By Emily Bary
The enterprise AI company names a new CEO while taking a candid look at past sales challenges but cheering its market opportunity
C3.ai’s stock has fallen by half this year.
C3.ai Inc.’s stock has been “battered,” and that pressure was “well deserved,” according to the enterprise artificial-intelligence company’s outgoing chief executive.
But the company is trying to restore investor confidence by adding more stability to its leadership profile – with the appointment of a new CEO from the government and startup worlds.
Stephen Ehikian is taking over the CEO post after serving as the acting administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration and working to modernize the procurement process there, according to a statement. He previously built two artificial-intelligence companies that were purchased by Salesforce Inc.
Ehikian replaces Tom Siebel, an industry veteran who previously announced his intention to exit the CEO role as he deals with health challenges. But Siebel isn’t going far. As executive chairman, he’ll “remain engaged” at the company, helping Ehikian “as necessary” and focusing on “important partner and strategic customer relationships, with a continued eye on product strategy and direction.”
The company makes enterprise AI software offerings that help make use of data for the federal government as well as businesses in the manufacturing, financial-services and other industries.
C3.ai shares (AI) have tumbled more than 50% this year, and the company previously warned of disappointing results for the latest quarter. Its financial outlook issued Wednesday came up short of expectations as well, and the stock fell another 11% in after-hours action.
Read: C3.ai’s stock plunges, and some analysts worry business trends could get worse
Siebel took a candid approach to discussing the company’s past challenges, which he attributed in part to “dreadful” execution from the sales team in the fiscal first quarter that recently wrapped up. C3.ai had shaken up the sales leadership team with a new chief revenue officer and others, and that added confusion to the sales process, he said.
Plus, Siebel himself is usually quite active in customer engagement, but couldn’t participate to the usual extent due to his health issues. Some CEOs are more into strategy, while others are “very hands on in the sales process.” In retrospect, he said he realizes his participation was perhaps “a little bit more important than we thought.”
C3.ai forecasts $72 million to $80 million in revenue for the current quarter, which Siebel said reflects a spillover of the issues from last quarter. Because the company incurred a roughly $30 million revenue shortfall then relative to expectations, and customer engagements typically last three years on average, the missteps of the past are bound to have an effect on the present.
The FactSet consensus was for almost $100 million in revenue for the ongoing quarter.
But Siebel and Ehikian are upbeat about the company’s product and the opportunity in enterprise AI.
“There are no really competitive changes in the market, no secular changes in the market,” Siebel said. “The product is great. Customers are satisfied.”
Ehikian said his government work will lend well to the new C3.ai role. His efforts to modernize the federal government’s procurement processes could make it easier for agencies to buy C3.ai technologies, implement them and scale them, he said.
He plans to engage customers more and show them how to deploy AI for “mission-critical operations” in a practical sense, beyond what can be shown in demos.
-Emily Bary
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09-03-25 2013ET
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