CEOs who don’t embrace AI won’t stay CEOs for long » Dallas innovates

Mark Cuban has a message for CEOs who still treat artificial intelligence as something to be dabbled in. “You’re going to be left behind.”

“In the next three years, there are going to be two types of companies: companies that excel at AI and companies that go out of business,” the entrepreneur and investor said at Convergence AI Dallas, a Dallas Regional Chamber conference focused on AI trends and innovation in North Texas.

Mr. Cuban said the turmoil has already begun. For example, Cost Plus Drugs uses Claude to generate a weekly report that compares the prices of its 25 most expensive drugs with those of its competitors. What once required software or an employee is now available in minutes on any browser, he said. “So it’s non-linear.”

Business journalist Alex Kantrowitz, host of the Big Tech Podcast, interviewed Cuban on stage in an hour-long session that wrapped up the two-day event. The full interview will be posted as a future episode. Below are highlights of the main themes of the conversation.

Separating AI hype from reality

Kantrowitz: We are in the midst of this moment where we are hearing about the revolutionary power of artificial intelligence. There, new features are talked about every day, but despite the hype, not much has changed in our daily lives. For most people, ChatGPT is something they might try someday, or a better Google, and AI agents sound like the future but are not applicable today. How would you explain the gap between today’s hype and reality on the ground?

Cuban: I don’t think there is a gap. Not really. From a business perspective, if you’re not using one of the larger language models, like my favorites Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, or Gemini, I think you’re way behind as this is aimed at businesses and students. If you happen to work for or run a company without knowing what an agent is, you will be far behind.

It’s not that AI is smart. …It doesn’t take over everything, but like other technology tools before it, it has had a huge impact.

AI as a tool to build your business

Kantrowitz: With all the tools at our disposal, how do we build a business today? Is it different from the way we used to build businesses?

Cuban: It depends on where you are in the business lifecycle or if you are starting a business.

If you already have a business, are looking to outsource, a customer center, a customer call center, whatever it is, AI agents are perfect for you. So you can do that. What you give your interns, AI agents are perfect for that.

…We often hear about large publicly traded companies… spending a lot of money implementing AI, but not really getting a return on investment. And people say, “If AI is so great, why?” Because you’re already running your business the same way you’ve always run it, and leveraging AI to answer your questions requires completely reinventing your business and building it on top of AI. It’s the difference between running a business before PCs and computers and running a business after PCs and computers came out. You would do it completely differently.

… You, too, can now pull out your phone, access your favorite big language model, come up with a business idea, and instead of coming to me and saying, “Mark, is this a good idea?”, you can just walk in and say, “Is this a good idea?” “Okay, this is what I want to do. This is what I have in mind. Write me a business plan and tell me the good, the bad, the ugly about this, how to raise money, and what the economics should be.”

How software companies can navigate SaaS disruption

Kantrowitz: The market has taken a really hard look at software stocks because it has become so easy to build software. I think one of the things that investors have realized is that all the software that’s being built is built to scale, but it’s never going to perfectly fit people’s needs. There is a lot of room for AI to destroy them. Potentially, they could use even more custom software, which they call “SaaSpocalypse.” Do you think the sale is justified?

Cuban: Yes and no. It depends on the company.

…What you need is a unique, non-shared IP. Here’s an example from a company called DocuSign. Considering everything we sign, you might think it would be easy because other companies like Adobe are doing everything. But it’s a global company. All the laws related to signing legal documents vary from city to city, state to state, and country to country, so make sure you understand them all. This is a unique differentiation that we don’t want to rely on AI rights.

…This is a database of things that aren’t available anywhere else or that we haven’t made available for training AI. It’s their confidential information. I think such companies are fine.

Observe the ROI of AI

Kantrowitz: OpenAI recently announced that it had raised $110 billion, which I think is triple the largest IPO in history. They plan to spend more than $1 trillion on infrastructure over the next few years. I’d love to hear your perspective, not just on expenses, but on the revenue needed to hit these numbers.

Cuban: They will never understand. …Data centers, processing power, are going to get faster and cheaper, right? And that’s going to happen faster and faster than people expect, so I think a lot of the numbers that they’re putting out there aren’t going to come to fruition.

…But some people who just went all in are spending more than they have cash on hand. I understand why. However, I don’t know if it will work for everyone.

future of work

Kantrowitz: We’ve heard from more than a few people that they believe that effectively using these tools within their company means training the AI ​​to replace them. That has to be true in some cases. As this technology continues to evolve, what do you think will happen to the broader picture of work?

Cuban: This will cause a misalignment. There’s no question about that, but I’m not one to say that jobs will become optional or that unemployment will be 50%. no.

If all you’re doing is reformatting or answering questions with “yes” or “no,” you’re more likely to be replaced by an AI. But if you are a critical thinker, they will always need you. If you’re a critical thinker and you know how to use the tools and you know where it’s best to use an agent, where it’s best not to use an agent, where it’s best to vibe code, where it’s best not to use it… If you learn how to use these tools and you know how to think critically, you’re always learning because you’re curious and you’re always going to get the job.

If I were to graduate today, or if I were a 16-year-old looking for a job, I would learn everything there is to know about AI, and I would go to small businesses and say, “Hey, this is AI. “Open the door and let me do all the things that need to be done that are at the bottom of my to-do list. Show me how to do these things with an agent so I can be more productive, more competitive, and make more money.”

Let me give you a perfect example. One of my Shark Tank companies is called Rebel Cheese. They sell vegan cheese and ship all over the world. …If you ship in boxes, you know that there are many different sizes of boxes, including UPS and DHL. Even if you start with one zone, shipping to different zones will cost different prices. And you probably also know that they never charge the correct price. Is it familiar?

So what Rebel Cheese did was create a little agent that takes pictures of the boxes being prepared for shipment, determines the size, looks at the price list, takes pictures of the invoices, compares them, and creates credit requests if they differ. They save $50,000 a month and it’s all automated. They don’t need to touch it.

That’s where an agent can help. You need to know how to implement it.

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