Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, discusses enterprise AI pricing and whether customers will accept software markups over underlying AI token costs at Y Combinator AI Startup School.
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levie: In 10 years, most enterprise work will be previously uneconomic tasks
“If we go 10 years into the future, The vast majority of work that gets done in 10 years from now will be work that today is in that category. It's the work that like right now we can't even attack because we're like, I'm not going to hire somebody, pay them a …”
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2030
Levie: 100 Startups Created Between 2024-2028 Will Reach $5B to $20B Valuations
“There will be 100 startups that get created between last year and in three years from now that all become five, 10, twenty billion dollar companies because they're able to find the next set of nouns and verbs”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levie: AI tool makers will maintain flat pricing despite falling compute costs
“It's like, it's 20 bucks a month, it's 50 bucks a month, but we know that in 10 years from now, they'll probably be able to drive down their raw materials lower, but we won't be able to command lower prices for those things, because it's just like within a rea…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levie: Incumbents will only sell AI agents to existing install bases
“Because I think incumbents are only going to be the agent providers for their existing install base, which means that there's going to be tons of opportunity for so many more agents that those incumbents aren't already selling into.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levie: Salesforce and Marc Benioff Will Successfully Implement AI for CRM
“It won't just be like, oh, it's CRM, but with AI, because Mark Benioff in Salesforce is going to do CRM with AI. Like he's going to figure out a way to do that. He's they're very good at executing like that will happen.”
Insight
Levie: AI agents replace per-seat SaaS pricing with work volume pricing
“Agents basically completely blows that up because all of a sudden you can have AI agents that effectively contain the labor of that job function in the software itself. So you can go to a company and you can say, I know you only have three lawyers, but my agen…”