Highlights:

  • Box AI is described as a set of AI capabilities that will largely focus on two things: assisting users in requesting information about documents and producing new content in Box.
  • Finding the specific information customers require from among hundreds of distinct papers is the most evident usage of generative AI in Box.

The most cutting-edge generative artificial intelligence models from OpenAI LP are being integrated into Box Content Cloud by the cloud content management provider Box Inc., making it simpler for business employees to derive insights from the data they work with.

Box AI is described as a set of AI capabilities that will largely focus on two things: assisting users in requesting information about documents and producing new content in Box. It was unveiled at Box’s Content Cloud Summit. The company claimed that because Box AI’s capabilities are governed by the same built-in permissions that keep client content secure on the platform, it is uniquely positioned to assist businesses in realizing the potential of generative AI.

Since OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT took the internet by storm for its ability to respond to queries and produce content in a humanlike manner, generative AI has become all the rage. Since that time, digital companies have been vying to incorporate its features into a range of business applications, and Box may have discovered one of the most intriguing use cases yet.

Aaron Levie, Chief Executive at Box, reported, “These large language models are truly a new era of AI. They’re general-purpose models that are much more broadly applicable. We can turn all of this enterprise content into business value.”

Finding the specific information customers require from among hundreds of distinct papers is the most evident usage of generative AI in Box. With Box AI, users will be able to open any document and utilize natural language questions to quickly get the information they need.

As a result, analysts may ask Box AI to rapidly summarize a lengthy financial report while sales teams could utilize it to deliver answers to their concerns regarding a complex sales deal. To shorten review cycles, legal teams may use Box AI to find any provisions, terms, or obligations in a contract. Similarly, customer service teams may utilize Box AI to swiftly uncover insights from a large number of survey responses. Box AI will also assist content creators. By opening Box Notes, users will be able to ask Box AI to create a variety of emails, blog posts, newsletters, and notes based on their existing content.

For instance, a communications team member may rapidly craft a social media post to make a statement in their organization’s standard voice while adhering to character restrictions, or a marketer could utilize Box AI to get over writer’s block when generating content for a new advertising campaign. Product teams will also benefit from an on-demand sounding board within Box AI to help them come up with ideas and designs more quickly.

According to Levie, the potential for generative AI to significantly boost productivity will probably ignite a fresh software arms race. “The cloud wars are pretty close to this, but it’s more like the OS wars of the 1980s. [Foundational models] are more like operating systems for information, and they’re going to be the core CPUs of software in future. I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited as this about any technology,” he added.

According to International Data Corp. analyst Holly Muscolino, those businesses that are slow to implement AI would probably fall behind their rivals. “AI will augment human abilities, automate repetitive tasks, provide personalized recommendations, and make data-driven decisions with speed and accuracy. Box’s Content Cloud is well-positioned to harness the power of AI, and it will play a key role in helping businesses reach this next stage in the future of work,” she added.

When questioned about the dangers of AI, Levie emphasized that Box will have rigorous permissions that will regulate what data Box AI can and cannot see, keeping consumers in complete control of their data. When users ask Box AI a question, the AI can only respond with information from documents to which they have access rights.

Box has also made precautions to prevent “hallucinations,” which occur when AI fabricates a response when it is unable to obtain a true solution. Levie claims that Box avoids this by teaching its models to only declare ignorance. Levie stated, “We’ve found that we can prevent hallucination by telling it to work off the context we’re giving it and say it doesn’t know if the information isn’t there.”

According to Andy Thurai, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research Inc., the new AI capabilities promise to improve the Box user experience significantly. “The new option to create emails, newsletters, presentations and blogs from within Box Notes means people can avoid the clunky interface issues that have plagued Box for some years. This move can potentially bring Box to the fore as a major player in the collaborative space, as opposed to just the document storage space, as it is today,” he said.

One of the critical questions for businesses is whether Box is utilizing public APIs and giving data back to OpenAI and Azure or using a private instance of OpenAI’s model to train Box AI on client data, according to the analyst.

Thurai explained, “If Box has opted for the latter, then Box AI has the potential to become a true differentiator, but if it’s the former, it could be setting itself up for disaster. Box needs to guarantee the continued enterprise-grade security, privacy, governance, and compliance it’s known for. If it can do this, then Box AI is a good move.”

Initially, only a few clients who apply to join Box’s future Design Partner Program will have access to Box AI’s capabilities. Although Levie said some features would be available for free within the core Content Cloud offering, with a possibility of others being premium offerings, the company does not yet have a timeline for general availability.

Box AI is still a work in progress, and according to Levie, the business intends to integrate the Box Content Cloud much more thoroughly with its capabilities. To improve security, ideas include automating operations and automatically classifying specific files.

Levie mentioned, “The big idea is when you can do this across a broad set of data. For example, you could ask a question across the entire HR data set.”