask like what are we working toward like
we're building this God level of
technology that can do almost all of our
work and in 20 years we're still going
to be working so why are we going to do
that well well so it's funny so I mean
uh you should have invited you know
maybe Sam Alman up here because um he
his
his answer will what that he's welcome
okay good so I think his answer would
just be different than mine um I I think
he would say we get closer to a higher
level of species where we're not you
know having to like analyze the the
market trends like like the computers
are just doing all of that um and uh and
and you know he is uh uh you know he is
much more futuristic on this Dimension
I'm not sort of sure I understand why we
wouldn't just sort of ultimately consume
all of the work the AI is doing as
people and then just still want to do
more than what the AI did um but you
know it's very possible that there's
some crazy step function change that I'm
not imagining that you know Ilia saw saw
the other Ilia and and is like and is
like you know at that moment you know
then then everything really kind of you
know changes completely but you know
this was five or 10 years ago I mean
people like venod I think Sam to some
extent you know had a view that maybe we
end up having Ubi in the in the future
because AI is doing a lot of these tasks
and and then we will just sort of share
the benefit of that productivity back to
society and humanity and um I don't even
necessarily know if that if that would
be a bad outcome I just don't
necessarily think that's the one that
will happen I think like people will
just find a way to to have other people
work that they want to work with to go
and produce things and to innovate and
find the next kind of set of problems we
want to solve cool all right we have one
here my name is Adam manzon I'm the CTO
of fun.com
um you
guys great great user of uh of the
platform yeah good to see you in New
York um yeah we've um and definitely at
fun.com we've seen um the value of doing
things like programmatically extracting
information from things like bank
statements and obviously you think a lot
about content it sounds like you're
thinking a lot about you know gp5 and
even if you watch the GPT 40 demo you
saw like basically computers now have
eyes essentially that we don't have to
trange like in the past Vision models
had to have training done to do what we
you know saw in that demo yep when you
think GPT 5 and all the content that box
stores and and has um I mean one thing
I'm really excited about is video but
are there other um use cases that you
see unlocked on the content layer um
with these newer higher performance
models
yeah so um I think uh again if you go
back to the earlier framework of let's
just say you know cost quality uh
performance and context window and if
you and gb5 for me is just like a like
just a a kind of a a shorthand for like
way better AI um so maybe it needs to be
gp6 for the the thing I'm talking about
but but when you have those factors all
improve so AI is you know 10 times
cheaper 10 times faster 10 times larger
contact window 10 10 times better
intelligence um the thing that we think
about uh you know given the business
that we're in is what do people do with
with their content today and and what if
you had effectively AI agents do many of
those things you know on our behalf and
and thus I can again throw compute at
the problem as opposed to people at the
problem so um that that is you know some
of the most straightforward things like
just I want to review every contract in
my business and understand like all of
the risk in in my business against all
the contracts I have or every contract
that is up for Renewal um uh you know in
in your business that that's a version
of just you know things like okay every
single loan you know that that is coming
in I want to review everything about it
and be able to you know quickly have
some assessment of that information to
make a better decision right now you
know we're limited by just all the
things you know all the AFF
forementioned things which is like like
how much data can I put in the in the
window how kind of intelligent is the
model itself what is the cost for doing
that um and if those go away then we can
basically deploy AI agents to do a lot
of the the kind of you know frankly very
manual not very strategic not very
differentiating work that that either we
all spend our time on or or our
colleagues spend time on um and um and
at a scale that was just never possible
before you know um I can deploy a
thousand legal review agents at a
problem instead of the one person in the
legal team that can spend time on this
that's just a totally different way to
solve business problems um in inside of
an organization so you kind of just you
know put that across everything and this
is this is why this is also why I'm just
like extremely optimistic is is um uh
you know uh uh as we as we heard earlier
like if you're in SF or you're in New
York let's say like the the access you
have to like the best law firm or the
best you know marketing agency you know
this is fantastic level of of access and
and networking that we have but whether
it's a startup somewhere else in the
world or they maybe didn't get as much
funding or they're not not in the in the
sort of flow of of what's going on you
know AI as an example this is you know 3
to 5 years out um for for this idea but
like if AI can basically do the things
uh you know that that are usually those
first steps to just getting started with
the business that that I didn't have
access to before because maybe I'm like
a three person startup in some you know
name your country like now I can
actually have an outbound sales team uh
now I can actually like actually scale
my engineering more effectively um I I
think this is a massive Boon for for any
small business any startup any team that
wants to experiment and I don't think
it's going to take you know from jobs
because those startups previously just
like they actually were not hiring those
people they were just sort of stuck in
whatever they were currently doing at a
certain scale that they were at so um so
I think this is going to be I I I think
you know an incredible asset for anybody
getting started or or scaling up all
right I definitely want to give people
more time to hang out and mingle and
we'll still we'll have more pizza and
beer in the kitchen in a moment um I
also want to say that 15 years ago I
started coming to Tech meetups in New
York City I was early in my career and
we got a chance to hear from some of the
luminaries people who were really
pushing The Cutting Edge forward in the
technology world and we saw people from
those Tech meetups end up advancing to
places within the big tech companies and
in media and one of them became a really
noxious Internet troll but most of all
most of them ended up being being great
and and productive members of of our
society and I think that there is a real
value in bringing people together it's
so cool to see so many people here many
subscribers of big technology and some
people that were meeting for the first
time and this is going to be a tradition
that we're going to start here in New
York and and around the world and
hopefully we'll come to San Francisco
soon so thank you all for coming out W
let's here for
you and that being said I I think it's
just been such a great privilege Aon to
be able to speak with you I feel like
every time we SC we uh scheduled the
podcast some crazy stuff happens in AI
now yeah maybe that's just because
things are happening every week but it
feels like we always end up with the
peak we we have been well timed in uh in
these but um but I also I really I mean
this is we started box in 2005 and I
have never uh seen anything like this um
the amount of of just sleepless nights
on I you just have to catch up to like
three different company Keynotes in one
day it's just like it it's insane the
amount of innovation that's happening I
think you know uh 95% of it is good 5%
of is like very stressful and like oh my
God like you never feel like you're
moving fast enough and you're not
catching up to the right thing um but
most of it is just like wow what a lucky
time to uh to be witnessing all of the
the technology change absolutely and
thank you for helping us unpack it and
understand it so thank you Aon thanks
for having me appreciate
it cool thanks everybody for listening
and we'll see you next time on big
technology
podcast thanks Aaron yeah thank you