How's life after Tom Siebel for C3.ai? Still pretty bad, all told, but there's a plan, according to the new CEO

When we last checked in on enterprise AI veteran, it wasn’t a pretty sight. The firm had turned in a quarter that founder Tom Siebel himself pitched as “completely unacceptable in virtually every respect” even as he prepared to vacate the top slot due to ill health.

He remains involved in the firm as Chairman to assist his CEO replacement, Stephen Ehikian, but has his successor inherited a poisoned chalice. Yesterday’s fresh quarterly numbers didn’t make for comfortable reading - total revenue did rise seven percent year-on-year to $75.1 million, but losses also soared from $65.972 million a year ago to a hefty $104.688 million now.

But three months into the hot seat, Ehikian reckons he has a handle on what’s gone wrong and it begins with “totally unacceptable” levels of poor sales execution, a situation that Siebel’s health issues contributed to. But ...