Box CEO Aaron Levie on how AI is changing the enterprise SaaS landscape

Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie doesn’t deliberation AI agents volition regenerate endeavor SaaS (software arsenic a service) companies. Instead, helium believes that the much apt aboriginal is simply a hybrid operation of SaaS positive agents, helium said, speaking connected signifier astatine the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 league connected Wednesday.

“Generally, erstwhile you person a concern process, you privation to beryllium capable to specify that in, effectively, concern logic with deterministic systems — conscionable due to the fact that the hazard of that changing immoderate fixed time is precise high,” explained Levie.

“If you’re doing thing ngo captious — we’ve already seen large examples of either information being leaked due to the fact that of agents, oregon an cause going and, you know, possibly blowing up your database oregon doing thing successful accumulation you didn’t expect. So you privation to person immoderate benignant of ‘church and state’ betwixt the deterministic broadside of your bundle and the non-deterministic side.”

He painted a representation of a aboriginal of endeavor bundle wherever the SaaS is utilized for the halfway concern workflow, and past the agents thrust connected apical of that. These agents would beryllium adjuvant with making decisions, automating workflows, or, essentially, conscionable accelerating immoderate process the idiosyncratic was trying to bash successful the system, the exec said.

In addition, Levie pointed retired that this reconfiguration would dramatically interaction the concern exemplary of endeavor SaaS.

“The happening that I’m precise convinced of is we’ll person astir 100 times more, possibly 1,000 times more, agents than we person people. So you’ll person mode much users of that bundle system, oregon SaaS, arsenic agents,” Levie said.

As a result, the emblematic “per-seat” concern exemplary would nary longer work, and instead, companies would person to merchantability immoderate signifier of depletion and volume-oriented usage cases with AI agents.

These changes are a marketplace accidental for startups, peculiarly those that are gathering for the agent-first era, alternatively than bigger companies that are trying to integrate agents into existing processes.

Smaller startups, helium said, person nary concern processes to change, truthful they tin plan a caller process successful an agent-first way.

This presents an accidental for startups to physique solutions for the endeavor abstraction to marque the alteration absorption process easier and much palatable, Levie said.

He encouraged entrepreneurs to capitalize connected this displacement by building.

“We are successful this model close present that we person not been successful for astir 15 years, which is — there’s a implicit level displacement happening successful tech that’s opening up a spot for a caller acceptable of companies to emerge,” Levie said.

“And I would just, you know, effort and afloat exploit that.”