Siebel: ‘AI is now basically at the top of every CEO’s agenda’

A day earlier, his software company, which deals in enterprise artificial intelligence, issued an upbeat forecast and cited “substantially improving” market sentiment, catapulting C3.ai shares up 28% in late-morning trading Friday.

Read more: C3.ai stock rockets as CEO Siebel touts ‘dramatic change’ in sentiment amid AI hype

For Siebel, a former Oracle Corp. ORCL, +2.01% executive who has spent the past decade and $1 billion developing an AI solution, the newfound interest in AI is vindication. Nearly every major tech exec has preached the growth potential of artificial intelligence — and their companies’ efforts to cash in on the technology — during conference calls.

“AI is absolutely the hot topic today. Generally, I helped fuel it. AI is now basically at the top of every CEO’s agenda,” said Siebel, who predicts it will become a $600 billion market.

“Look, we are in the first half of the first inning of the first at-bat” for AI, he said, adding, “Hey, Oracle didn’t really work until version 4.”

After enduring fierce macroeconomic tailwinds that have battered the tech sector over the past several months, C3.ai’s recently completed quarter highlighted “a genuine optimism in the marketplace for our solutions, and the overall business sentiment appears to be substantially improving,” Siebel said in a conference call late Thursday.

The opinionated Siebel also weighed in on the corporate travails of former Oracle colleague Marc Benioff, now the CEO of Salesforce Inc. CRM, +0.27%, which is dealing with a handful of hedge funds clamoring for change.

“Marc has done a fine job, but he seems to be getting some religion from institutional investors,” Siebel said. “The prince of ‘wokeness’ who supported employees working from home now wants them to return to the office. They are a ‘woke’ company, and we are a work company.”