Oracle CEO Sicilia Says AI Is Reshaping Cloud Growth, Pricing and Enterprise Demand

AI is reshaping Oracle’s cloud strategy and pricing: CEO Mike Sicilia said customers are demanding measurable returns, cost controls and governance, while Oracle supports token-based, usage-based, user-based and outcome-based pricing models.

Embedded AI and cloud migration are major growth opportunities: Oracle is integrating AI into Fusion applications and expects continued demand to move the roughly half of its install base still operating on-premises—particularly in regulated industries—to the cloud.

Database and multi-cloud capabilities remain central to AI growth: Oracle cited the importance of secure enterprise data, 22 live multi-cloud regions with Amazon and more than 400% fourth-quarter growth in its multi-cloud database business, while healthcare is expected to provide important proof points for AI adoption.

Oracle Chief Executive Officer Mike Sicilia said artificial intelligence is reshaping customer conversations, software development and the company’s approach to selling cloud applications, database technology and infrastructure. Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference, Sicilia said the pace of AI change has accelerated to the point that discussions are evolving monthly rather than annually. He described AI as a positive disruption for the software industry, saying the technology is enabling substantially greater productivity from software engineers while not eliminating the need for domain expertise and experience in mission-critical systems.

“The fact that we’re able to disrupt ourselves and become so productive is because we have decades of experience with building, delivering mission-critical applications [and] mission-critical infrastructure,” Sicilia said.

AI ROI, Pricing and Governance Sicilia said enterprise customers are increasingly focused on the practical questions surrounding AI adoption: how to achieve value, control costs, manage organizational change and identify near- and long-term returns. He said Oracle’s full-stack position—spanning infrastructure, databases and applications—supports discussions about predictable return on investment.

As an example, Sicilia pointed to Oracle’s human capital management applications, where the company can use patterns from its 14,000 live Fusion application customers to help organizations assess the AI resources and costs required to increase hiring and candidate screening activity. Oracle offers multiple approaches to AI monetization, including token bundles, usage-based consumption, user-based pricing and outcome-based arrangements, Sicilia said. He expects all of those models to remain relevant, with outcome-based pricing becoming more important as customers seek measurable AI returns. He also emphasized governance, noting that Oracle has used AI internally and has had to manage employee token consumption. Enterprise and government customers, he said, want the ability to oversee different consumption and outcome models, receive usage alerts and measure the return on AI spending.

Embedded AI and Cloud Migration Sicilia said Oracle sees embedded AI as a significant factor in Fusion application sales because customers can access AI capabilities as part of the application rather than deploying separate tools. He said this approach may also offer cybersecurity advantages over adding third-party products to existing on-premises systems. Oracle’s AI Agent Studio allows customers and partners to build agents o...