身份不明的发言人
Scott Russell（首席执行官）
Beth Gaspich（首席财务官）
身份不明的参会者
[突然开始] 美国软件。欢迎来到第二天下午的软件专场。接下来是NICE。很高兴有今年新任命的首席执行官Scott Russell和NICE的首席财务官Beth Gasvich。所以Scott，感谢您出席会议，您知道，鉴于您最近加入公司，我认为对观众来说，稍微介绍一下背景会很好，也许有些人之前在SAP不认识您，但您的主要优先事项是什么，您如何看待NICE的现状和演变。
当然。所以下午好，很高兴见到您。所以，背景是我显然在企业技术领域工作了很长时间。在加入NICE之前，我是SAP的首席收入官。如果您，我想在我担任该职位的四年期间，并处理运行他们的多个全球业务，他们将其云收入从80亿美元翻倍到170亿美元，然后我认为今年他们交付了大约210到220亿美元。所以一个显著的加速，从一个本地公司转向云并推动它，我运营了公司的一半。
所以我想我对如何推动规模和增长以及在国际市场使用技术有很好的理解，当我来到NICE时，这显然是我们在这里的原因。有一个不可思议的市场机会。为什么我在这里？因为这个行业已经经历了多次转型。有一个转型是许多年前您试图做自动化。您看到了IVR的出现，您看到了NICE在劳动力管理、通话录音方面的历史，然后那转向了联络中心和CCAS空间以及他们所做的转型，这相当 groundbreaking。
但最大和最具影响力的举动 yet to come。所以AI扮演的角色，它不是关于AI本身，而是关于它允许公司在其编排和与客户的互动中做什么，是能够显著自动化，能够显著改善他们与客户的互动，规模比以往任何时候都更大，并且以不依赖于坐在联络中心的人类的智力和能力的方式来做。
所以我对什么感到兴奋？我的优先事项是什么？第一是能够 spearhead 并领导行业进行这一转型。如果您在CCAS空间，并且您没有明确的基础技术能力来管理向AI的转型，您将会失败，因为市场正在移动，目前正在发生。我们在AI方面的增长，我们已经做的，我们分享的42%的增长，现在占我们总云收入的11%，证明我们已经 well under the way，但显著加速了那一转型和变化。
我可以解释如何。第二是通过合作伙伴关系扩展。您会看到我们已经显著增强了我们与Salesforce、ServiceNow、Amazon、Snowflake的关系和合作伙伴关系。我们还与我们的系统集成商和其他经销商合作。为什么？因为作为一家公司，我们有伟大的产品，但我们不一定通过生态系统利用和扩展，通过他们的渠道将我们推向市场，就像我们通过自己的方式一样。这也意味着我们的Salesforce AI和我们的互操作性需要无缝。我们不是孤立运作的。
服务云、语音和其他能力将与我们的互操作，我们 clearly 将积极追求 that 而不是 react to it。第三是国际扩张。我们非常 bullish。我们已经围绕我们的主权云能力做了一些 significant 投资，这已经在 major wins 如最近的英国DWP或澳大利亚服务中 bearing fruit。但还有其他案例，我们看到 significant 增长，因为国际市场的本地到云移动 nowhere near as progressed 像在美国一样。但即使在美国，仍然有一个 significant 机会，所以能够 capitalize on that，然后 last but not least 是，我可能会强调它，鉴于 pending onboarding of Kong G post concluding on the closing process，我们能够 at scale 交付 automated AI auto so agentless platform 和他们的 agentic platform 是 game changing。
我们在他们平台上的数据成为一个 exciting 机会，没有其他CCAS市场参与者可以提供。所以您把所有这些东西放在一起，这意味着我们有多个增长驱动力， beyond the on prem to cloud move，这显然是一个重要部分，并将继续是，但那让我们保持忙碌。
是的， well 听起来像很多 exciting 事情要处理，作为您的第一年， maybe 跟进其中一些。所以您谈到了AI将如何成为这个行业 seen 的最大演变。所以我想 just clearly 有很多 concerns 在很多软件公司上，包括您的，并 saw Salesforce 报告昨晚 as well。但您如何看待您的业务？我 mean Obviously the AI growth is, is impressive, you know, 42% accelerating。但 then 那如何 play into the rest of the business？Like is there a part of the business that's kind of more traditional, at risk？Like how do you。
Or is this all just, you think, a growth accelerator incremental？
所以我会让Beth，您可能能够评论一点财务方面，但 strategically 有一些数据点 really important。消费者和他们品牌之间的互动量 continues to increase and it is unabated。它在语音中增加，在电子邮件中增加，在聊天中增加，在所有数字渠道中增加。所以他们的消费者与他们的品牌互动的所有路线 not declining, it's increasing。所以对现有联络中心的需求 actually increasing despite the role that AI is starting to play。
第二是您 cannot solve complex user customer cases with generic AI。如果您能做到，简单案例 easy。OpenAI can do it, Microsoft can do it, we can, anybody。简单的东西 not where the money is。它是更复杂的事情，需要深刻理解互动、用例、知识、工作流、企业中的任务，不仅仅在前台、中台和后台。有史以来第一次，我们 got the ability to use AI to automate that that we've never been able to before。
所以我们一直 stuck at handling the call or the chat but then handing off to another platform we don't need to hand off anymore。然后第三件事我会说是消费者与他们品牌的互动 not limited to the problem where it's a problem that I need solved。Will you use, you'll have a conversation with your brand of choice。Sometimes it's because you've got a problem, sometimes it's because of your net。但您 not going to log into a website to go and enter a whole lot of data to go and you're just going to converse。
所以平台和 conversing that conversational platform that handles voice at scale which are already having all the routing but also the AI becomes an integral part of the way you're able to provide that to the customer customers。所以 right now that is not leading to any decline on seats。座位数 actually still increases。但我会称它为 a, it's a flattening because what any productivity gains we're getting so a large number of our customers use copilot Then that is able to give real time insights for them to be have a more productive call。
Reducing call handling time。所以平均处理时间 down, the call resolution's faster。但您 not reducing the number of agents。您 handling that increased volume that's coming in and you're able to do so in a more productive way。我想我们会看到的是 as we're able to do more and more automation of more complex scenarios which we are uniquely placed to do。If we capitalize on it and that takes investment, we're able to manage that transition where the monetization exponentially grows through the AI side and we manage obviously the seat base。所以如果您 looking at our business, I would be looking less about the number of seats and more about the number of interactions, the number of sessions。
Because increasingly that's going to be。And we're already seeing that in our, in our AI business。
Maybe I'll just share a couple of data points。I think, you know, AI we see as a key growth driver of our business。If we look at our new bookings, you know, across all segments of the market, but across markedly, if you look at the 1 million ARR plus customers, we see AI in almost every single deal。It's a key growth driver。You've seen the acceleration in our AI and self service revenue。We went from 39% in the first quarter up to 42% in the most recent quarter。And when you look on where that's coming from and in terms of the pricing model to the customer, more than half of that now is originating from the AI and self service pricing model which is non agent based。
So we're already seeing that taking hold and really driving the growth。
Got it。所以您谈到了 kind of the, the opportunity to address some of the more of these complex service use cases。Obviously you know that requires more deeper workflows。You know, it's, it's, you know to bring that into AI。It's a lot of different systems you're touching。So help us understand how this kind of looks because we Hear from service, ServiceNow was here yesterday talking about kind of their agentic push。You know, Salesforce has agent force。I know you've, you, you had ServiceNow at your conference。You have partnerships with both。What are you doing？What are they doing？Why should investors not be concerned about their own。
Those companies push into agents。
Yeah, I think there's a few things。So first of all there is an enormous amount of tasks to be done in an enterprise that can be automated and Agentically delivered。That has nothing to do with customer service, both of those organizations and many others。If you think about whether it be purchasing, supply chain procurement, employee HR, let alone sales, marketing, etc。There is a lot of space here when it comes to customer service because it's not just about a task to be done。You've got a consumer at the other end of the line one way or another, which means your engagement with them and how you handle that engagement is incredibly important。
It's not enough to have an agentic capability if you're not handling the customer in a way that is congruent to their expectations, according to your policies, according to the flows。So you've got to be able to do that and it's got to be able to interoperate。So what we expect is fulfilling the needs of a consumer who are waiting, who wants fast resolution in human like way will require not only a great single pane of glass engagement platform us, but then the execution of tasks, jobs to be done, a credit card limit increase, a claims approval, you know, whatever those。
And that will either be done by a human agent that will trigger maybe something that serversnow have built or it will be our AI agent to their AI agent and we fulfill the task。Which is why I've done the partnerships。So what am I actually doing with Bill and and with Mark's teams？We are pre building the AI flows between our platform and theirs。So as they build it out we natively can exploit their what they're building。And then everybody then says well that then they could then take over ours。They will not take over the CCAS platform because they don't want to。
Why would you build a partnership if you could replace it？They're not going to do the voice, they can't do the routing and the scale of it。And no one at the enterprise is going to be able to hand it all to AI。It will not happen, not in the next foreseeable future。Too much complexity, too many rules, the quality of the data, the consistency of it。You can't be wrong to your customers。So our system of engagement platform becomes a really critical asset which they see, which is why they want to partner with us, because they want to leverage that but still initiate and leverage theirs as it goes into the mid and back office。
I'm going to be clear, there is an overlap at the front。You can do some of their capabilities in the front office。The last thing that I will say is many companies have been forced to use a disparate set of technologies, a Conversational bot here, a service cloud voice here, a CCAS platform here。And they're trying to stitch it together。What happens？An inconsistent poor consumer experience with their brand。You're not reducing cost because you're still keeping the same number of agents。You're not getting the consistent flow of data and the task to be done isn't any more efficient。
So we believe as an engagement platform, single pane of class, we have a unique opportunity to be able to have an end to end platform that can fulfill that。How deep I go into the mid and back office is a question mark。But what I will tell you is if I can perform the task from the point of interaction that that solves the consumer requirement at the get go, why do I need to go to another system？I'll do it myself。But if I need to, then we will。
Got it。Okay。And you talked a little bit about the different pricing model。Obviously in the AI business today。I think about half of it is, is not agent based or seat based。Where, where do you think the customers are at in terms of kind of philosophically buying into more of an outcome based, a value based, selling, you know, this idea that you can capture a greater share of the labor pool。Right。If, if, if you do see those seats come down, is that, is that something that you think is, is widely adopted or still kind of early innings？
Of early innings。Early innings。So。And Beth, you can comment on as well。I think they're very interested。Yesterday I had my customer advisor, executive Customer Advisory board。So we had a group of 15 of our largest companies, customers around the world that came together and we, and we were going through our roadmap and we talked about pricing and value based and things like that。They're very interested。Their primary concern right now is not having a deterioration of the customer service that they have invested heavily with us over years to deliver a great outcome from their customers。
So the infusion of AI within that framework is really important to them。It cannot result in an inferior outcome for their customers because that's ultimately where they're measured。Average handling time, resolution time, call handling time, etc。But they're excited about the automation opportunities where you're able to then ultimately reduce the number of seats and then transition。So I think the value based pricing is a potential future one。Right now what they're wanting is an interoperable platform that as a consumer contacts them, they can fulfill and resolve through AI quickly。If it gets more complex, it seamlessly hands to a human agent, then back to AI。
It can be done synchronously or asynchronously and can be done on a single platform。That's what they're driving towards。In the future, I suspect they're going to come to us and say, well now give us the savings and can you guarantee that through that？But that's not the economic model today。The economic model is very much on a session basis for the AI versus seat basis for their agents。
Yeah, I would just add to that, Scott, that I think at nice, we're uniquely positioned to be able to even consider that potential of a future pricing model given the data that we have。So we have, you know, a significant amount of interactions happening through our software that gives us the unique, you know, opportunity to really understand the use case and on a vertical by vertical basis for our customers as well。So, you know, being able to fulfill the promise of driving better customer satisfaction and lowering their cost in delivering that roi, we are really well positioned to kind of lean towards into that in the future。
Great, great。And I did want to hit on the Cognigy acquisition which was recently announced。How, just, just walk us through again the rationale。How does this, how does this fit in, you know, to the, to the model？
So right now if you, if you're, I think everybody understands and sees the value of being able to do contact agentless interactions between a consumer and their brand。And it's, it's actually in the third generation now there's been two generations of companies that have been built over time and the latest gen AI generation, Cognigy bring。We've been working with Cognigy and all the other conversational AI players for a number of years。Why？Because they need our data, they need our flows to be able to then fulfill the things that you then go and build on their platform。
So whether it be Cognigy or Core or Poly or Paloa or there's many, many players that are out there。So there was three things that really Cognigy brought to the table that were really, really critical。The first is as a core platform that didn't require technical skills。It is outstanding。Their customers are building the flows themselves。The vendor's not doing it, Cognizant is not doing the SI is not doing it。They're able to self build using prompt。The airline Lufthansa。You might start with a flow around a flight upgrade or a changer or you want to, you've done a change, you want to credit back and you're canceling a flight。
There's so many different scenarios。They're able to self build them natively easily and they're able to do so from day one。Most conversational players, AI players require a level of services work around the configuration of those and it require technical skills。So they've built an outstanding platform。The second thing is they've already proven to have enterprise scale。All of these other players get to a threshold and remember we deal with millions of concurrent conversations at the same time on our platform。If you want to move that into AI, it's got to work, it's got to scale and that was a key criteria for us because we're not dealing with small and mid sized companies only。
So that discounted a lot of those players who aren't able to do that in this space and they were able to prove that。And then last but not least is their agentic capabilities were way further progressed than we had even originally anticipated。Which I guess is more in line with third generation AI players。The gen AI players, they've got a significant capability which meant instead of us organically trying to build that out, which we were doing with our empower platform, we're able to leverage that from the get go。I would just round it out by saying this。
We do 20 billion interactions a year and we're growing quickly。Those interactions are underpinned by a thousand CX specific foundational models。What a bank does, what an insurer does, what a telco does, what an airline does。And not just them, what the different types of institutions。Right now all the conversational AI players or the big AI players have to figure out what those flows are。They don't have that 20 billion interaction data。We are going to preload that into the platform form as quickly as we can so you get an out of the box capability。
So we don't want to just compete。Is our AI better than somebody else's？It's going to be better and it's going to have the embedded data and logic and orchestration that we already have with our CCAS strength。That is something that no other CCAS player, nor any CRM, nor any hyperscaler, nor any other AI player has。So we clearly need to use that as a means as to why they would run on our platform platform versus potentially using something else。
Right, right。Okay。And it sounds like, you know, pretty exciting opportunity ahead。
And accelerant our install base。They're an international。It's icing on the cake for us that where they're an international。It wasn't the reason for European business, it was just great technology that fit us strategically none of it is about 2025。It is all about。Our strategic partnerships are not about 2025。Our acquisition of Cognigy is not about 25。Our expansion internationally is not。It's about building long term sustainable cloud growth that ultimately delivers shareholder value。And so if you think about cognitive as well, just tactically we're going to continue to drive that business where it will grow on an on customers that are not nice, they do a lot of business with our competitors。
We will continue to expand that and it is a great growth driver and that stacks up on its own。Right。Then you take that capability and you put it into our massive install base with a native capability。Then we've got the cross sell opportunity。And then last but not least is when we're trying to win the on prem to cloud shift and they're evaluating AI as well。And we embedded the data, as I said before, it gives us a differentiated offer that we otherwise wouldn't do。We were navigating right。As we are with OEM and third party partnerships which is what the others do as well。
The challenge with that is as the market moves to have its interactions that are not only agent based but are AI based。If it's not a native part of your stack, I think in the long term you're not going to be a winner in this market and we needed to be in front of it, not behind it。So the move was any。It's a significant one in the, in the long term growth of the company。
Yeah。So I mean it seems like you mentioned earlier kind of a still sort of undecided, you know, desire on how deep you want to go and kind of the back in mid office and like what are, I guess what are you sort of weighing on that expansion？
I think there's some nuances around the mid and back office。So there's a lot of companies that are really enamored about agentic AI and the role it plays to replace what humans do in the mid and the back office and in the front for that matter, we look at it a little bit more of a nuanced way。So we look at it well, who are performing tasks that fulfills a consumer need。I'll give you a very simple example。If you're a financial provider for taxation, you have a season, a window where one of the core things is to schedule appointments with your tax advisor。
And it's not just a case of who's available, the needs of us, me as a consumer where my revenue is, all of these things determines the type of tax advisor and who to get when that call comes in or that chat comes in to the agent or to the AI agent？Routing and understanding and interacting with the mid office I。E。The tax advisors themselves is a timely heavy activity that happens。We can automate that and it's not just leveraging our AI capabilities。It actually leverages our workforce management which we are the best。So managing that workforce in the needs of a consumer in the mid and back office is a huge opportunity for us to automate。
Now that is a great opportunity if you want me to be the company that is going to build to update a CRM record for a sales opportunity for a purchase。That just happened frankly there's going to be a ton of others that are going to be going trying to build those。But can I initiate it from my, from my co pilot or from my autopilot and initiate that task, that agent？Of course。So I think that's where we're going to be leveraging what others build。But we're going to be unique in what we create ourselves and it's very geared towards customer experience。
It is not going to be to do any task in the mid and the back because it obviously needs to fulfill the consumer at the other end of the line。
I got you。Okay。I did want to hit on international。Obviously you have a big international background, not just your accent but you know。
Yes, I haven't lost my Australian accent despite 25 years。
But I mean to me the international opportunity for nice has always been, you know, arguably kind of an untapped area just given how low it is relative to others in the space。So what are, what are some of the things you're doing to accelerate that？How, how big do you think that that could be over time as a percentage of the business？
So there's a few factors。First of all I need to give credit to, to the team that we've been investing in our, in our international capability。So sovereign cloud capability which we're still investing in UK Australia, the wins at DWP at Services Australia, they don't just happen。You need inherent investments that we had done previously。Same in Africa, same in uae, same in Korea, same in Europe。So we've got, we've already done significant that gives us growth to capitalize on that。But we've got more to come so we're now positioned to be able to grow whereas before it was more about the building blocks to be able to then seize upon it。
You can clearly expect given the CCAS move, the on prem move in the International markets is in some places significantly further behind in some places moderately, I。E。They haven't moved as much to the cloud as what has happened in the US So that combined with our international capability that Cognigy brings as well because they're very strong in Europe, we feel we're well positioned based on the investments that we've made, the knowledge that we've got and also the sales and marketing and partnerships that we've built across the region。So I definitely agree。I would just caution one thing。
I'm not going to go to 50 countries。We're going to be really sharp on the country。So the major markets in Western Europe, in Asia, such as India and Japan, there's certain markets that have got real sizable growth and opportunity that we can capitalize on。And it is clearly a growth engine that we maybe didn't have in years gone by。
Yeah, and just kind of back to the, I guess the non AI drivers of the business kind of being these ZCast systems moving to the cloud。You know, I think the latest stat is, I mean it's still well under half of the market。
I mean we, we approximate about 60% to go。
60% to go。Right。So you know, how do you think about just the pace in which that moves over？Like on one hand, you know, we've heard from a lot of companies around the data, data readiness, like having your data in the cloud helps accelerate AI and take advantage of AI。But on the other hand, you know, some enterprises have started to put the brakes a little bit on AI just they evaluate business process at all。So do you think the AI conversation is helping or hurting that cloud migration？
I would say it's a really dynamic space。It depends on the industry。So in public sector, which some of these big wins, they are clearly evaluating our AI capability but not buying it up front。They just want to get the CCAs right, they want to get the data right。They want to be able to make sure that they are able to move but that that roadmap matters。On the flip side, some of our, the industries, some other industries are much more interested in starting with the AI, proving out the automation and potentially not even buying that they're buying, they're moving to ccast but in a refined way rather than trying to because they don't want to have to move that what they ultimately, ultimately don't need in the future。
So you see a bit of both。It does depend on industry。What I would say is all companies have an AI roadmap plan。They want to know the plan and if we haven't got an answer to it, they will find the solution from someone else。So the fact that we now have a core platform that has that is a really important message。Our direct competitors do not。They are relying on somebody else to put form that AI roadmap。So that for me is a really important distinction。So whether they buy it, do it up front, whether they do it later, as long as they're making their transition to a CX AI, CX platform that Enable will actually handle all routes。
And again, 12 months ago, 18 months ago, our primary route to market was when the CCAS move compared to our competition。I can easily go to them and say just start with cognitive, just get going up and running, leave your on prem there for a little bit longer。If you're not quite sure, let us build it out and we'll move you progressively onto our unified platform rather than forcing that jump ball decision straight away。Because clearly they can't invest in all of these things and it's not even a financial concern。It's also their ability to manage the change。
Remember number one, they are not prepared to dilute the quality of service they're delivering to their customers。So as exciting as the AI transition is, it's always got to be within that context。Which is why by the way, generic AI that OpenAI and others can offer will never hit the scale to what they need because it will never have the context richness that is needed in the CX models that we can obviously provide。
Right, right。I did want to ask you just about competition broadly。One of your, you know, more modern competitors recently announced a pretty big funding round for both ServiceNow and Salesforce。So curious your thoughts on that。I know you're smiling over there。
I'm smiling because I see it。Look, I guess what I would say is I can certainly understand why ServiceNow and Salesforce are wanting to partner with us and are wanting to look at their already existing investors and they might want to look at。Because the reality is they see this industry, this market is very attractive and it is, there is a huge opportunity around AI and the capabilities and to be able to automate and they want to be relevant。So I can certainly understand from their perspective but it's not an exclusivity because at the same time they were doing that, we were signing up agreements, we're doing a lot of R D together to build out。
We are obviously the market leader in terms of size and revenue of in the CCAS space。The one that I guess I'm more Intrigued。You know, that surprised me is my competitor in the CCAS side。Because what they're really doing is they're foregoing their future opportunity in the AI。They're basically saying that is going to my partner now。I don't see how you can be a CCAS leader in the next two to five years if you're not having an inherent native capability in your platform that delivers self service, augmented service, proactive cert。You've got to have that AI capability。
Otherwise what you're really doing is you're commoditizing into a voice capability and letting all of the innovation happen around you。So from a strategic standpoint, it makes no sense to me。From a financial standpoint, I understand why it happened。So my view is it's actually positive for us, but it is a dynamic market where we need to prove the unified platform is ultimately going to be a better choice, which drives long term shareholder value because we're going to drive long term accelerated cloud growth。
Got it。Well, maybe in the last under a minute here, just anything you wanted to close with for the audience or maybe misconceptions that about the business or stock that you wanted to get out there。
I think there's a couple of things。I certainly understand the history and what I inherited and what I walked into in terms of concerns around the cloud, around the cloud growth。All I can tell you is this。Every move we're making right now is strategically to drive long term cloud growth, accelerating cloud growth。We've got work to do。The market opportunity is immense。AI is disrupting, but it is a positive disruption for us if we've got the assets to seize upon it。Cognitive is one of many, but we are, we are enabling that and our financial strength gives us that ability to do so together with the partnerships, together with the international expansion。
So our levers of growth are way broader than what they were before。Our strategic technology capabilities are way more enhanced than what they were before。Which means as the market pivots to AI, we can seize upon it, which maybe we weren't as well placed before。And please look at that in the longer term because this is all these moves are around, sustainable, long term, accelerating cloud growth。And I look forward to sharing more in Capital Markets day about what you can expect from Nice in the midterm。
Great Scott。Beth, thank you very much for the time。
Appreciate it。Thanks everybody。