A Counter-Narrative in the Software Rout?
Box CEO Aaron Levie argues AI makes systems of record more valuable, not less
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This is an AI-assisted summary of my Fortt Knox Update with Box Data CEO Aaron Levie. View the full interview here:
As software stocks belly flopped, I was interviewing CEOs at Cisco’s AI Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday.
A couple lines of argument continued to emerge. If you were a software CEO, you acknowledged the disruptive power of AI but claimed to operate in a category shielded from its destructive force. If you were a software customer or platform provider, you were more likely to revel in the shakeup.
Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie pushed back on the market narrative that AI will commoditize application software and weaken incumbents. Levie argued the opposite: as AI agents proliferate, systems of record become more critical, not less. In a world with “100 times more software” and autonomous agents taking consequential actions, enterprises will need trusted platforms to control access, permissions, workflows, and accountability. Box positions itself as that system of record for unstructured data, including contracts, marketing assets, research and financial documents – a place where agents can securely operate.
Levie framed AI economics as a two-part model: a base software fee (which may evolve beyond seat-based pricing) plus consumption tied to how much work agents perform. The key margin question, he said, will hinge on how much value the application layer adds through context engineering, domain expertise and workflow orchestration, especially as AI model inference pricing becomes more competitive.
On execution, Levie described AI as the biggest shift in software development he’s seen in 25+ years. Internal examples show features built five times faster, enabling teams to pursue far more ambitious projects. While that raises concerns about technical debt, he suggested future agents will increasingly clean up and refactor code written by earlier agents.
Addressing investor skepticism and stock volatility, Levie emphasized strong enterprise demand, particularly for Box’s Enterprise Advanced plan that bundles workflow automation and AI agent capabilities. Strategically, Box remains focused on tuck-in acquisitions for teams and point solutions, but AI has made building internally faster and, in some cases, preferable to buying.
Ultimately, Levie argued that in an attention-constrained world flooded with software, enterprises will gravitate toward trusted incumbents with distribution, ecosystems and proven platforms. In the long run he argues that will strengthen companies like Box rather than displace them.
“The value of that system of record those agents are operating in, we think will be even more important, whether it’s your unstructured data or a CRM system like Salesforce, or an HR system like Workday. And I think that’s the part that maybe some of the investor market doesn’t quite perceive.”
AI drives more software and agents, increasing the need for systems of record
Box positions itself as the system of record for unstructured enterprise data
Agent-heavy workflows raise the stakes for security, permissions, and governance
AI economics likely split between base software fees and agent consumption
Application-layer margins depend on context, domain expertise, and workflow value
AI model inference pricing should compress with increased competition
Internal teams are building features up to 5× faster using AI coding tools
Future agents may clean up and refactor earlier AI-generated code
Enterprise Advanced plan shows strong demand as customers automate knowledge work
AI reduces reliance on large acquisitions by accelerating in-house development
If you’d like to join me – and peers – for deeper conversations on innovation and leadership, get on this list for Fortt Knox Executive Communities, launching soon: mba.fortt.com.