Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie does not believe AI agents will replace enterprise SaaS companies. He shared this perspective on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference. Instead, he sees a future combining SaaS and agents in a hybrid model.
Levie explained that businesses need to define their processes using deterministic systems with clear business logic. This is because the risk of unexpected changes is too high for mission-critical operations. He cited examples of data leaks or agents causing unintended damage in production environments. He stressed the importance of a clear separation between the deterministic parts of software and the non-deterministic aspects.
He described a future where enterprise software uses SaaS for core business workflows. AI agents would then operate on top of that foundation. These agents would assist with decision-making, automate tasks, and generally accelerate the processes users perform within the system.
Levie also noted that this shift would significantly change the business models of enterprise SaaS companies. He is convinced there will be 100 or even 1,000 times more agents than people using software systems. This means the traditional per-seat pricing model would become obsolete. Companies would instead need to sell based on consumption and volume-oriented use cases for AI agents.
He sees this transformation as a major market opportunity for startups. Startups building for an agent-first era have an advantage over larger companies that are trying to retrofit agents into existing processes. Smaller startups have no legacy business processes to change, allowing them to design new processes with agents as the primary focus.
This creates an opportunity for startups to build solutions that help enterprises manage this change more easily. Levie encouraged entrepreneurs to capitalize on this current shift. He stated we are in a significant platform shift in technology, a phenomenon not seen in about fifteen years. This shift opens the door for a new generation of companies to emerge, and he advised entrepreneurs to fully exploit this opportunity.