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<\/p>\nThe debut of generative artificial intelligence (AI) \u2014 AI capable of producing an output such as text or images \u2014 has been hailed as a revolution, with many companies racing to adopt or deploy AI tools. A June 2025 McKinsey report demonstrates that the proportion of companies using AI for at least one business function has risen from around 20% in 2017 to nearly 80% in 2025, as shown in the graph below.<\/p>\n
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It remains to be seen who will benefit the most from this growth. From chipmakers like Nvidia [NVDA] to model developers like OpenAI or Claude, and software-as-a-service firms like Box [BOX], a wide range of companies are capitalizing on the rollout of AI technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, however, as Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie explains, it\u2019s not a winner-takes-all situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think all layers of the stack end up benefiting in some way,\u201d he says. The AI ecosystem consists of a multi-layered chain of businesses, with semiconductor manufacturers, data center providers and large language model designers all dependent on each other to produce and power AI that people can use. As more firms deploy AI at scale, its value begins to trickle down to other layers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re finally at the point where enterprises can utilize AI across their business processes. You\u2019re going to see that value flow through at the software layer.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the latest OPTO\u00a0Sessions,\u00a0Levie unpacks how the transformational nature of AI influences its adoption, as well as how agentic AI is shaping the future of knowledge work.<\/p>\n
Behavioral Change<\/p>\n
Until recently, new developments in software had simply expanded the toolset people had to work with. As an enterprise cloud computing company, Box has been a pioneer in expanding the capabilities available to knowledge workers over the past two decades. Levie outlines the general trajectory of progress: \u201cI upgraded from a chat system to Slack. I upgraded from Word to Google Docs. I upgraded from on-premises files to Box. That was a tool change.\u201d<\/p>\n
With agentic AI \u2014 the use of AI to perform entire tasks independently of human oversight \u2014 the change is even more fundamental, as it will require workers to behave differently. \u201cThe way I actually interact with software is totally different. I\u2019m no longer doing all of the work myself within software. I\u2019m actually interacting with AI labor on the other end.\u201d<\/p>\n
That change has the potential to alter the nature of work, but it could mean the adoption phase takes longer as workers adapt to their artificial coworkers. \u201cYou have to re-engineer your workflows to get the benefit of agents,\u201d Levie explains. \u201cYou have to retool some of the ways that you\u2019re operating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most importantly, don\u2019t expect everything to change overnight. \u201cI think we have to be somewhat realistic that it\u2019s going to be a multi-year journey,\u201d he admits. \u201cThe change management in a large enterprise is non-trivial.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Future of Knowledge Work<\/p>\n
Levie may be an AI bull, but he admits that there are many things that are still beyond current technological capabilities. Hallucinations underscore the need for human oversight, and context windows \u2014 the amount of information a generative AI model can remember during a session \u2014 mean that most agents can only perform tasks of a specific length before the quality of their work begins to degrade. There\u2019s also the issue of each model having different capabilities: \u201cdoes the model know to do the right thing with each of the requests that the user has?\u201d<\/p>\n
To gauge the strengths or weaknesses of a given AI model, Box conducts regular evaluations. The self-improving nature of AI presents a challenge here, however. \u201cWe\u2019ll create an evaluation and then agents will saturate that evaluation,\u201d he notes. \u201cWe have to actually increase the difficulty to ensure that we\u2019re tracking with the latest capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Levie imagines a future where AI has surpassed these constraints, allowing it to complete entire projects independently. \u201cWhat if you could give an agent any type of task that you need to be able to do with all of your data?\u201d<\/p>\n
That then allows enterprises to spend more time actualizing the insights gained from the data. Levie paints a picture of a collaborative, AI-human workflow: \u201cYou could go and kick off that task and know that with a high degree of likelihood that it\u2019ll be done effectively. And then you take that data, you share it with people and review it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe imagine that will be what the future of a lot of knowledge work looks like,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But, with many AI capabilities still in the testing phase, what advice does Levie offer listeners to help prepare for this future?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSpend as much time with these AI tools as possible. You\u2019re going to learn so much more by using these technologies versus hypothesizing about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full episode with Aaron Levie on YouTube<\/a>, or listen on Spotify<\/a> or Apple Podcasts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Continue reading for FREE<\/p>\n Error! Please try submitting again.<\/p>\n Success! You have successfully signed up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The debut of generative artificial intelligence (AI) \u2014 AI capable of producing an output such as text or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[4323,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-188878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-computing","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}