Brand Engagement Network Inc (BNAI) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Brand Engagement Network, Inc. Q1 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker, Susan Xu, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

您好，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Brand Engagement Network, Inc. 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。現在，我想將會議交給第一位發言人，投資者關係部的Susan Xu。請發言。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining BEN's Q1 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me on today's call are CEO, Paul Chang; and CFO and COO, Walid Khiari. The company's first quarter results were disseminated yesterday and are available on the Investor Relations website at www.investors.beninc.ai. During this call, we'll make forward-looking statements, including statements about our business outlook, strategies and long-term goals.

謝謝接線員，大家下午好。感謝您參加 BEN 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。參加今天電話會議的還有執行長 Paul Chang 和財務長兼營運長 Walid Khiari。本公司第一季業績已於昨日發布，可於投資者關係網站 www.investors.beninc.ai 查閱。在本次電話會議中，我們將做出前瞻性陳述，包括有關業務前景、策略和長期目標的陳述。

These comments are based on management's plans, predictions and expectations as of today which may change over time. The company's actual results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties. For more information about the risks and uncertainties involving forward-looking statements and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied by forward-looking statements, please see the risks the risk factors set forth in BEN's most recent annual report on Form 10-K as supplemented by the Risk Factors in its most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates and the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. As a reminder, this call is being webcast from the Investor Relations website.

這些評論是基於管理層目前的計劃、預測和期望，可能會隨著時間的推移而改變。由於諸多風險和不確定因素，公司的實際業績可能存在重大差異。有關前瞻性陳述所涉及的風險和不確定性以及可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述所預測或暗示的結果存在重大差異的因素的更多信息，請參閱 BEN 最新 10-K 表年度報告中列出的風險因素，以及其最新 10-Q 表季度報告中補充的風險因素。前瞻性陳述代表管理階層目前的估計，本公司不承擔未來更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。提醒一下，本次電話會議正在投資者關係網站上進行網路直播。

An audio replay will be available on the website in a few hours. With that, I'll turn it over to Paul to share our Q1 update. Over to you, Paul.

音頻重播將在幾個小時後在網站上提供。說完這些，我將把時間交給保羅來分享我們的第一季更新情況。交給你了，保羅。

Thank you, Susan. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today. Q1 marked another step forward for BEN as a business. As generative AI continues to evolve rapidly, the need for secure, scalable and cost-effective solutions have never been more urgent. This is where BEN continues to stand apart.

謝謝你，蘇珊。大家下午好，感謝大家今天的參加。Q1 標誌著 BEN 作為一家企業又向前邁進了一步。隨著生成式人工智慧的持續快速發展，對安全、可擴展且經濟高效的解決方案的需求變得前所未有的迫切。這正是 BEN 脫穎而出的地方。

While some of the largest models are making headlines for their size, cost, complexity and unfortunately, for their mistakes, our focus remains on delivering practical AI that businesses can actually use without the risk of unmanaged responses or uncontrolled user interactions. The official launch of our iSkye platform this quarter has generated strong early traction across multiple industries.

儘管一些最大的模型因其規模、成本、複雜性以及不幸的錯誤而成為頭條新聞，但我們的重點仍然是提供企業可以實際使用的實用人工智慧，而不會出現不受管理的回應或不受控制的用戶互動的風險。我們的 iSkye 平台於本季正式推出，並在多個行業中產生了強大的早期吸引力。

The message from the market is clear. Businesses want AI that is purpose-built with deep expertise and designed to solve real problems, not just demonstrate surface knowledge of various subjects. We built iSkye to solve the challenges we kept hearing in the market, large language models that are difficult to trust, prone to hallucinations and expensive to deploy at scale.

來自市場的訊息很明確。企業希望人工智慧具有專門的深厚專業知識，旨在解決實際問題，而不僅僅是展示各種學科的表面知識。我們建立了 iSkye 來解決我們在市場上不斷聽到的挑戰，大型語言模型難以信任、容易產生幻覺並且大規模部署成本高昂。

iSkye solves all of this. It combines industry-specific training, a modular architecture and a lightweight design that gives businesses the rules and controls they demand to be able to service their customers. A major milestone in the quarter end was the launch of our partnership with Swiss Life Global Solutions, a global leader in cross-border insurance and employee benefits.

iSkye 解決了這一切。它結合了行業特定的培訓、模組化架構和輕量級設計，為企業提供為客戶提供服務所需的規則和控制。本季末的一個重要里程碑是我們與跨境保險和員工福利領域的全球領導者 Swiss Life Global Solutions 建立了合作夥伴關係。

With operations in over 85 countries and more than $280 billion in assets, Swiss Life partnered with BEN to deliver secure generative AI-powered solutions across its global network of clients and insurance partners. Our platform will support a range of use cases, including streamlining sales and enrollment, reducing call center volume and enhancing member services with self-service tools for coverage details, claims and more.

瑞士人壽的業務遍及 85 個國家，資產超過 2,800 億美元，與 BEN 合作，為其全球客戶和保險合作夥伴網路提供安全的生成式人工智慧解決方案。我們的平台將支援一系列用例，包括簡化銷售和註冊、減少呼叫中心數量以及使用自助服務工具增強會員服務（包括保險詳情、索賠等）。

Subsequent to quarter end, we also announced a partnership with Seven Visions Resort & Places, The Dvin, an iconic award-winning luxury destination in Eastern Europe. We intend to demonstrate how BEN secure human-like AI can deliver 24/7 service in a hospitality setting where personalization, trust and speed are paramount. It's a clear example of how our iSkye architecture supports rapid configuration and high-impact use cases in new verticals.

季度末之後，我們也宣布與東歐標誌性的獲獎豪華目的地 Seven Visions Resort & Places、The Dvin 建立合作關係。我們打算展示 BEN 安全類人人工智慧如何在個人化、信任和速度至關重要的飯店環境中提供全天候服務。這是一個清晰的例子，說明了我們的 iSkye 架構如何支援新垂直領域的快速配置和高影響力用例。

Additionally, our partnership with Valio Technologies has led to an important project with University of KwaZulu-Natal to co-develop an AI-powered mental health program for students in underserved regions of South Africa. The solution is designed to scale with anonymized insights, enabling institutions to better target support while maintaining full privacy compliance.

此外，我們與 Valio Technologies 的合作促成了與誇祖魯納塔爾大學的一項重要項目，共同為南非服務不足地區的學生開發一項由人工智慧驅動的心理健康計劃。該解決方案旨在透過匿名洞察進行擴展，使機構能夠更好地定位支持，同時保持完全的隱私合規性。

In the automotive sector, we continue to develop use cases not only for the dealers, but now also for large OEMs, further entrenching BEN's technology with customers who can help scale our solutions. As shared last quarter, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cataneo, a Germany-based media technology company specializing in ad sales and inventory management for major European broadcasters.

在汽車領域，我們不僅為經銷商繼續開發用例，現在也為大型原始設備製造商開發用例，進一步鞏固 BEN 技術在可以幫助擴展我們解決方案的客戶中的地位。正如上個季度所分享的，我們簽署了一項最終協議，收購 Cataneo，這是一家總部位於德國的媒體技術公司，專門為歐洲主要廣播公司提供廣告銷售和庫存管理。

With the extension deadline approaching in June, we remain on track and anticipate transforming the ad tech industry. For the first time ever, brands can now manage and control their entire customer journey from ads to engagement to conversion. Walid will provide an update on the progress we've made to date and how this acquisition supports our long-term growth strategy.

隨著六月延期期限的臨近，我們仍將繼續按計劃進行，並期待改變廣告科技產業。品牌有史以來第一次可以管理和控制從廣告到參與再到轉換的整個客戶旅程。Walid 將介紹我們迄今為止的進展以及此次收購如何支持我們的長期成長策略。

As we move through 2025, we remain focused on executing our strategy, delivering practical, scalable AI solutions, expanding into new verticals and strengthening our global partnerships. While we have demonstrated market validation, we look forward to adding large household names to our list of customers and begin to deploy our solutions in production environments. We are energized by the traction we're seeing and confident that our platform, people and partnership position us well for continued growth.

邁向 2025 年，我們將繼續專注於執行我們的策略，提供實用、可擴展的 AI 解決方案，擴展到新的垂直領域並加強我們的全球合作夥伴關係。雖然我們已經證明了市場驗證，但我們期待將大型家喻戶曉的公司添加到我們的客戶名單中，並開始在生產環境中部署我們的解決方案。我們看到的這種發展勢頭令我們充滿活力，並相信我們的平台、員工和合作夥伴將為我們持續成長做好準備。

With that, I'll turn it over to our CFO and COO, Walid Khiari, for a financial update and the latest on the Cataneo acquisition.

接下來，我將把時間交給我們的財務長兼營運長 Walid Khiari，以了解財務更新和 Cataneo 收購的最新情況。

Thank you very much, Paul. Hi, everyone. On the financial front, this quarter has been primarily about continuing our efforts to better manage our expenses and rationalize our cost base. We've reduced our general and administrative expenses, or G&A, by close to 50% compared with Q1 of last year. This is a testament to stronger operational discipline and rigor on the part of the entire BEN team as we, as a company, have just celebrated our one-year anniversary as a public company and keep maturing our processes.

非常感謝，保羅。大家好。在財務方面，本季我們主要致力於繼續努力更好地管理我們的支出並合理化我們的成本基礎。與去年第一季相比，我們的一般及行政開支（G&A）減少了近 50%。這證明了整個 BEN 團隊的營運紀律性和嚴謹性更強，因為我們作為一家公司剛剛慶祝了上市一周年，並且我們的流程不斷完善。

Allocating as many of our dollars to our product and go-to-market focus is a priority for me and for the team. Additionally, as you may have noticed out of our 8-K filed this morning, we recently secured a $3.5 million line of credit from Core Capital Partners, a Texas-based investment firm. This facility provides BEN with additional financial flexibility going forward.

將盡可能多的資金分配給我們的產品和市場重點是我和團隊的首要任務。此外，您可能已經從我們今天早上提交的 8-K 文件中註意到，我們最近從德克薩斯州的投資公司 Core Capital Partners 獲得了 350 萬美元的信用額度。該設施為 BEN 未來提供了額外的財務靈活性。

On the strategic front, we continue to see market validation for a combination of BEN and Cataneo. For end customers in the media and advertising space, the combination will provide the ability to create awareness for their products and services and help them engage naturally with their targeted audiences.

在策略方面，我們繼續看到市場對 BEN 和 Cataneo 組合的認可。對於媒體和廣告領域的最終客戶來說，這種結合將能夠提高其產品和服務的知名度，並幫助他們自然地與目標受眾互動。

From an operational standpoint, among many features on Cataneo's platform, one product set is particularly valuable, its ad inventory management solution, which could feed BEN's engagement AI platform with a ready content with which to engage customers. In summary, BEN is getting smarter about operating costs, gaining financial flexibility and continuing to prepare to integrate its planned first acquisition.

從營運角度來看，在 Cataneo 平台的眾多功能中，有一套產品特別有價值，那就是其廣告庫存管理解決方案，它可以為 BEN 的參與 AI 平台提供現成的內容來吸引客戶。總而言之，BEN 在營運成本方面變得更加精明，獲得了財務靈活性，並繼續準備整合其計劃中的首次收購。

Together, these initiatives are strengthening our financial foundation, expanding our product capabilities and positioning us to create long-term value for our customers and shareholders. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q&A. Thank you very much.

這些舉措共同加強了我們的財務基礎，擴大了我們的產品能力，並使我們能夠為客戶和股東創造長期價值。說完這些，我將把話題交還給接線員進行問答。非常感謝。

(Operator Instructions) Jack Codera, Maxim Group LLC.

（操作員指示）Jack Codera，Maxim Group LLC。

This is Jack Codera calling in for Jack Vander Aarde. And I just wanted to start, I know it's small today, but what actually contributed to revenue in the quarter? Was this a pilot program or a small actual production contract?

我是傑克‧科德拉 (Jack Codera)，代表傑克‧范德阿爾德 (Jack Vander Aarde) 打來電話。我只是想開始，我知道今天這很小，但實際上什麼對本季的收入做出了貢獻？這是一個試點項目還是一個小型的實際生產合約？

Yes. So I can take that. Yes, all of our pilots are -- while they're early in testing for our customers, they are paid pilots. But the scope of the pilot and the duration is somewhat short. So they are contributing to revenue, although not significant just yet.

是的。所以我可以接受。是的，我們所有的飛行員都是——雖然他們正在為我們的客戶進行早期測試，但他們都是有償飛行員。但試點範圍和持續時間都有些短。因此，它們正在為收入做出貢獻，儘管目前貢獻還不大。

Okay. And then if I could get a little bit more broadly speaking, of the various collaborations, and you guys kind of highlighted some in the program -- pilot programs across auto, health care, pharma, et cetera. Do you have any visibility into which these may lead to, say, initial production contracts in the near term?

好的。然後，如果我可以更廣泛地談論各種合作，你們會重點介紹該計劃中的一些項目——涉及汽車、醫療保健、製藥等領域的試點項目。您是否預見到這些可能會在短期內帶來初步生產合約？

Well, I would say both in health care and life sciences, where the pilots have been going on for quite some time, we anticipate some of those to convert into production deployment. And in auto, we got somewhat of a late start in the auto space. But our strong relationships with an OEM, our strong relationship with several large dealership networks and our current integration with Dealer.com, we are actually quite bullish on the automotive space and our ability to launch pilots quickly and then convert those pilots into production.

嗯，我想說，無論是在醫療保健還是生命科學領域，試點都已經進行了相當長一段時間，我們預計其中一些將轉化為生產部署。在汽車領域，我們起步較晚。但我們與一家原始設備製造商 (OEM) 建立了穩固的關係，與幾家大型經銷商網路也建立了穩固的關係，並且目前與 Dealer.com 進行了整合，這讓我們對汽車領域充滿信心，也讓我們有能力快速啟動試點項目並將其轉化為生產。

We have a high level of confidence that, that could actually occur this calendar year. Even though, as mentioned, we got a bit of a late start. We have a lot of momentum behind us and our technology and our offering has been well adopted by some of those early customers.

我們非常有信心，這可能在今年實現。儘管如前所述，我們起步有點晚。我們擁有強大的發展勢頭，我們的技術和產品已經被一些早期客戶所採用。

Okay. That's super helpful. And if I could ask one more clarification question. It was positive to hear that you've kind of expanded beyond dealers and you found an OEM as well. But can you give a little bit more clarity?

好的。這非常有幫助。我可以再問一個澄清問題嗎？很高興聽到你們的業務範圍已經擴展到經銷商之外，而且還找到了 OEM。但您能更清楚地解釋一下嗎？

I think in the Dealer.com partnership announcement, you mentioned you're finalizing preparation for automotive rollout. Can you give a little bit more granularity as to like what that means and like what the status of that vertical is?

我認為在 Dealer.com 合作公告中，您提到您正在為汽車推廣做最後的準備。您能否更詳細地解釋一下這意味著什麼以及該垂直行業的狀態如何？

Sure. Yes. So when we say finalizing our rollout, what we've done is we've zeroed in on a use case that is high value to the dealerships and also highly relevant and beneficial to the consumers. So some of those functionality have been already tested. We've demoed that solution to dealerships.

當然。是的。因此，當我們說最終完成推出時，我們所做的就是將重點放在對經銷商具有高價值並且與消費者高度相關且有益的用例上。其中一些功能已經過測試。我們已經向經銷商演示了該解決方案。

We've done technical integration, which requires live data feed from other sources such as Dealer.com. So all of those components needed to deploy this solution at scale has been tested. We are now in the process of deploying it for a handful of dealers as a pilot. So that is in a great position.

我們已經完成了技術集成，這需要從 Dealer.com 等其他來源獲取即時數據。因此，大規模部署此解決方案所需的所有元件都已測試完畢。目前，我們正在為少數經銷商進行試點部署。因此，這是一個很好的位置。

And then working with a very large OEM, they're looking at slightly different use cases that provide benefit for themselves and the dealerships across the regions. And they are very excited about moving those use cases forward as well, which would benefit the OEMs, but ultimately benefit the dealers as well.

然後，他們與一家大型原始設備製造商合作，探索略有不同的用例，這些用例能為他們自己以及各地區的經銷商帶來好處。他們也非常期待推動這些用例的發展，這將惠及原始設備製造商，最終也將惠及經銷商。

I'm showing no further questions in the queue. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back to Paul Chang, CEO, for closing remarks.

隊列中沒有其他問題。現在，我想請執行長 Paul Chang 致最後總結。

Thanks very much. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We are incredibly excited about our accomplishments to date, but more so about the upcoming future opportunities. We look forward to continuing to keeping you up to date on our progress in this exciting market. Thank you very much.

非常感謝。感謝大家今天加入我們。我們對迄今為止所取得的成就感到無比興奮，但更為即將到來的未來機會。我們期待繼續向您通報我們在這個令人興奮的市場中所取得的進展。非常感謝。

This concludes our conference call today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。