Walmart is in jeopardy from the digital transformation, Amazon is leading: Tom Siebel
According Tom Siebel, C3 IoT CEO and founder of Siebel Systems which was acquired by Oracle, is predicting AI (artificial intelligence) will have a dramatic effect on how corporations do business over the next decade and those that do not make the change successfully may not survive.
Siebel says some companies that are embracing the shift are leading the transformation, telling the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo of Mornings with Maria, “There’s this phenomenon called digital transformation and there are companies who are driving that like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and companies who are embracing that like Honeywell (NYSE:HON), United Healthcare (NYSE:UNH), Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT)…John Deere (NYSE:DE) and others.
On the other hand, some companies may disappear over the next decade if they can’t keep up with the change.
“There are companies, maybe 30% of the Fortune 500 companies, likely will not exist in 30 years, 10 years if they don’t make this transformation.”
Amazon and Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) financials show the impact the digital transformation is already having.
“I think Amazon has roughly a quarter of the sales of Walmart and a greater market cap, we have Tesla with one twentieth of the sales of General Motors (NYSE:GM) and a greater market cap.”
There are companies, particularly in retail, whose future is at risk because of the digital transformation.
“There are companies who will be left behind and we’re seeing these retail outlets close their doors every day. I think, you know, companies like Walmart (NYSE:WMT) are in jeopardy…things are changing very rapidly.”
When the FOX Business Network’s Dagen McDowell followed up, asking, “You think Walmart’s in jeopardy?”
Siebel responded, “In the long run, unless they transform themselves.”
According to Siebel, AI will not only impact the future of businesses, but the job market as well.
“This is going to have an adverse impact. A lot of jobs that exist today will not exist in 10 years and we need to think about that, this is an important issue.”
Some in Silicon Valley, such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are calling for universal guaranteed income, but Siebel views this as the wrong solution. Siebel sees education as the way to prepare Americans for the digital transformation.
“I think we need to look at K-12 education more than we need to look at guaranteed incomes for all Americans. As it relates to the job market, we really need to look at K-12 education to make sure that our population is trained for the next economy.”
