Modern Mainframe Development

Chapter 10. Artificial Intelligence

Tom Siebel has an impeccable track record of understanding the megatrends in technology. He started his career at Oracle in the 1980s because he saw the promise of relational databases. By the early 1990s, he had created his own company, Siebel Systems, which pioneered the customer relationship management (CRM) industry.

What came next for Siebel was a big play on AI, with his launch of C3 AI in 2009. The platform has helped companies like Royal Dutch Shell leverage AI technology to help reduce costs and automate tedious activities.

Here is how Siebel describes that AI opportunity: “This is a significant opportunity by any standard and the largest software market opportunity that I have seen in my professional career. Digital transformation enabled by enterprise AI remains at the top of the agenda of virtually every CEO and board globally. We see increasingly robust interest and demand for enterprise AI solutions, and our pipeline continues to grow substantially across all industries and all regions.”

How big is this market? According to research from International Data Corporation (IDC), the spending is on track to exceed a whopping $500 billion by 2024, and the growth rate is forecasted at 16.4% per year.

AI will certainly be critical for the mainframe market as well. Some of the biggest players in the market include companies like IBM, Accenture, and Infosys, which provide high-end consulting services for large enterprises.

In this chapter, ...