An Interview with Tom Siebel hosted by Netexplo’s NewDIL
Tom Siebel recently spoke at the exclusive NewDIL (Digital Industry Lab) forum in Paris to more than 100 executives from leading French companies. Hosted by Netexplo (part of the Les Echos group), the NewDIL is a think tank for industry Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) that brings together newly appointed CDOs of French companies to discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with digital transformation. At the event, Tom Siebel was interviewed by journalist Julia Sieger.
During his conversation with Ms. Sieger, Siebel discussed many of the themes from his book, Digital Transformation, including the concept of punctuated equilibrium, the potential for AI to transform healthcare, the battle for AI leadership between China and the Western world, and the importance of CEO leadership in driving digital transformation.
Siebel also fielded questions from the audience, including a question from the Chief Digital Transformation Officer of Michelin, who asked, “Do you see open source as key to enabling digital transformation?” Siebel explained the challenges of the “build it yourself” model, emphasizing that enterprise AI systems are “two orders of magnitude more complex” than CRM or ERP systems. He noted that the number of companies that have successfully built their own enterprise AI systems is “zero.”
Siebel also received a question from an executive at Groupe PSA regarding the environmental impact of digital transformation. The executive asked, “Given the significant power supply required to power cloud computing, how do you think digital transformation will affect the health of our planet?”
Siebel responded, “I have the greatest faith in humankind to invent our way out of problems like that, with new forms of energy efficiency, new forms of energy, and solutions to these problems. This is what scientists and engineers do. This is what scientists and engineers have done throughout history. And I believe we’ll do it again.”
Watch Tom Siebel and Julia Sieger of France 24 in conversation at the NewDIL event.
