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NewsMaterial3 min readDisconfirmAI Editorial

Databricks Co-founder: People and Processes Matter More Than Technology in Enterprise AI Sales

Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji, co-founder and Senior Vice President of Field Engineering at Databricks, stated at TechCrunch Disrupt that enterprise AI adoption lags far behind hype, and product advantages alone are insufficient to win major accounts. He categorizes the core concerns of enterprise clients into four 'Cs': Context, Choice, Cost, and Control.

2026-10-27 06:00 GMT+8

Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji is the co-founder and Senior Vice President of Field Engineering at Databricks. Databricks is currently valued at $190 billion, with more than 70% of Fortune 500 companies as customers. However, in his speech at TechCrunch Disrupt, his core argument was not about how powerful the technology is, but rather that technological superiority alone is not enough.

He recalled an early experience: after finally securing a meeting with a potential client, he discovered that the person had just signed a major deal with his primary competitor.

Tavakoli-Shiraji categorized the core concerns of enterprise clients regarding AI into four categories, which he calls the "four Cs."

The first is Context: Can AI be trained like a new employee to learn the company's terminology, processes, and priorities? The second is Choice: Can enterprises freely switch AI models rather than being locked into a single vendor? The third is Cost: Is the operating cost of AI products controllable? The fourth is Control: Are there sufficient safety guardrails to constrain AI behavior and protect sensitive information?

Regarding the actual level of enterprise AI adoption, Tavakoli-Shiraji offered a candid assessment. He jokingly asked CIOs on a scale of one to five where their company stands: a one means employees merely have access to ChatGPT, while a five means the company has already transformed its business processes using AI.

He believes the biggest opportunity today is not for enterprises to create flashier AI demonstrations, but to modernize those expensive legacy systems.

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In terms of distribution strategy, Tavakoli-Shiraji shared a key turning point in Databricks' early days: they initially tried to secure a meeting with the Swiss bank UBS directly but failed. Later, they established a partnership with Microsoft, becoming an Azure cloud partner, which meant sales agreements were covered under Microsoft's terms. More importantly, Microsoft's sales team proactively booked meetings and advocated for Databricks.

Tavakoli-Shiraji also recalled that early deals often fizzled not because the technology was inadequate, but because startups were unprepared to address legal, contractual, or security issues.

These insights stem from Tavakoli-Shiraji's personal enterprise sales experience. He frankly estimates that 99% of the enterprises he has spoken with remain at level one or two, noting that "it will take many, many years before people can actually properly deploy AI in a very meaningful way in the enterprise."

The framework of the four Cs is itself testable: any team selling AI products to enterprises can use these four dimensions to benchmark their sales materials and identify exactly which 'C' causes customer rejection. Tavakoli-Shiraji was responsible for helping secure Databricks' first major clients in its early stages, and this classification method derives from his practical enterprise sales experience.

Sources

  • techcrunch.comTechCrunch↗
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