Founder Thomas Siebel stepped down as CEO due to health issues.
Stephen Ehikian, who has a great deal of experience with tech companies, takes over.
C3.ai is coming off a disastrous quarter where sales nosedived and its bottom line went deeper into the red.
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C3.ai (NYSE: AI) recently announced a new CEO. This comes at a time when the stock is struggling badly. While the artificial intelligence (AI) company touts over 130 turnkey solutions that can appeal to businesses in many industries, investors haven’t been all that convinced of its growth prospects, and its recent results haven’t looked all that great, either.
The company’s outgoing CEO is also its founder, Thomas Siebel. He’s been facing health challenges and the change in leadership comes as a surprise to investors. The uncertainty has made a tough situation for the stock even worse. Since January, C3.ai lost more than half of its value.
But under new management, the direction of the company may change, and perhaps its financials may even improve. Could the new CEO help turn things around for this struggling stock, and is now a good time to invest in C3.ai?
On Sept. 3, C3.ai announced that Stephen Ehikian would be its new CEO, while Siebel will remain as executive chairman.
Siebel was involved in the search for a new CEO and says that the company now has “the rare combination of the right person, at the right company, in the right market, at the right time.” Ehikian helped build up a couple of technology companies, RelateIQ and Airkit.ai, which tech giant Salesforce ended up acquiring. He has also recently been the acting administrator in the U.S. General Services Administration and was involved in the government’s AI action plan.
It’s good news for C3.ai to have a new CEO in charge, as a long and drawn-out process could have simply made things worse for the AI stock. But with the transition complete and Siebel still involved in the business, the hope is that C3.ai may be on a better track moving forward.
Recently, the company posted some alarming earnings numbers where it badly missed expectations. Sales totaled $70.3 million for fiscal first quarter of 2026 (ending July 31), a decline of nearly 20% year over year. What was most troubling was that Siebel said the company’s reorganization efforts and his own health issues had significant effects on the recent results.
The first big test for the new CEO will be if he can improve upon the sharp decline in the top line. As recently as May, the company was projecting its quarterly revenue to be over $100 million.
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