Box CEO Aaron Levie says this is the biggest misconception about AI

• Box CEO Aaron Levie said the biggest misconception about AI is that it will replace jobs.
• While some companies may hire fewer of certain roles, he said AI will boost output, leading to higher head counts.
• Levie said those in paralegal or engineering roles will be able to increase their output dramatically.

Box CEO Aaron Levie has a message for AI skeptics: Automation doesn’t mean replacement.

The one misconception people are making about AI is that it will take over their jobs, Levie told Business Insider.

If AI is a productivity driver, “many companies in the economy will grow faster, causing them to need to hire people to go and then support the growth of those companies,” Levie said.

Rather than replacing entire categories of jobs, Levie said the likelier outcome is that a company’s overall head count will rise as output increases. While increased efficiency could lead to a company hiring fewer of certain roles, the CEO said there are “very few examples” of an entire job or sector disappearing as a result of automation.

Levie said he sees industries like sales, law, and healthcare growing in demand as a result of AI.

“As tasks get automated within a job, your output in that job can go up tremendously, and that will then have a different range of impacts depending on the segment that company is in, or depending on what role that person is in,” Levie said.

Software engineering has been at the center of the debate on job replacement, as AI coding tools have automated many aspects of the work, and many recent grads are struggling to find jobs. While companies like Box continue to hire engineers, tech leaders have noted a slowdown in hiring amid uncertainty about AI’s impact on entry-level workers.

Levie said that the idea that software engineering is going away as a result of AI is “completely misplaced.” With AI, software engineers will be able to ship two, three, or potentially five times more code, he said. His comments echo those of Okta CEO Todd McKinnon, who previously told Business Insider that engineers will rise in demand in the age of AI, as companies are able to create more products.

“The skill set doesn’t become any less important,” Levie said. “In fact, it probably becomes more valuable based on where the future is going.”

AI will have similar outcomes on other professions, Levie said. The CEO said paralegals will also be five times more productive, giving them the capacity to review more contracts. Marketing brand designers will be able to create campaigns for more initiatives, and product managers will be able to cover more surface area, he said.

“All of these are the things that AI agents let you go do, but in none of those categories did the job go away,” Levie said. “It’s just what the output of that job can now accomplish could grow by 20% or 50% or maybe 200% depending on, again, where you are in that workflow.”

While Levie remains optimistic about a future with AI, he said there will be alterations to the workforce and it’s important to be aware of how roles will evolve.

“Figure out what do you want to do, and what does your job look like in the future? Because there will be changes,” Levie said.

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