Box Creates 13 New Job Types Thanks to AI Growth

While many tech companies slash jobs and blame artificial intelligence, one Silicon Valley firm is proving AI can create opportunities instead of eliminating them.

Box, a California software company that helps businesses store and manage data, has added 13 entirely new job categories since AI transformed its business four years ago. The company now employs over 3,000 workers, up from 2,900 at the start of this year.

CEO Aaron Levie, who founded Box in 2005, says the growth comes from two directions. His company sells AI tools to customers who need help using them, and Box employees themselves use AI to become more productive in ways that require hiring more people, not fewer.

The new positions include AI architects, AI solutions managers, and forward deployed engineers who help customers without technical backgrounds integrate AI into their work. Box also created AI business automation engineers who help colleagues use the technology to handle tedious tasks.

"We ourselves are selling AI to our customers, so that's actually causing us to need to hire more people," Levie said. The 41-year-old executive points out that as AI makes each engineer more capable, hiring additional engineers becomes even more valuable.

Box's steady approach stands out in an industry known for wild swings. The company never went on a pandemic hiring spree like its peers, growing just 20% from 2019 to 2022 while others doubled or tripled in size. It has never conducted broad layoffs.

The strategy is paying off financially too. Box's revenue jumped 11% in its most recent quarter, the fastest growth since 2022, as it weaves AI features into products like automated contract review.

The Ripple Effect

The job creation extends beyond Box's walls. Across tech, demand for cybersecurity experts has surged because AI-generated code needs careful vetting. Google and others are recruiting engineers to help customers integrate AI systems.

Columbia Business School professor Stephan Meier notes that new technologies have always created unexpected careers. When computers arrived in offices during the 1970s and 1980s, entirely new fields emerged, from IT departments to chief information officers to computer science degrees.

Whether these AI-related jobs prove permanent remains unclear, Meier cautions. But Box sees them as long-term positions that will evolve as AI technology advances rather than plateau.

The company's more than 100,000 customers, including federal agencies and Morgan Stanley, now benefit from specialists who didn't exist a few years ago. AI has even let Box hire marketing staff for specific industries, roles it couldn't justify before because the work would have required too many people.

Levie believes the hiring will continue as long as AI keeps advancing, with each new model requiring fresh expertise to help customers adapt.

For workers worried about AI taking their jobs, Box offers a different story about the future of work.