C3.AI is an enterprise A.I. company founded in 2009 by Thomas Siebel, who joined the program to discuss the company’s future. “We predicted this would happen,” he says, estimating that both enterprise and generative A.I. will be trillion-dollar markets.

C3 defines enterprise A.I. as a “category of enterprise software that harnesses advanced artificial intelligence techniques.” It positions itself as the next step in the software industry, nodding to the transition from “custom applications based on mainframe standards” to “SaaS and mobile apps,” and now to A.I. C3.AI wants to deliver a “low-code/no code” A.I. and IoT platform which “accelerates software development” and delivers “future-proof applications.”

This is all very dense. To give an example of the company’s work in the field, it recently announced an expanded partnership with RTX (RTX) subsidiary Collins Aerospace to integrate A.I. into the defense and intelligence space. In December 2022, it won three new orders from the Missile Defense Agency that focused on using A.I. to assess “novel threat signatures” and parse through “physics-model outputs and intelligence sources” to make U.S. defense faster and more accurate.

It’s important to understand how this type of A.I. differs from generative A.I. or LLM chatbots: though both are predictive machines, generative A.I. is focused on ‘creation’ based on user prompts, referencing its ingested dataset for matching bits to splice together. Enterprise A.I. generally uses the data it’s fed to help humans make decisions, a calculator that doesn’t just output 2+2, but gauges broader and more encompassing word/world problems. Generative A.I. could make up a new map of the world if the Roman Empire never fell, but enterprise A.I. could read geologic maps to determine where likely metal deposits are.

So, while C3.AI isn’t launching splashy chatbots, its A.I. work is more essential for the reams and reams of data analytics the modern world requires. Ahead of the curve with A.I. already in its name, it has benefitted from the frenzy of investing in the idea – shares are up 33% year-to-date – but it’s well off the all-time highs it hit at IPO in December of 2020. Could this be an overlooked name in the tech field?

CEO Tom Siebel discussed C3.AI’s partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) to sell its “100+” products through Microsoft’s distribution channels worldwide. He called this “one of the biggest deals in history” in the sector, giving C3.AI access to thousands of salespeople and channels to sell their work. The company has already forged relationships with Amazon’s (AMZN) AWS and Alphabet (GOOGL). He says C3.AI’s unique offering is that they create “highly unique” turnkey solutions, rather than piecemeal applications.

There’s a lot to like about the A.I. market: Siebel is “happy with the market expansion” and happy that the “government is prioritizing A.I.” – and not just in the defense sector. He thinks A.I. will be essential for modernization across all of government, and sees and opportunity in noted A.I.-lover Elon Musk’s DOGE department. He also thinks A.I. remains “top of the private sector agenda.” If you believe in his narrative, C3 could be worth a closer look.

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