Stephen Ehikian has left the General Services Administration to take up the chief executive role at C3 AI, an artificial intelligence firm founded by Tom Siebel in 2009.
Ehikian’s departure from GSA was not unexpected. He has been one of the architects of Trump administration acquisition reform efforts.
In July, he was replaced as acting GSA administrator by Michael Rigas. President Trump has since nominated Edward Forst as GSA administrator, which requires confirmation by the Senate.
While C3 AI is a relatively small publicly-traded company with $389.1 million in 2025 revenue, it is targeting public sector as a growth area with its agentic AI offerings.
The company has signed partnership agreements with several federal systems integrators including HII, Groundswell and SMX.
C3 AI’s report for its first quarter ended July 31 mentions agreements the company has entered into with the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Missile Defense Agency and unidentified intelligence agencies.
C3 AI primarily goes to market through a partner network and signed 40 partnership agreements during the first quarter. It also expanded partnerships with Microsoft and McKinsey & Company.
C3 AI began looking for a new CEO in July after Siebel said he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in early 2025, which significantly impacted his vision. Siebel will remain with the company as executive chairman.
Siebel was a long-time Oracle executive before leaving in 1993 to found Siebel Systems, a customer relationship management software developer.
Siebel Systems became a dominant CRM provider before Oracle acquired the company in 2005 for $5.8 billion.
