8x8 Inc (EGHT) 2026 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the 8x8 Inc second-quarter 2026 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that these conferences are being recorded.

您好，感謝您的耐心等待。歡迎參加 8x8 公司 2026 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）請注意，這些會議正在錄音。

I would like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Kate Patterson, Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

今天，我謹將會議交給各位發言人，財務副總裁凱特·帕特森女士。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Today's agenda will include a review of our results for the second-quarter of fiscal 2026 with Samuel Wilson, our Chief Executive Officer; and Kevin Kraus, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

謝謝接線員，大家下午好。今天的議程將包括與執行長塞繆爾·威爾遜和首席財務官凱文·克勞斯一起回顧我們 2026 財年第二季度的業績。在我們發言完畢後，將進行問答環節。

Before we get started, let me remind you that our discussion today includes forward-looking statements about our future financial performance, including investments in innovation and our focus on profitability and cash flow, as well as statements regarding our business, products and growth strategies.

在正式開始之前，請允許我提醒各位，我們今天的討論包含有關我們未來財務業績的前瞻性陳述，包括對創新方面的投資以及我們對盈利能力和現金流的關注，以及有關我們的業務、產品和增長戰略的陳述。

We caution you not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as they involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary materially from forward-looking statements, as described in our risk factors in our reports filed with the SEC.

我們提醒您不要過度依賴這些前瞻性陳述，因為它們涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述有重大差異，正如我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的報告中的風險因素部分所述。

Any forward-looking statements made on this call and in the presentation slides reflect our analysis as of today, and we have no plans or obligations to update them. All financial metrics that will be discussed on this call are non-GAAP unless otherwise noted. These non-GAAP metrics, together with year over year comparisons in some cases, were not prepared in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP.

本次電話會議和簡報中所做的任何前瞻性陳述均反映了我們截至今日的分析，我們沒有計劃或義務對其進行更新。除非另有說明，本次電話會議中討論的所有財務指標均為非GAAP指標。這些非GAAP指標，以及某些情況下的同比比較，均未依照美國通用會計準則（GAAP）編製。

A reconciliation of these non-GAAP metrics to the closest comparable GAAP metric is provided in our earnings press release and earnings presentation slides, which are available on 8x8's Investor Relations website at investors.8x8.com.

我們在獲利新聞稿和獲利簡報中提供了這些非GAAP指標與最接近的可比較GAAP指標的調節表，這些文件可在8x8的投資者關係網站investors.8x8.com上找到。

With that, I'll turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Wilson.

接下來，我將把電話交給我們的執行長塞繆爾·威爾遜。

Thank you all for joining us today. As we mentioned last quarter, we are transitioning our conference call format. We're moving away from reading lengthy prepared remarks and instead are posting a detailed quarterly letter complete with business and financial highlights to the investor relations website in the quarterly results section.

感謝各位今天蒞臨。正如我們上個季度提到的，我們正在改變電話會議的形式。我們正在改變以往宣讀冗長準備好的發言稿的方式，而是將包含業務和財務亮點的詳細季度信函發佈到投資者關係網站的季度業績部分。

This quarter Kevin and I will share brief remarks highlighting a few important points. Q2 is another strong quarter for 8x8, and the results reflect the progress we're making in the business. We are continuing to execute against our priorities for the year, returning to growth, expanding our use of AI to improve both customer and employee outcomes, completing the Fuze platform shutdown and driving stronger retention through cross-sell and multi-product adoption.

本季度，凱文和我將發表簡短講話，重點闡述幾個要點。8x8 第二季業績表現強勁，反映了我們在業務方面的進展。我們將繼續推動今年的各項優先事項，恢復成長，擴大人工智慧的應用以改善客戶和員工的體驗，完成 Fuze 平台的關閉，並透過交叉銷售和多產品採用來提高客戶留存率。

But the real story this quarter is innovation. It is transforming how customers experience 8x8 and what is powering our growth. We've embedded AI throughout our platform to make communications smarter, faster, and more personal. From real-time call summarization and contact center to AI power transcription work and 8x8 work to new agentless payment capabilities to digital channels like Viber and RCS in 8x8 Engage.

但本季真正的亮點在於創新。它正在改變客戶體驗 8x8 的方式，以及推動我們成長的動力。我們在平台的各個環節都嵌入了人工智慧，使溝通更聰明、更快捷、更個人化。從即時通話摘要和聯絡中心到 AI 驅動的轉錄工作和 8x8 工作，再到新的無代理支付功能，以及 8x8 Engage 中的 Viber 和 RCS 等數位管道。

Engage is our AI powered CX solution that extends contact center capabilities to all customer facing employees. Internally we're using AI to work smarter, automating processes, improving forecasting, and helping our teams deliver faster, higher quality customer experiences. We view AI as elevating, enhancing the work of our employees, making us more efficient.

Engage 是我們基於人工智慧的客戶體驗解決方案，它將聯絡中心的功能擴展到所有面向客戶的員工。在公司內部，我們正在利用人工智慧更聰明地工作，實現流程自動化，改善預測，並幫助我們的團隊提供更快、更高品質的客戶體驗。我們認為人工智慧可以提升和增強我們員工的工作，使我們更有效率。

We're also transforming how we take our innovation to market, aligning our sales, marketing and partner motions around customer outcomes. And I'm excited to share that Stephen Hamill has stepped into the role of Chief Revenue Officer to lead this next phase. Stephen successfully drove our CPaaS API usage in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.

我們也正在轉變將創新成果推向市場的方式，圍繞著客戶成果調整銷售、行銷和合作夥伴的行動。我很高興地宣布，Stephen Hamill 已擔任首席營收長一職，領導公司進入下一個發展階段。Stephen成功地推動了我們在亞太地區乃至全球的CPaaS API使用。

So some key points. Today, we announced 8x8 Workforce Management available starting next week to all contact center customers at no additional cost through our new 8x8 app store. Yes, you heard that right. We're making Workforce Management available free of charge to all of our contact center customers existing and new ones. We already have customers running it in production.

以下是一些要點。今天，我們宣布從下週開始，所有呼叫中心客戶都可以透過我們新的 8x8 應用程式商店免費使用 8x8 Workforce Management。是的，你沒聽錯。我們將向所有現有和新呼叫中心客戶免費提供勞動力管理功能。我們已經有客戶在生產環境中使用該產品了。

This is a big moment for two reasons. First, this is our first product led growth or PLG launch. We've introduced a high value solution designed to drive adoption with a premium version plan for future release. Workforce management is available to everyone. Second, it marks the beginning of a broader expansion. We'll be adding more applications to the 8x8 App Store shortly, giving customers a modern, flexible, self-service way to activate new capabilities.

這是一個意義重大的時刻，原因有二。首先，這是我們首次推出以產品為主導的成長（PLG）產品。我們推出了一款高價值解決方案，旨在透過面向未來版本的付費方案來推動其應用。人人都可以進行勞動力管理。其次，這標誌著更廣泛擴張的開始。我們很快就會在 8x8 應用程式商店中添加更多應用程序，為客戶提供一種現代化、靈活、自助的方式來啟動新功能。

We're expecting strong demand for 8x8 workforce management, so we got a progressive rollout starting next week. The 8x8 App Store and PLG strategy was implemented to better support the accelerating pace of AI native product innovation, and it reflects our commitment to delivering outcomes that matters. We have new apps teed up for both UC and CC in the near future.

我們預計市場對 8x8 勞動力管理的需求強勁，因此我們將從下週開始逐步推出。8x8 應用程式商店和 PLG 策略的實施是為了更好地支持 AI 原生產品創新的加速發展，也體現了我們致力於交付重要成果的承諾。我們將在不久的將來為 UC 和 CC 推出新的應用程式。

Switching gears, I want to highlight how we're changing the lives of our customers. One example is one of the largest automotive dealerships in the UK. Before working with 8x8, they were juggling nine different communication systems across its dealerships, creating complexity and slow response times. By moving to 8x8, they consolidate everything; voice, video, contact center analytics to one integrated platform. The impact has been transformational. The dealer group now uses 8x8 contact centerer video elevation, conversational IQ with a strong adoption of web chat and digital engagement.

接下來，我想重點談談我們是如何改變客戶的生活的。例如，英國最大的汽車經銷商之一。在與 8x8 合作之前，他們旗下各經銷商共用九種不同的通訊系統，導致系統複雜且反應緩慢。透過採用 8x8 技術，他們將所有內容（語音、視訊、聯絡中心分析）整合到一個整合平台上。其影響是變革性的。該經銷商集團目前使用 8x8 聯繫中心視訊提升、對話式 IQ，並大力採用網路聊天和數位互動。

They're also piloting smart assistant and intelligent customer assistant to automate quality assurance and bring real-time AI analytics to their service teams. Their IT leader summed it up well when he said, 8x8 helps us focus on what matters most, providing the best experience to our customers. In short, we went from nine vendors down to one, unlocking better visibility, faster response times, and stronger connection with every customer.

他們也正在試點智慧助理和智慧客戶助手，以實現品質保證自動化，並為服務團隊帶來即時人工智慧分析。他們的 IT 負責人總結得很好，他說：“8x8 幫助我們專注於最重要的事情，即為客戶提供最佳體驗。”簡而言之，我們將供應商數量從九家減少到一家，從而提高了透明度，加快了響應速度，並與每位客戶建立了更緊密的聯繫。

Across the Atlantic, a multi $100 million software company uses 8x8 is another powerful example of how our innovation drives measurable business outcomes. They are using multiple 8x8 products including UCaaS and CCaaS, as well as Engage Secure Pay, and Conversational IQ to deliver a seamless data-driven customer experience across their network.

在大西洋彼岸，一家價值 1 億美元的軟體公司使用 8x8，這再次有力地證明了我們的創新如何推動可衡量的業務成果。他們使用多種 8x8 產品，包括 UCaaS 和 CCaaS，以及 Engage Secure Pay 和 Conversational IQ，以在其網路中提供無縫的資料驅動型客戶體驗。

Their team has fully embraced 8x8 as a strategic platform, not just for communication, but for business transformation. They're leveraging analytics and engagement insights from 8x8 Engaged to refine the sales and service workflows to connect all customer facing employees in and out of the contact center. They're also piloting Smart Assist to improve mystery shopper scores and coach their frontline teams in real time. It's a deep collaborative relationship from executive leadership to frontline users built on trust, measurable outcomes, and shared success.

他們的團隊已將 8x8 完全視為一個策略平台，不僅用於溝通，也用於業務轉型。他們利用 8x8 Engaged 的​​分析和互動洞察來改善銷售和服務工作流程，從而將聯絡中心內外所有面向客戶的員工聯繫起來。他們還在試行智慧助手，以提高神秘顧客的評分並即時指導一線團隊。從高階領導到第一線用戶，這是一種建立在信任、可衡量的結果和共同成功基礎上的深度合作關係。

This software vendor exemplifies what we mean when we talk about long-term customer partnerships built on a comprehensive portfolio of products. These are the kinds of outcomes that define our innovation story. Outcomes that are measurable, transformationable, and rooted in customer success. They show what makes 8x8 different. We're not just delivering new features or chasing trends. We're helping organizations simplify their technology, empower their employees, and create experiences their customers remember.

這家軟體供應商正是我們所說的基於全面產品組合建立長期客戶合作關係的典範。這些成果定義了我們的創新故事。可衡量、可轉化且以客戶成功為導向的成果。它們展現了 8x8 的獨特之處。我們不僅僅是推出新功能或追逐潮流。我們正在幫助企業簡化技術，賦能員工，並創造讓顧客難忘的體驗。

Whether it's a service provider at an auto dealership resolving an issue in one interaction or a software team using analytics and automation to raise customer satisfaction scores, these are real examples of 8x8 innovation and action. That's what makes this journey so exciting, innovation that creates lasting impact for our customers, our people, and ultimately our shareholders.

無論是汽車經銷商的服務供應商在一次互動中解決問題，還是軟體團隊使用分析和自動化來提高客戶滿意度評分，這些都是 8x8 創新和行動的真實例子。正是這種創新讓這段旅程如此激動人心，它能為我們的客戶、員工以及最終的股東帶來持久的影響。

With that, I turn it over to Kevin to share a few highlights from the quarter.

接下來，我將把麥克風交給凱文，讓他分享本季的一些亮點。

Thanks, Sam. Good afternoon, everyone, and I also want to thank you for joining us for our fiscal Q2 2026 earnings call. Detailed financial results are available in our press release and in the trended financials on our investor relations site. As Sam mentioned, we're introducing a slightly different format this quarter, and I've also posted a shareholder letter and financial highlights alongside our quarterly materials.

謝謝你，山姆。各位下午好，也感謝各位參加我們2026財年第二季財報電話會議。詳細的財務表現可在我們的新聞稿和投資者關係網站上的趨勢財務報告中查閱。正如 Sam 所提到的，本季度我們將採用略有不同的格式，我還將股東信和財務亮點與我們的季度資料一起發布了。

With that information already available. I'll focus my remarks on a few key highlights. Unless otherwise noted, all figures other than revenue and cash flow are presented on a non-GAAP basis.

這些資訊已經存在。我的發言將重點放在幾個關鍵點上。除非另有說明，除收入和現金流量外，所有數據均按非公認會計準則列示。

Q2 marked our second consecutive quarter of year over year revenue growth, reflecting healthy usage trends and disciplined execution. Total revenue was $184.1 million and the service revenue was $179.1 million with both exceeding the high end of guidance by roughly $4 million and growing 1.7% and 2.3% year over year respectively, driven by continued strength in our usage-based offerings.

第二季是我們連續第二季實現年成長，這反映了良好的用戶成長趨勢和嚴謹的執行力。總收入為 1.841 億美元，服務收入為 1.791 億美元，兩者均超出預期上限約 400 萬美元，同比增長分別為 1.7% 和 2.3%，這主要得益於我們基於使用量的產品持續強勁增長。

Excluding revenue from Fuze customers, whether on the 8x8 platform or not, service revenue grew nearly 6% year over year, higher growth than we achieved last quarter, and our fourth quarter of acceleration. Service revenue remaining on the Fuze platform declined to approximately 3% of total service revenue, down from approximately 7% in Q2 '25. We are on track to move the remaining few customers onto the 8x8 platform by calendar year end.

不計來自 Fuze 客戶（無論是否使用 8x8 平台）的收入，服務收入年增近 6%，高於上一季的成長，也是我們第四個加速成長的季度。Fuze 平台上剩餘的服務收入佔總服務收入的比例下降至約 3%，低於 2025 年第二季的約 7%。我們正按計畫推進，爭取在年底前將剩餘的少數客戶遷移到 8x8 平台。

Usage revenue, which includes our CPaaS communication APIs, saw another record performance totaling approximately 19% of service revenue compared to approximately 13% in Q2 '25. Gross profit for the quarter was $120.9 million about $2 million above our implied guidance midpoint, reflecting strong execution and revenue outperformance.

使用收入（包括我們的 CPaaS 通訊 API）再次創下紀錄，佔服務收入的約 19%，而 2025 年第二季約為 13%。本季毛利為 1.209 億美元，比我們預期的中點高出約 200 萬美元，反映出強勁的執行力和超預期的營收表現。

Gross margin was 65.7%, down sequentially due to the continued mixed shift toward our usage revenue, which carries a lower margin profile, but will add meaningful profit dollars as usage revenue continues to scale. Operating income came at $17.3 million exceeding expectations and resulting in a 9.4% operating margin above the high end of guidance. Fully diluted EPS landed at $0.09 per share, $0.01 above the high end of our guidance range.

毛利率為 65.7%，環比下降，原因是收入持續向使用量收入傾斜，雖然使用量收入的利潤率較低，但隨著使用量收入的持續增長，將帶來可觀的利潤。營業收入達 1,730 萬美元，超出預期，營業利益率達 9.4%，高於預期上限。完全稀釋後的每股收益為 0.09 美元，比我們預期範圍的上限高出 0.01 美元。

Cash flow from operations was $8.8 million for the quarter, above the high end of guidance. We ended the quarter with $76.7 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash. We continued to allocate capital to debt reduction. During the quarter. We made a $10 million term loan prepayment and subsequent to the quarter end, we made an additional $5 million term loan payment.

本季經營活動產生的現金流為 880 萬美元，高於預期上限。本季末，我們持有現金、現金等價物和受限現金共7,670萬美元。我們繼續將資金用於償還債務。本季期間。我們提前償還了 1000 萬美元的定期貸款，並在季度末之後償還了 500 萬美元的定期貸款。

With these actions, we have reduced our debt principle by $224 million or 41% since the August 2022 peak debt of $548 million. Our next required term loan payment of $2 million isn't due until June 30, 2026. These proactive delevering actions demonstrate our continued commitment to disciplined capital management.

透過這些措施，自 2022 年 8 月債務高峰達到 5.48 億美元以來，我們已減少了 2.24 億美元的債務本金，減少了 41%。我們下一筆 200 萬美元的定期貸款還款要到 2026 年 6 月 30 日才到期。這些積極主動的去槓桿化措施體現了我們對嚴謹資本管理的持續承諾。

Stock-based compensation as a percentage of revenue was 2.9%, another multi-year low for the company. This continues a clear downward trend, reflecting our ongoing focus on prudent equity management. While our diluted share count has grown, the year over year increase declined notably versus the prior quarter's growth for the second quarter in a row. We are committed to minimizing dilution over time and managing compensation costs in a thoughtful and sustainable manner.

股票選擇權激勵佔收入的比例為 2.9%，這是該公司多年來的另一個新低點。這延續了明顯的下降趨勢，反映了我們對審慎股權管理的持續關注。雖然我們的稀釋後股份數量有所增長，但與上一季相比，同比增幅連續第二季顯著下降。我們致力於最大限度地減少股權稀釋，並以周全且可持續的方式管理薪資成本。

Looking to Q3, our revenue guidance reflects a sequential decline following record usage revenue in Q2 and the ongoing wind down of Fuze-related revenue. Customer engagement remains healthy, but we are forecasting usage-based revenue growth more cautiously given potential variability in consumption patterns. As usage continues to represent a larger share of total revenue, we have incorporated this dynamic into our outlook with an appropriately measured approach.

展望第三季度，我們的營收預期反映了繼第二季創紀錄的使用收入和Fuze相關收入持續減少之後，營收將季減。客戶參與度依然良好，但考慮到消費模式可能存在波動，我們對基於使用量的收入成長預測更為謹慎。隨著使用量在總收入中所佔比例不斷增大，我們已將這一動態納入我們的展望中，並採取了適當的衡量方法。

Given the rapid growth of our usage revenue, we are guiding to lower gross margins for the remainder of the year. Importantly, this mix shift reflects increasing engagement with our platform and expanding use cases across our customer base. We are actively managing this evolution through disciplined execution and targeted go to market initiatives, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver durable long-term growth and profitability.

鑑於我們的使用收入快速成長，我們預計今年剩餘時間的毛利率將會下降。重要的是，這種組合變化反映了我們平台的用戶參與度不斷提高，以及我們客戶群的應用案例不斷擴大。我們正透過嚴謹的執行和有針對性的市場推廣措施積極管理這一演變，並且我們仍然有信心實現持久的長期成長和獲利能力。

For fiscal Q3 '26, we are providing the following guidance. Service revenue is expected to be between $172 million and $177 million. Total revenue is anticipated to be between $177 million and $182 million. We anticipate growth margin between 64% and 66%, and we anticipate operating margin between 9% and 10%.

對於 2026 財年第三季度，我們提供以下業績指引。預計服務收入將在 1.72 億美元至 1.77 億美元之間。預計總收入將在 1.77 億美元至 1.82 億美元之間。我們預期成長利潤率在 64% 到 66% 之間，營業利潤率在 9% 到 10% 之間。

In fiscal Q3, we expect contractual interest expense which excludes amortization of debt issuance costs to be approximately $4.2 million based on current interest rates and the principal outstanding on our term loan and 2028 convertible notes. We expect to make cash interest payments of approximately $2.2 million which reflects only the term loan interest payment, as the semiannual interest on our 2028 convertible notes is payable during Q2 and Q4 only.

根據目前的利率和我們定期貸款和 2028 年可轉換票據的未償還本金，我們預計第三財季的合約利息支出（不包括債務發行成本攤銷）約為 420 萬美元。我們預計將支付約 220 萬美元的現金利息，這僅反映了定期貸款利息的支付，因為我們 2028 年可轉換票據的半年利息僅在第二季和第四季支付。

Our term loan interest rate assumption is approximately 7%, reflecting SOFR 3%-plus. We anticipate fully diluted non-GAAP earnings per share in the range of $0.08 to $0.09 per share, based on approximately $143.5 million fully diluted shares outstanding. We anticipate cash flow from operations to be between $10 million and $14 million, driven by the timing of cash interest payments and other payments we make in the normal course of business.

我們的定期貸款利率假設約為 7%，反映出 SOFR 3% 以上。我們預計，根據約 1.435 億股完全稀釋後的流通股計算，完全稀釋後的非 GAAP 每股收益將在 0.08 美元至 0.09 美元之間。我們預計經營活動產生的現金流量將在 1,000 萬美元至 1,400 萬美元之間，具體金額取決於現金利息支付的時間以及我們在正常業務過程中支付的其他款項。

For full fiscal year 2026, we are updating our guidance as follows. Service revenue is anticipated to be between $692 million and $706 million. Total revenue is anticipated to be between $712 million and $726 million. We anticipate gross margin to be between 65% and 66%. Full year operating margin is projected between 8.5% and 9.5%, translating to non-GAAP operating income of approximately $65 million at the midpoint of our full year revenue and operating margin guidance.

對於 2026 財年，我們將更新我們的業績指引如下。預計服務收入將在 6.92 億美元至 7.06 億美元之間。預計總收入將在 7.12 億美元至 7.26 億美元之間。我們預計毛利率將在 65% 至 66% 之間。預計全年營業利潤率在 8.5% 至 9.5% 之間，以全年收入和營業利潤率預期中位數計算，非 GAAP 營業收入約為 6,500 萬美元。

Although operating margin is expected to decline year every year due to mix related gross margin pressure, we expect non-GAAP net income to remain relatively stable, supported by significantly lower interest expense compared to fiscal 2025. We expect fully diluted non-GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of $0.31 to $0.33 for the year, assuming approximately 143 million average diluted shares outstanding, and we anticipate cash flow from operations to be between $38 million and $42 million for the full year.

儘管由於產品組合相關的毛利率壓力，預計營業利潤率將逐年下降，但我們預計非GAAP淨利潤將保持相對穩定，這得益於與2025財年相比大幅降低的利息支出。我們預計全年完全稀釋後的非GAAP每股盈餘將在0.31美元至0.33美元之間，假設平均稀釋後流通股數約為1.43億股，我們預計全年經營活動產生的現金流將在3,800萬美元至4,200萬美元之間。

In summary, Q2 reflected steady execution, consistent profitability, and ongoing progress in strengthening our balance sheet. With disciplined expense management and a clear focus on profitable growth, we enter the second half of the fiscal year with strong momentum and confidence in our ability to deliver sustained shareholder value.

總而言之，第二季業績體現了穩健的執行力、持續的獲利能力以及在加強資產負債表方面取得的持續進展。憑藉嚴格的費用管理和對獲利成長的明確關注，我們以強勁的勢頭和對持續為股東創造價值能力的信心進入了本財年的下半年。

With that, I will turn the call over for Q&A.

接下來，我將把通話交給問答環節。

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝各位女士、先生。（操作說明）

Michael Funk, Bank of America.

麥可‧芬克，美國銀行。

Yeah, hi, good evening. Thank you all for the questions. I had three if I could. So first on the service margin, comments that you had -- I understand you're saying more usage based revenue, but maybe help us think about the P times the Q there, how much of that driven by volume versus change in price.

嗨，晚上好。感謝大家的提問。如果可以的話，我想要三個。首先關於服務利潤率，您之前的評論——我理解您說的是更多基於使用量的收入，但也許可以幫我們思考一下 P 乘以 Q 的情況，其中有多少是由銷量驅動的，又有多少是由價格變化驅動的。

Right now, it's mostly -- Michael, this is Kevin. How are you doing? Mostly right now I would say it's volume because of the absolute usage volume that we're seeing. So it's our margins on the -- say the application side are very stable and consistent right now and have been for years. It's a pure mix issue for the usage-based portion of the service revenue. So right now, not as much price, although we are seeing some pricing pressures. In some deals, it's not as, in totality, it's not a price driver right now.

現在主要是——邁克爾，這位是凱文。你好嗎？目前來看，主要原因在於使用量，因為我們看到的絕對使用量非常大。所以，就應用方面而言，我們的利潤率目前非常穩定，而且多年來一直如此。對於基於使用量的服務收入部分而言，這完全是一個組合問題。所以目前價格方面還沒有太大變化，儘管我們看到了一些價格壓力。在某些交易中，情況並非如此；總的來說，目前它並不是價格驅動因素。

Okay, then just thinking about the revenue trajectory, I mean thank you for the revenue ex Fuze, but it is ex-Fuze, is that right way to think about the revenue trajectory exiting the year as you end of life for remaining Fuze customers.

好的，那麼就收入軌跡而言，我的意思是，謝謝你提供的剔除 Fuze 的收入數據，但這是剔除 Fuze 後的收入，在 Fuze 剩餘客戶生命週期結束之際，這樣考慮年底的收入軌跡是否正確？

Okay, yes. But remember, as we end the life, and it's not end of life, we're upgrading the Fuze customers, just for any lawyers listening. We're upgrading the Fuze customers on the AI platform. Michael, we still have a bit of a hump. So it's gone from the numerator and denominator to just the denominator. So I think, you know, we'll have maybe a 2 point, maybe slightly lower, slightly less, whatever, headwind in next year's growth rate as we rolled off these Fuze customers. And then we'll be back to normalized sort of growth rates x any other things we do.

好的，是的。但請記住，雖然我們結束了產品生命週期（但這並不是產品生命週期的終結），但我們正在為 Fuze 用戶進行升級，並特此告知所有可能正在收聽的律師。我們正在為 Fuze 的客戶升級人工智慧平台。邁克爾，我們還有一點要克服。所以，它從分子和分母變成了只有分母。所以我覺得，明年我們的成長率可能會有 2 個百分點的阻力，甚至可能略低一些，或更少一些，不管怎樣，因為我們終止了與 Fuze 客戶的合作。然後，我們將回到正常的成長率乘以我們所做的任何其他事情。

Okay, do you anticipate you'll give us a pro forma ex-Fuze next year for more comparability?

好的，您預計明年會給我們一份不含 Fuze 的模擬財務數據，以便進行更全面的比較嗎？

Oh, that's like two quarters away. I haven't thought that far in advance yet. Probably, like, we'll give you numbers if it makes your life easier.

哦，那還差兩個四分之一英里呢。我還沒考慮那麼遠。或許，我們會給你一些數字，如果這樣能讓你的生活更輕鬆的話。

Okay, and then the last one for me and then I'll hand it off. So, a number of comments in the letter about the go-to market changes that you're making, and one of the comments was the improvement in pipeline quality. So, love to know how you're measuring the pipeline quality. And you know maybe some of the improvement you've seen there.

好的，最後一個給我，然後我就交給你了。信中對您正在進行的市場推廣變革提出了一些意見，其中一項意見是改進產品線品質。所以，我很想知道你們是如何衡量管道品質的。您可能已經看到了一些改進。

So we measured pipeline quality and deals to get to Stage 3. So we run a seven-stage sales process and we consider, anything that's Stage 3-plus to be high-quality. That means there's been a first meeting, there's been discovery, there's a vetting process that's been done, etc. And so that's where we're seeing the improvements in quality.

因此，我們衡量了銷售通路品質和交易情況，以達到第三階段。因此，我們採用七階段銷售流程，我們認為任何達到第三階段及以上的流程都是高品質的。這意味著已經進行了第一次會議、研究、審查等流程。因此，我們看到了品質的提升。

And how do you improve the quality, Sam, are there more guardrails around what allows a sales person enter something in the funnel? What's contributed to improve in quality?

那麼，Sam，你如何提高品質？是否應該增加更多限制，來約束銷售人員在銷售漏斗中輸入的內容？哪些因素促成了品質的提升？

Look, I'd love to give you a simple answer, but yes, we're using more SDRs, so they're having an ability to weed out some of the stuff. The use of AI in our sales process, I cannot understate how important the use of artificial intelligence has been in improving our GTM efficiency and processes and those things. So it's a number of contributing factors. It's not death by 1000 cuts, it's improved quality by 1000 paper clips.

聽著，我很想給你一個簡單的答案，但是，是的，我們正在使用更多的軟體定義無線電 (SDR)，所以它們有能力過濾掉一些東西。人工智慧在我們銷售流程的應用，對於提高我們的市場推廣效率和流程等方面，其重要性怎麼強調都不為過。所以這是多種因素共同作用的結果。這不是千刀萬剮，而是千針萬能，品質提升。

Great. Hey, thank you both again for the questions.

偉大的。嘿，再次感謝你們的提問。

Thank you, Michael.

謝謝你，麥可。

Josh Nichols, B. Riley.

喬許·尼科爾斯，B·萊利。

Thanks for taking my question. Good to see revenue coming in at the top end or above the top end of the range.

謝謝您回答我的問題。很高興看到營收達到或超過預期範圍的上限。

I was just looking at the guidance breakdown, and it with future transitioning at calendar year end, I think the guidance kind of implies that maybe service revenue drops out and like 4Q, but is the expectation that going from there since you don't have those first comps into fiscal '27, you start to see improvements on a sequential basis that without that Fuze overhead.

我剛剛看了業績指引的細分，考慮到日曆年末的未來過渡，我認為該指引暗示服務收入可能會下降，比如第四季度，但預期從那以後，由於沒有2027財年的首次同業比較，你會開始看到業績環比改善，因為沒有了Fuze的間接費用。

Okay, so, Josh, your question is completely appropriate. It's just really hard to answer now that usage is 19% of our revenue, right. So we try to be very conservative with our usage-based modeling. I mean, we're still early in this transition to usage-based revenue and I'd like to get a little bit bigger pool that so mathematically one customer can't swing it or three customers can't swing it or change in economics can swing it.

好的，喬希，你的問題完全恰當。現在使用量占我們收入的 19%，這個問題真的很難回答，對吧。因此，我們在基於使用量的建模方面力求非常保守。我的意思是，我們仍處於向基於使用量的收入模式過渡的早期階段，我希望能夠獲得更大的資金池，這樣一來，一個客戶、三個客戶或經濟狀況的變化都無法改變收入。

So I'm not ready to yet predict exactly when you're going to see that. It will depend a little bit on some renewals coming up. It'll depend on our usage and it'll depend on bookings that we put into the mix, right? So it's a lot of moving pieces. I do feel confident, now with that two quarters of accelerating growth, we are sort of on the track to continue to grow and we can put in the rear mirror these year over year declines perpetually, but I'm not ready to say where and when yet, if that's okay with you.

所以我現在還無法準確預測你什麼時候能看到那一幕。這在一定程度上取決於即將到來的一些續約情況。這取決於我們的使用情況，也取決於我們進行的預訂，對吧？所以這其中涉及很多環節。現在，隨著這兩個季度的加速增長，我感覺很有信心，我們正走在繼續增長的軌道上，我們可以徹底擺脫逐年下滑的局面，但我現在還不方便透露具體時間和地點，如果您不介意的話。

No, that's okay. I guess just to flip the question a little bit like -- you said that you've been taking a pretty conservative approach to the usage based revenue and yeah, I think that that makes sense. If you could talk about how you're kind of handicapping what you're seeing versus how you're guiding or how you're --

不，沒關係。我想稍微換個角度問——你說過你對基於使用量的收入採取了相當保守的態度，是的，我認為這是有道理的。如果你能談談你是如何根據所見情況進行判斷的，以及你是如何進行指導或如何做出判斷的…--

So what we do is we basically take the exit run rate for a quarter. And we run that forward in perpetuity, right. So we're not assuming even though the business is growing, we're not necessarily assuming it's going to grow, and then we add in known growth businesses, right? So we know we've got a big deal coming or we know we've got Christmas coming or the holidays, we'll adjust accordingly.

所以我們基本上是取一個季度的退出運行率。而且我們會一直這樣下去，對吧。所以，即使企業正在成長，我們也不一定假設它會繼續成長，然後我們再把已知的成長型企業也考慮進去，對吧？所以我們知道接下來會有大事發生，或者聖誕節或假期快到了，我們會相應地調整安排。

But our baseline is always on usages. Whatever we're running on the exit quarter that's what we're going to run in perpetuity. And so when it's growing and it's growing nicely right now, especially with all the AI stuff and the CPaaS stuff, it has a tendency to beat and then we try to flow that through.

但我們的基準始終是使用量。我們在最後一季運行的程序，我們將永遠運行。所以，當它發展壯大時——而且它現在發展勢頭良好，尤其是在人工智慧和 CPaaS 等所有相關技術方面——它往往會取得成功，然後我們試圖讓這種成功持續下去。

Got it. That makes sense. And then -- Sorry, go for it.

知道了。這很有道理。然後——抱歉，放手去做吧。

Yeah, Sam's comment about seasonality in the usage portion of our business is something that can have an impact, and that again could --

是的，Sam提到的關於我們業務使用量季節性波動的評論確實會產生影響，而且這同樣可能…--

It's a great point, Kevin. I always appreciate that, but like I mean we are entering the holiday season, so we see more marketing campaigns. We see in general more phone calls, particularly in our retail vertical or hospitality vertical, those kinds of things. And we generally see the March quarter or fourth quarter, a little bit more seasonal, less usage on the Lunar New Year -- Asia shuts down a little bit, right? So we are starting to see a little bit more seasonality in the business.

凱文，你說得很有道理。我一直都很感激這一點，但我的意思是，我們即將進入假期季，所以我們會看到更多的行銷活動。我們看到電話諮詢量總體上有所增加，尤其是在零售或酒店等行業。我們通常會看到三月的季度或第四季度，季節性因素比較明顯，農曆新年期間使用量會減少——亞洲地區會稍微停擺，對吧？所以我們開始看到這個行業出現了一些季節性波動。

Got it. Thanks for the context there. Then last question for me, usage based up to like close to 20% of revenue seem very nice acceleration there. I know you talked about the margin outlook, right, and how that's impacting the margins, still really healthy margins, but 65% to 66% non-GAAP. Any idea -- and maybe it's hard to ask or punch it but exactly like where that kind of winds up leveling out at, as we think a few quarters ahead.

知道了。謝謝你提供的背景資訊。最後一個問題，使用量佔收入的比例接近 20%，這看起來是一個非常好的成長速度。我知道你談到了利潤率前景，對吧，以及這對利潤率的影響，利潤率仍然非常健康，但非GAAP利潤率在65%到66%之間。有什麼想法嗎？ ——也許很難開口問或說出來，但就像我們展望未來幾季時，最終會穩定下來的那種情況。

Yeah, I mean, Josh, it really depends on the mix. Like I mentioned from Michael's question about our margins being relatively stable for different portions of the business. It really will boil down to mix. The point I want to make though on this is that we look at absolute dollar profitability. And so if gross margin is positive for that piece of the business, great, and it is a light OpEx model, so more of that flows to the bottom line.

是的，我的意思是，喬什，這真的取決於混音。正如我在回答邁克爾的問題時提到的，我們公司不同業務部分的利潤率相對穩定。歸根究底，還是混合的問題。不過，我想強調的是，我們關注的是絕對美元獲利能力。因此，如果該業務部分的毛利率為正，那就太好了；而且它的營運支出模式較低，所以更多的利潤會流入最終利潤。

So as we scale, we may see the gross margin deteriorate a little bit, but the bottom line and the cash flow are what we're looking at, as well, and that's looking like it could be even improving over time based upon the cost base of that particular portion of the business.

因此，隨著我們規模的擴大，我們可能會看到毛利率略有下降，但我們也會關注淨利潤和現金流，而且根據該業務特定部分的成本基礎來看，隨著時間的推移，這些指標似乎甚至可能會有所改善。

I just -- I had to step in. I can't stress enough what Kevin is saying for our investors, right? And we've said this numerous times in the past. We would not be surprised if we saw a gross margin come down a little bit as we scale the business, while gross profit dollars increase.

我只是──我不得不出手相助。凱文對我們的投資人來說非常重要，我怎麼強調都不為過，對吧？我們過去已經多次說過這一點。隨著業務規模的擴大，毛利率可能會略有下降，但毛利金額會增加，我們對此並不感到驚訝。

It's just a mix. It's how customers are adding on AI products or messaging products or these kinds of things, but we know the more products we sell customers, the stickier they are, the higher the LTD, the higher the average revenue per customer's. It's the right thing to do for the long-term value of the customer and therefore it's the long-term value to the shareholder.

這只是混合口味。客戶會不斷添加人工智慧產品、即時通訊產品或這類產品，但我們知道，我們向客戶銷售的產品越多，客戶的黏性就越強，長期客戶價值就越高，每位客戶的平均收入就越高。從長遠來看，這樣做對客戶的利益是正確的，因此對股東的利益也是正確的。

Got it, thanks guys.

明白了，謝謝各位。

Peter Levine, Evercore.

Peter Levine，Evercore。

Great, thank you guys for taking my question. Congrats on the deleveraging and I think that was obviously part of the plan for a while, so good to see that. Maybe to go back to a prior question around the pricing pressure that you're seeing, I've heard from some of your competitors that during COVID, prices were high, and now that two, three years, as renewals come up, pricing becomes part of the conversation and you've seen a bit of -- not a commoditization, but pricing used as a lever. How much of that is you seeing as part of renewals where you're going to have to go through a period of time where, as these renewals that you've had over the past few years come due. Like is that part of the equation that some of the head winds that you guys are dealing with are seeing today?

太好了，謝謝你們回答我的問題。恭喜你們成功去槓桿化，我認為這顯然是你們計劃已久的一部分，很高興看到這一點。回到之前關於價格壓力的問題，我從你們的一些競爭對手那裡了解到，在新冠疫情期間，價格很高，而現在兩三年過去了，隨著續約臨近，價格成為討論的一部分，你們也看到了一些——不是商品化，而是價格被用作一種槓桿。您在續約過程中看到的佔比有多少？這意味著您需要經歷一段時間，因為過去幾年您辦理的續約業務都將到期。這是否也是你們今天遇到的某些逆風天氣的原因之一？

Yeah, of course. I mean, I think, look, during the pandemic you saw, rushed buying, especially from the on-prem to cloud type of systems, and, as those reach two and three renewals, they're being right side. So it's not just, I want to be clear, pricing pressure is certainly happening mainly led by a certain video conferencing company, who seems to sort of be pricing agnostic sometimes. But also, we are seeing some rationalization of seats, driven by the economic situation, etc. What's offsetting that is our AI products, our messaging products, our digital products, et cetera right?

當然。我的意思是，我認為，你看，在疫情期間，人們匆忙購買，尤其是從本地部署系統到雲端系統的購買，而當這些系統達到兩到三次續約時，它們就處於有利地位。所以，我想明確一點，價格壓力當然確實存在，但主要還是由某家視訊會議公司主導的，而這家公司似乎有時對價格漠不關心。但同時，我們也看到一些席次調整，這是受經濟情勢等因素影響所導致的。而我們的人工智慧產品、即時通訊產品、數位產品等等，則在一定程度上抵消了這種調整，對吧？

So, I mean, I can't stress this enough, like the idea that we're surprised this is happening is completely false. We completely know what's happening. We're managing it accordingly, and this is one of the reasons we've added more products to the mix, right? So what we're seeing is customers may reduce the number of UC seats, but add RCS, which we now offer globally, into the mix. And that's offsetting the average revenue per customer. And this is why we're seeing revenue per customer increase on a year-to-year basis, particularly as we get more 3, 4 or 5 product customers and our retention rates are going up as we get more multi-product customers.

所以，我的意思是，我再怎麼強調都不為過，認為我們會對這種事情的發生感到驚訝的想法完全是錯的。我們完全清楚發生了什麼事。我們正在採取相應的管理措施，這也是我們增加產品種類的原因之一，對吧？因此，我們看到的情況是，客戶可能會減少 UC 席位的數量，但會將我們現在在全球範圍內提供的 RCS 添加到其中。這會抵銷每位客戶的平均收入。這就是為什麼我們看到每位客戶的收入逐年增長，尤其是在我們獲得更多購買 3、4 或 5 種產品的客戶之後，而且隨著我們獲得更多購買多種產品的客戶，我們的客戶留存率也在上升。

So in the end, this post-COVID transition is certainly one we have to deal with. It's one we're very aware of and we're managing, but it's not one that scares us.

所以歸根究底，後疫情時代的轉型是我們都必須面對的問題。我們非常清楚這個問題，並且正在應對，但這個問題並不讓我們感到害怕。

Maybe WFM, obviously it's a free offspring. Maybe walk us through the strategy there and then I guess there's a way to handicap -- what percentage of your customers are actually using today for WFM versus like a point solution, curious to know what you know what the strategy was behind offering that. Obviously I think we know some of the drivers, but curious to know what the strategy is and what you see over the next four quarters.

或許是WFM，顯然它是自由後代。或許您可以給我們詳細介紹當時的策略，然後我想我們可以進行一些分析——目前有多少客戶真正使用 WFM 服務，而不是只使用某個單一解決方案。我很想知道您當初推出這項服務背後的策略是什麼。顯然，我認為我們知道一些驅動因素，但很好奇你們的策略是什麼，以及你們對未來四個季度的看法。

Okay, so, we saw an opportunity with WFM Market. So, contrary to probably what you've heard -- and Peter, I know you know it's like the back of your hand, right? Contrary to what people sometimes say is the most popular WFM product in the world is Excel. Right? By far.

好的，我們看到了WFM Market的商機。所以，這可能與你聽到的說法相反——彼得，我知道你很清楚這一點，對吧？與人們有時所說的相反，世界上最受歡迎的 WFM 產品是 Excel。正確的？遠遠超過其他方面。

And with the average contact center in the United States being 73 seats and probably, 40 to 50 seats in international markets. Excel sort of works and so what we wanted to do was build a product that's better than Excel for managing WFM and give it away to our customers to provide value and really start to enter the world of product led growth with a pro version which will offer probably an enhanced analytics or better forecasting or multi-site and there's a couple of different ways we can take it in the future.

在美國，平均每個呼叫中心有 73 個座位，而在國際市場上，平均每個呼叫中心可能有 40 到 50 個座位。Excel 勉強能用，所以我們想做的就是打造一款比 Excel 更適合管理勞動力管理的產品，並將其免費提供給我們的客戶，以創造價值，真正開始進入產品驅動增長的領域，推出專業版，可能會提供增強的分析、更好的預測或多站點功能，未來我們還可以朝著幾個不同的方向發展。

But just simply having a product to replace Excel adds tremendous more value to our customers, which is what we care about, right? We're a game of renewal and those kinds of things and it just drives the multi-product LTV, the ability to add product-led growth through our new app store, which we're super excited about, all these kinds of things, and it's just -- we really want to drive value to our customers and it was a way given how software and expenses work, it was a way to drive a lot of value into our contact center seats very quickly.

但光是擁有一款可以取代 Excel 的產品，就能為我們的客戶帶來巨大的價值，這才是我們所關心的，對吧？我們追求的是革新和類似的目標，這推動了多產品 LTV 的發展，使我們能夠透過新的應用程式商店實現產品驅動的成長，我們對此感到非常興奮，所有這些方面都至關重要。我們真心希望為客戶創造價值，考慮到軟體和費用的運作方式，這是一種能夠迅速為我們的呼叫中心帶來巨大價值的方法。

We see our competitors. Charging $20, $30 a month for arguably something that isn't that hard and so we really wanted to drive that cost curve down and drive more to a premium model for it to really meet our customers where they're at.

我們看到了我們的競爭對手。每月收取 20 到 30 美元，而這或許不是一件很難的事情，所以我們真的想降低成本，並轉向更高級的模式，以便真正滿足我們客戶的需求。

Okay, in terms of -- now what our product isn't designed for a big contact center. We're not trying to compete with [Claro and Verance]. And those guys, right, they offer gamification and other things that we're not sort of up to yet and most of our basic customers don't really want. And so we saw the market need for a replacement for spreadsheets, not a replacement for collaborator or parent. If you want to -- if you're running 1000 -- we have many customers running 1,000 or more contact center seats, you're going to use one of those higher end products because they're just designed differently and they work differently.

好的，就目前而言—我們的產品並不是為大型呼叫中心設計的。我們並非試圖與…競爭[克拉羅和維蘭斯]對，那些傢伙提供遊戲化和其他一些我們目前還沒有達到水平的東西，而且我們的大多數普通客戶也並不真正想要這些東西。因此，我們看到市場需要的是電子表格的替代品，而不是協作者或家長的替代品。如果你想——如果你要運行 1000 個——我們有很多客戶運行 1000 個或更多呼叫中心席位，你將會使用那些高端產品，因為它們的設計不同，工作方式也不同。

Perfect. Let me just squeeze the last one. I talked about some of the deleveraging you guys have had. How do you think about M&A smaller tuckin versus organic, right? Obviously there's a cost to the both sides of that, but how do you think about it, maybe help us understand, are there still any covenants that you have to manage through with the debt levels that you have today. Just help us understand how you're thinking about organic versus kind of talking M&A to kind of accelerate some of the product development.

完美的。讓我把最後一個捏緊。我談到了你們已經進行的一些去槓桿化措施。你覺得併購中規模較小的整合與有機成長相比如何？顯然，雙方都會付出代價，但您是如何考慮的呢？或許您可以幫我們理解一下，在您目前的債務水準下，是否還有任何需要遵守的契約？請幫我們理解一下，您是如何看待有機成長和透過併購來加速產品開發的。

So we did an acquisition last, in the March quarter. It's, it was a small pocket acquisition. It wasn't non-material, so we didn't make a big deal out of it, but we've done one, we're looking at others. We're active in the market, so we're looking.

所以我們上個季度，也就是三月，進行了一次收購。這只是一筆小小的口袋投資。這並非無關緊要的小事，所以我們沒有大驚小怪，但我們已經完成了一項，我們正在考慮其他的。我們積極參與市場，所以我們正在尋找機會。

Debt repayment is still a primary route that we think to drive a stakeholder value over time, so we're definitely focused on that. We are on a term loan A, so there are some covenants. They're very manageable. They're fully disclosed in our filings. There's nothing to worry about from them. I wouldn't want to do anything outrageous like I see people who want to, who advocate these large AI acquisitions that they bring on losses and those kinds of things.

我們認為，償還債務仍然是推動利害關係人長期價值成長的主要途徑，因此我們肯定會專注於這一點。我們申請的是定期貸款 A，所以有一些契約條款。它們很容易管理。這些資訊已在我們的文件中完全披露。他們不會給你帶來任何麻煩。我不想做任何像我看到的那些人一樣出格的事情，他們鼓吹大規模收購人工智慧，而這些收購會帶來損失等等。

We are a cash flow driven company and we do work on cash flow and focus on cash flow, and that's what we're focused on. So I would say we are looking at M&A. We think it definitely is part of our capital allocation strategy to acquire tuckins, to drive geographic expansion, product portfolio expansion, or customer expansion. Those are the big three that we look at and when that one comes, we have no problems pulling the trigger.

我們是一家以現金流為導向的公司，我們專注於現金流，並以此為工作重點。所以我認為我們正在關注併購。我們認為收購 Tuckins 絕對是我們資本配置策略的一部分，以推動地理擴張、產品組合擴張或客戶擴張。這是我們關注的三大重點，一旦出現合適的機會，我們就會毫不猶豫地出手。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

The amendment we did, yeah, the amendment we did also, created a basket for tuckens as well, which we articulated last quarter, if you remember, so we have that freedom in our term loan.

是的，我們所做的修正案也為塔肯斯創建了一個籃子，如果你還記得的話，我們在上個季度已經闡述過了，所以我們在定期貸款方面有這種自由。

Catharine Trebnick, Rosenbach Securities. Your line is open.

Catharine Trebnick，Rosenbach Securities。您的線路已開通。

Oh thanks for taking my call. Hey Sam, how are you seeing the buying pattern change now that AI seems to be more part of the discussion and what are you seeing the difference with like the traditional brokers versus like the professional service guys. It seems to me from -- well I'll tell you what I think afterwards, let me get your opinion first. Thanks.

謝謝你接我的電話。嘿，Sam，現在人工智慧似乎更多地參與到討論中來，你如何看待購買模式的變化？你覺得傳統經紀人和專業服務人員有什麼不同？我覺得──嗯，我之後再告訴你我的想法，先聽聽你的意見。謝謝。

So first off, look so I'm going to break this into two parts. There's AI itself, the technology AI itself, I think what we're seeing is customers are driving really to the first core use case adoptions and adopting those, so Agent Assist or we call it Smart Assist or our AI receptionist, those kinds of things. Very specific targeted use cases, we're obviously most of us in the industry are spreading it across things like summarization or those kinds of analysis and so there's a lot of those first use cases are getting adopted.

首先，我要把這個分成兩個部分來講。人工智慧本身，人工智慧技術本身，我認為我們看到的是客戶正在真正推動首批核心用例的採用，例如代理助手，或者我們稱之為智慧助理或我們的人工智慧接待員等等。非常具體的針對性用例，我們業內大多數人顯然正在將其推廣到摘要或這類分析中，因此許多早期用例正在被採用。

So what's changing, I would say is the buyer doesn't come in and say, hey, what do you guys sell for AI? The buyer comes in here, she comes in and says, look we're looking for an agent assist solution, can tell you about the ones that you offer? And through our (inaudible) partnership, we always get to offer great things.

所以，我認為正在發生變化的是，買家不再進來問：“嘿，你們賣什麼人工智慧產品？”買家進來後說：“我們正在尋找經紀人輔助解決方案，您能介紹一下您提供的服務嗎？”透過我們（聽不清楚）的合作關係，我們總是能提供很棒的產品和服務。

The second one is much more subtle, and I think we were in front of it and we remain in front of it for an extended period of time, is that AI is sold on a consumption-based model. The whole notion of, a seat of AI, and I know that Gartner and others have tried to bend old fast metrics into the world of AI, they don't work. What works is usage.

第二個問題更加微妙，我認為我們一直領先於它，而且在很長一段時間內我們仍然會領先於它，那就是人工智慧是按照消費模式進行銷售的。整個「人工智慧中心」的概念，我知道 Gartner 和其他機構都曾試圖將舊的快速指標應用到人工智慧領域，但它們行不通。使用才是關鍵。

The customer wants to pay and we're even seeing it and I know this is going to -- people overreact to this comment, so please don't. But we're even seeing it spill back into our subscription-based services where people want to try to morph them more into a consumption-based service. So what do they want? They want a right to adjust the number of seats after one year, two years, and three years, because they just don't know how many employees they're going to have. And I just, I absolutely believe that our industry, our SaaS industry is going towards that consumption usage-based model. It is an unstoppable force and you can argue, by yourself as much as you want, but the reality is that's where we're going. And so what we see is usage-based specific use cases are what's driving our business right now.

顧客想付款，我們也看到了這一點，我知道這會引起——人們會對這條評論反應過度，所以請不要這樣做。但我們甚至看到這種趨勢蔓延到我們的訂閱服務中，人們希望嘗試將它們更多地轉變為基於消費的服務。他們到底想要什麼？他們希望有權在一年、兩年、三年後調整座位數量，因為他們不知道自己會有多少員工。我堅信，我們的產業，我們的 SaaS 產業，正在朝著基於消費和使用量的模式發展。這是一股不可阻擋的力量，你可以獨自爭辯，但現實是，這就是我們最終的歸宿。因此，我們看到，基於使用情況的具體用例是目前推動我們業務發展的動力。

Okay, yeah, no, because what I've been -- well, we can deal with it more on the post call. But I've been hearing that because it's more complex that, the traditional telco guys aren't really set up to do a more complex sale and so that seems to be like --

好的，不，因為我一直——嗯，我們可以在通話結束後再討論這個問題。但我聽說，因為情況更複雜，傳統的電信公司並沒有做好處理更複雜銷售的準備，所以這似乎是…--

I mean that's true. Look, our professional services team is booked constantly, right? Our (inaudible) serve team is like we're booked all the time and it, I mean, we can get into the nuance here for investors, but there is like, we're starting to see the whole concept of deployment change. It's a lot more -- we're selling more continuous services because these models require constant fine tuning and there's no use cases and whatever and customers would rather just buy a flat x number of hours per month every month contracted, let's go then one big lump sum purchase upfront.

我的意思是，確實如此。你看，我們的專業服務團隊一直都很忙，對吧？我們的（聽不清楚）服務團隊總是忙得不可開交，我的意思是，我們可以深入探討投資人的理解，但是，我們開始看到整個部署概念正在改變。情況要好得多——我們銷售更多持續服務，因為這些模型需要不斷微調，而且沒有用例等等，客戶寧願每月按固定小時數購買服務，簽訂合同，而不是一次性支付一大筆錢。

Okay, thanks, Sam. I appreciate the insight.

好的，謝謝你，山姆。感謝您的見解。

Thanks Catharine.

謝謝你，凱瑟琳。

Siti Panigrahi, Mizuho.

Siti Panigrahi，瑞穗銀行。

Hey guys, thank you for taking the question. It's Chad on for Siti. Just first, I'd be curious if you could expand on any actions you're taking on sort of the cost side as sort of this lower margin revenue, comes through the P&L and sort of what you're looking at this to expand operating margins from here.

各位，謝謝你們回答這個問題。查德代替西蒂上場。首先，我很想知道您能否詳細說明一下，由於這部分低利潤收入會影響損益表，您在成本方面採取了哪些措施，以及您正在考慮如何提高營業利潤率。

Yeah, I mean, we're aggressively deploying AI technologies in-house. We don't just sell it for our customers, we use it ourselves and we're seeing ROI benefits. I mean, obviously there's this little bit of margin issue that you guys like to obsess about, but when you first buy AI, it actually drives down your margin because you're running the old process and the new process side by side until you get the new one fully ramped. So some of those issues that we see going on.

是的，我的意思是，我們正在積極地在公司內部部署人工智慧技術。我們不僅向客戶銷售，我們自己也在使用，我們看到了投資回報率帶來的好處。我的意思是，很明顯，你們似乎很在意利潤率問題，但當你第一次購買人工智慧時，它實際上會降低你的利潤率，因為在新的流程完全啟動之前，你需要同時運行舊流程和新流程。所以我們看到的一些問題。

Obviously as we grow in size and we return to growth, we're putting pressure on our suppliers to give us good unit pricing, and eventually that stuff flows through. But a lot of this is just mixed. I mean, I've tried to warn Wall Street for years that I believed over time as we moved more to a usage-based model, what you would see is increasing revenue growth, decreasing gross margin, increasing gross profit dollars, and over time an increase in operating margins because you're more aligned with your customers and the more aligns you get with your customers, the higher LTV you drive over time.

顯然，隨著我們規模的擴大和成長的恢復，我們會向供應商施壓，要求他們提供優惠的單價，最終這些優惠都會惠及客戶。但很多時候情況並不明朗。我的意思是，多年來我一直試圖警告華爾街，我相信隨著時間的推移，當我們更多地轉向基於使用量的模式時，你會看到收入增長增加，毛利率下降，毛利潤增加，隨著時間的推移，營業利潤率也會提高，因為你與客戶的利益更加一致，而你與客戶的利益越一致，隨著時間的推移，你的終身客戶價值就越高。

A little color on what Sam just said, which was excellently stated on the -- well, I'll give you an example if we're using AI internally. We are able to use AI to right size a lot of our say software purchases. I'll give an example where we're able to actually get great insights to the use of AI as to the use of each of the seats or whatever, so we don't overbuy upon renewal. So that's one example of using AI of many that we're doing right now to have cost control without removing the ability to work efficiently, internally in the company. So we're starting to see good signs there.

薩姆剛才說的話非常精彩，我來補充一點細節──如果我們在內部使用人工智慧，我會舉個例子。我們能夠利用人工智慧來合理調整我們許多辦公室軟體的採購規模。我舉個例子，我們能夠透過人工智慧深入了解每個座位的使用情況等等，這樣我們在續訂時就不會過度購買。這是我們使用人工智慧進行成本控制的眾多例子之一，我們目前正在利用人工智慧來實現這一目標，同時又不影響公司內部的高效工作能力。所以，我們開始看到一些好跡象了。

Awesome really appreciate the call and then just one follow-up from us. If you could talk about sort of how the revenue trends were in the quarter from a domestic US standpoint versus international and how that relates to sort of the better revenue outlook from here.

太棒了，非常感謝您的來電，我們還有一次後續跟進。如果您能談談本季美國國內和國際市場的收入趨勢，以及這與未來更好的收入前景有何關係，那就太好了。

I mean, it's not surprising Kevin gave me more details, but like our US business isn't doing as well as our international business, right? I think our business outside the UK is almost 40% of our -- I'm sorry, the UK is almost 40% of our business, and it's growing substantially faster than our US business. I mean, the US is kind of the center of price compression and gamesmanship and some of those kinds of things relative to what we're seeing in international markets where we're doing much better.

我的意思是，凱文告訴我更多細節並不奇怪，但是，我們的美國業務不如我們的國際業務那麼好，對吧？我認為我們在英國以外的業務幾乎占我們業務的 40%——抱歉，英國業務幾乎占我們業務的 40%，而且其增長速度遠超我們在美國的業務。我的意思是，與國際市場相比，美國可以說是價格壓縮和博弈的中心，而我們在國際市場上的表現要好得多。

Also the customer base is largely US and so --

此外，客戶群主要在美國，因此--

Yeah, a huge customer base is largely US as Kate just said.

是的，正如凱特剛才所說，龐大的客戶群主要來自美國。

Got it. Thank you guys.

知道了。謝謝大家。

And I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Sam for any further remarks.

我目前不會再提出其他問題。我想把電話轉回給薩姆，讓他再補充一些內容。

All right, thank you everyone. Thank you for the earnings call. Any feedback you want to give that's super positive on our new format, please send those to me at samuel.wilson@8x8.com. Any negative feedback you want to give those go to Kate Patterson. I say that jokingly, but you know any feedback you want to give us on the new format around a shortened script, a letter and those kinds of things is much appreciated.

好的，謝謝大家。感謝您參加財報電話會議。如果您對我們的新形式有任何正面的回饋，請發送至 samuel.wilson@8x8.com。如果您有任何負面回饋，請聯絡 Kate Patterson。我這麼說只是開玩笑，但你知道，如果你對新格式（例如縮短的腳本、信件等等）有任何回饋意見，我們都非常歡迎。

And with that, we look forward to meeting with all our investors again in 90 days with how we'll do over the next quarter. Thank you everyone. And if I don't talk to you before then, happy holidays.

因此，我們期待在90天後再次與所有投資者會面，向他們介紹我們下一季的業績。謝謝大家。如果在那之前我沒能聯絡上你，那就祝你節日快樂。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.

謝謝各位女士、先生。今天的演講到此結束。現在您可以斷開連接，祝您度過美好的一天。