International Business Machines Corp (IBM) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome, and thank you for standing by. (Operator Instructions) Today's conference is being recorded.

歡迎，感謝您的支持。 （操作員說明）正在錄製今天的會議。

Now I will turn the meeting over to Ms. Patricia Murphy with IBM. Ma'am, you may begin.

現在我將會議轉交給 IBM 的 Patricia Murphy 女士。女士，您可以開始了。

Thank you. This is Patricia Murphy, and I'd like to welcome you to IBM's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Presentation. I'm here today with Arvind Krishna, IBM's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Kavanaugh, IBM's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We'll post today's prepared remarks on the IBM investor website within a couple of hours, and a replay will be available by this time tomorrow.

謝謝。我是 Patricia Murphy，歡迎您參加 IBM 2023 年第一季度收益演示。今天我和 IBM 董事長兼首席執行官 Arvind Krishna 一起來到這裡； IBM 高級副總裁兼首席財務官 Jim Kavanaugh。我們將在幾個小時內在 IBM 投資者網站上發布今天準備好的評論，明天這個時候將提供重播。

To provide additional information to our investors, our presentation includes certain non-GAAP measures. For example, all of our references to revenue growth are at constant currency. We've provided reconciliation charts for these and other non-GAAP measures at the end of the presentation posted to our investor website.

為了向我們的投資者提供更多信息，我們的介紹包括某些非 GAAP 措施。例如，我們所有提到的收入增長都是固定匯率。我們在發佈到我們的投資者網站的演示文稿末尾提供了這些和其他非 GAAP 措施的調節表。

Finally, some comments made in this presentation may be considered forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. More information about these factors is included in the company's SEC filings.

最後，根據 1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法案，本演示文稿中的一些評論可能被視為前瞻性。這些陳述涉及可能導致我們的實際結果出現重大差異的因素。有關這些因素的更多信息包含在公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Arvind.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給 Arvind。

Thank you for joining us. Our first quarter results demonstrate that clients continue to turn to IBM to help them address today's business needs while positioning them for the future. We had a good start to the year, with mid-single-digit revenue growth at constant currency, in line with our midterm model and growth in free cash flow. Performance was led by software and consulting as clients continue to accelerate their digital transformations, modernize their applications, automate their workflows and create flexible and secure hybrid cloud environments.

感謝您加入我們。我們第一季度的業績表明，客戶繼續求助於 IBM 來幫助他們解決當今的業務需求，同時為未來做好準備。我們今年開局良好，按固定匯率計算收入實現中等個位數增長，符合我們的中期模型和自由現金流的增長。隨著客戶繼續加速數字化轉型、實現應用程序現代化、自動化工作流程並創建靈活安全的混合雲環境，軟件和諮詢服務引領業績。

More recently, clients are prioritizing digital transformation projects that focus on cost takeout, productivity and quick returns. While demand for our offerings that support these priorities remains solid, we are seeing some deceleration in consulting from the previous robust growth levels, especially in the United States.

最近，客戶正在優先考慮以成本削減、生產力和快速回報為重點的數字化轉型項目。儘管對我們支持這些優先事項的產品的需求依然強勁，但我們發現諮詢業務從之前強勁的增長水平開始有所放緩，尤其是在美國。

Globally, our clients continue to see technology as a fundamental source of competitive advantage. Technology helps them scale and enhance productivity, which is especially important in the face of inflation, demographic shifts, cybersecurity, supply chain issues and sustainability goals. All of this supports our revenue growth expectations for the year. Our focus remains on revenue growth and free cash flow.

在全球範圍內，我們的客戶繼續將技術視為競爭優勢的基本來源。技術幫助他們擴大和提高生產力，這在面對通貨膨脹、人口變化、網絡安全、供應鏈問題和可持續發展目標時尤為重要。所有這些都支持我們今年的收入增長預期。我們的重點仍然是收入增長和自由現金流。

90 days ago, I shared that in 2023, we continue to unlock more productivity, expand our strategic partnerships and put more investment in specific growth markets. Productivity has always been an important part of our business model. It frees up spending and increases financial flexibility to enable investments. We have started to see some of these pay back in our results, which gives us confidence in our ability to achieve our full year free cash flow objectives.

90 天前，我分享了在 2023 年，我們將繼續釋放更多的生產力，擴大我們的戰略合作夥伴關係，並在特定的增長市場上投入更多的投資。生產力一直是我們商業模式的重要組成部分。它釋放了支出並增加了財務靈活性以支持投資。我們已經開始在我們的業績中看到其中一些回報，這讓我們對實現全年自由現金流量目標的能力充滿信心。

Let me spend a few minutes on the progress we have made in the execution of our strategy. Our focus is on hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, the 2 most influential technologies for business. In tandem, these technologies drive both business outcomes and innovation. Hybrid cloud is now the most prominent form of IT architecture, and our approach is platform-centric. Red Hat OpenShift is the leading container platform, enabling clients to leverage the latest innovations in open source software. IBM's software and infrastructure have been tailored for this platform. Our consultants use their technical and business knowledge to speed up clients' digital transformation processes.

讓我花幾分鐘時間談談我們在執行戰略方面取得的進展。我們的重點是混合雲和人工智能，這兩種對企業最具影響力的技術。同時，這些技術推動業務成果和創新。混合雲現在是最突出的 IT 架構形式，我們的方法是以平台為中心的。紅帽 OpenShift 是領先的容器平台，使客戶能夠利用開源軟件的最新創新。 IBM 的軟件和基礎架構已為該平台量身定制。我們的顧問利用他們的技術和業務知識來加快客戶的數字化轉型過程。

In the first quarter, we co-created with more clients to unlock business value from a hybrid cloud approach. We are working with Virgin Money to migrate their credit card service to the IBM Cloud for Financial Services. They will also leverage IBM's consulting capabilities to create new digital customer experiences. For the Boston Red Sox, we are collaborating with Wasabi Technologies, leveraging hybrid cloud technologies to analyze key data sources that improve the club's operations.

在第一季度，我們與更多客戶共同創造了從混合雲方法中釋放商業價值的機會。我們正在與 Virgin Money 合作，將他們的信用卡服務遷移到 IBM Cloud for Financial Services。他們還將利用 IBM 的諮詢能力來創造新的數字客戶體驗。對於波士頓紅襪隊，我們正在與 Wasabi Technologies 合作，利用混合雲技術分析關鍵數據源，從而改善俱樂部的運營。

The second element of our strategy is top of mind for a lot of clients: artificial intelligence. AI is projected to add $16 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Keep in mind that AI for business is different than AI for consumers, given their need for more accurate results, trusted data and governance tools. AI techniques such as foundation models, large language models and generative AI give businesses the ability to create 100 AI models from a single data set. Early cloud engagements experienced a 70% faster time to value. That is why we are seeing a lot more interest from business and using AI to boost productivity and reduce costs. Productivity gains will come from enterprises turning their workflows into simpler automated processes with AI.

我們戰略的第二個要素是許多客戶最關心的：人工智能。到 2030 年，人工智能預計將為全球經濟增加 16 萬億美元。請記住，商業人工智能不同於消費者人工智能，因為他們需要更準確的結果、可信數據和治理工具。基礎模型、大型語言模型和生成式 AI 等 AI 技術使企業能夠從單個數據集創建 100 個 AI 模型。早期的雲參與實現價值的時間加快了 70%。這就是為什麼我們看到企業對使用 AI 來提高生產力和降低成本越來越感興趣。生產力的提高將來自於企業將他們的工作流程轉變為使用人工智能的更簡單的自動化流程。

To achieve this, we are collaborating with companies like Citi to enhance their internal audit and compliance processes through AI. J.B. Hunt Transport use our Turbonomic AI-powered resourcing and automation engine to optimize their cloud environment. This helped reduce infrastructure refresh costs by 75%. This is a great example of the work we're doing in IT operations. In other areas such as customer care, we are automating hundreds of thousands of call center responses with AI with more than 90% accuracy and greater levels of customer satisfaction.

為實現這一目標，我們正在與花旗等公司合作，通過人工智能加強他們的內部審計和合規流程。 J.B. Hunt Transport 使用我們的 Turbonomic AI 驅動的資源和自動化引擎來優化他們的雲環境。這有助於將基礎設施更新成本降低 75%。這是我們在 IT 運營方面所做工作的一個很好的例子。在客戶服務等其他領域，我們正在使用 AI 自動響應數十萬個呼叫中心，準確率超過 90%，客戶滿意度更高。

In cybersecurity, our elite defense teams are deploying AI to defend against criminals in real time. In digital labor, we are helping finance, accounting and HR teams save thousands of hours by automating what used to be labor-intensive data entry tasks. To bring our hybrid cloud and AI strategy to market, our partner ecosystem continues to play a critical role. We expanded our partnership with Adobe to help marketing and creative organizations make the production of content easier. IBM and EY announced a collaboration using IBM software and EY's sustainability consulting practice to help companies operationalize decarbonization action plans.

在網絡安全方面，我們的精英防禦團隊正在部署人工智能來實時防禦犯罪分子。在數字勞動力方面，我們通過自動化過去勞動密集型的數據輸入任務，幫助財務、會計和人力資源團隊節省數千小時。為了將我們的混合雲和人工智能戰略推向市場，我們的合作夥伴生態系統繼續發揮著關鍵作用。我們擴大了與 Adobe 的合作夥伴關係，以幫助營銷和創意組織簡化內容製作。 IBM 和 EY 宣布合作使用 IBM 軟件和 EY 的可持續性諮詢實踐來幫助公司實施脫碳行動計劃。

Juniper Networks and Nokia also recently expanded their collaboration around IBM's network intelligence and automation solutions to monetize and optimize investments in networks more effectively. We remain focused on delivering new innovations that matter to our clients. A good example of this is the Cleveland Clinic IBM Discovery Accelerator where multiple projects are underway that leverage the latest in quantum computing, artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud to help expedite discoveries in biomedical research. At the Cleveland Clinic, we also recently unveiled the first quantum computer dedicated to health care research.

瞻博網絡和諾基亞最近還擴大了圍繞 IBM 網絡智能和自動化解決方案的合作，以更有效地貨幣化和優化網絡投資。我們仍然專注於提供對我們的客戶重要的新創新。這方面的一個很好的例子是克利夫蘭診所 IBM Discovery Accelerator，其中正在進行多個項目，利用最新的量子計算、人工智能和混合雲來幫助加快生物醫學研究的發現。在克利夫蘭診所，我們最近還推出了第一台專門用於醫療保健研究的量子計算機。

To complement our own innovations, in the first quarter, we acquired 3 companies that extend our capabilities in hybrid cloud and AI. We also continue to engage in projects that have a positive impact on society. Many clients are leveraging our technology and expertise to advance their sustainability agendas. For example, in the area of manufacturing, Siemens and IBM are announcing a new software solution that integrates software from both companies to enable sustainable product development. Sustainability is a focus area for all businesses. And just last week, we released our annual report on IBM's efforts in this area, IBM Impact. I'd encourage you to read about our progress in areas ranging from energy savings and carbon emissions reduction to skills development and increasing diversity.

為了補充我們自己的創新，在第一季度，我們收購了 3 家公司，以擴展我們在混合雲和 AI 方面的能力。我們還繼續參與對社會產生積極影響的項目。許多客戶正在利用我們的技術和專業知識來推進他們的可持續發展議程。例如，在製造領域，西門子和 IBM 宣布了一個新的軟件解決方案，該解決方案集成了兩家公司的軟件以實現可持續的產品開發。可持續性是所有企業關注的重點領域。就在上週，我們發布了關於 IBM 在這一領域的努力的年度報告 IBM Impact。我鼓勵您閱讀我們在從節能和減少碳排放到技能開發和增加多樣性等領域取得的進展。

I'll conclude by saying that we are confident in the changes we have made to our business over the last 3 years, aligning our strategy, priorities and portfolio to the needs of our clients. This work, together with our continued focus on productivity, are enabling us to deliver sustainable revenue and free cash flow growth.

最後，我要說的是，我們對過去 3 年對業務所做的改變充滿信心，使我們的戰略、優先事項和產品組合與客戶的需求保持一致。這項工作連同我們對生產力的持續關注，使我們能夠實現可持續的收入和自由現金流增長。

I'll now hand it over to Jim who will offer more insight into our performance and expectations.

我現在將其交給吉姆，他將更深入地了解我們的表現和期望。

Thanks, Arvind. I'll start with the financial highlights of the first quarter. We delivered $14.3 billion in revenue, $1.4 billion of operating pretax income, $1.36 of operating earnings per share and $1.3 billion of free cash flow. Our revenue for the quarter was up about 4.5% at constant currency. That includes over 1 point of impact from the businesses we divested. Currency rates impacted our reported revenue growth by 4 points. That is over $100 million more than spot rates would have suggested 90 days ago.

謝謝，阿文德。我將從第一季度的財務亮點開始。我們實現了 143 億美元的收入、14 億美元的稅前營業收入、1.36 美元的每股營業收入和 13 億美元的自由現金流。按固定匯率計算，我們本季度的收入增長了約 4.5%。這包括我們剝離的業務產生的超過 1 點的影響。匯率對我們報告的收入增長產生了 4 個百分點的影響。這比 90 天前的即期匯率高出 1 億多美元。

As always, I'll focus my comments on constant currency. Revenue growth this quarter was led by software and consulting. Software revenue was up nearly 6% and consulting up 8%. These are our growth vectors and now represent about 3/4 of our annual revenue. Our infrastructure revenue was flat, with continued strength in z Systems. All 3 of our geographies grew, with high single-digit growth in both EMEA and Asia Pacific. Across our business, more than half of IBM's revenue is recurring, led by high-value software, which is growing at mid-single-digit rate.

一如既往，我將把我的評論集中在不變的貨幣上。本季度收入增長由軟件和諮詢引領。軟件收入增長近 6%，諮詢增長 8%。這些是我們的增長載體，現在約占我們年收入的 3/4。我們的基礎設施收入持平，z Systems 的持續增長。我們的所有 3 個地區都實現了增長，在 EMEA 和亞太地區均實現了高個位數增長。在我們的業務中，IBM 一半以上的收入是經常性的，其中以高價值軟件為首，該軟件以中等個位數的速度增長。

Looking at our profit metrics for the quarter. Operating gross margin expanded 80 basis points. We expanded gross margin in all segments with a strong portfolio mix overall. Operating pretax income, excluding the impact of workforce rebalancing, was up 12%, and margin expanded 130 basis points. You'll recall back in January, I mentioned we were planning to address remaining stranded costs from our portfolio actions and we anticipated a charge of about $300 million. As we executed our plan, we took a charge of $260 million in the first quarter, and we expect to complete this action in the second quarter. This workforce rebalancing charge primarily addresses indirect support function. We are no longer including workforce rebalancing charges in our measure of segment profit to provide a view of our segment results consistent with our ongoing operational profile.

查看我們本季度的利潤指標。營業毛利率擴大了 80 個基點。我們通過強大的整體投資組合擴大了所有部門的毛利率。扣除勞動力再平衡的影響，稅前營業收入增長了 12%，利潤率擴大了 130 個基點。你會記得在一月份，我提到我們計劃解決我們的投資組合行動中剩餘的擱淺成本，我們預計費用約為 3 億美元。在執行我們的計劃時，我們在第一季度收取了 2.6 億美元的費用，我們預計將在第二季度完成這項行動。這項勞動力再平衡費用主要針對間接支持職能。我們不再將勞動力再平衡費用納入我們的部門利潤衡量標準，以提供與我們持續運營狀況一致的部門結果視圖。

At the IBM level, including the workforce rebalancing activity, operating pretax income was down 4%, and margin was down 50 basis points. Within our margin performance, we absorbed a significant currency headwind. The combination of translation and hedging impacted operating pretax profit growth by about $160 million and operating PTI margin by 70 basis points year-to-year. As I've discussed in the past, this essentially impacts our product-based businesses. Mitigating that, the change in useful lives of our server and networking equipment provides a 50 basis point year-to-year benefit to operating PTI margin, which is included primarily in our infrastructure segment.

在 IBM 層面，包括勞動力再平衡活動在內，營業稅前收入下降了 4%，利潤率下降了 50 個基點。在我們的利潤率表現中，我們承受了巨大的貨幣逆風。換算和對沖的結合使營業稅前利潤增長約 1.6 億美元，營業 PTI 利潤率同比增長 70 個基點。正如我過去所討論的那樣，這從根本上影響了我們基於產品的業務。為了緩解這種情況，我們服務器和網絡設備使用壽命的變化為運營 PTI 利潤率提供了 50 個基點的年度收益，這主要包括在我們的基礎設施部門。

Taking it back up a level, IBM's profit performance this quarter benefits from improvements in business mix and ongoing productivity initiatives. We've been digitally transforming IBM, much in the same way we're helping our clients with their transformation, using both IBM and third-party capabilities. Think of IBM as client zero. We are driving G&A efficiencies by reimagining and transforming the way we work. This includes optimizing our infrastructure and application environments as well as redesigning our end-to-end business processes.

將其提高一個水平，IBM 本季度的利潤表現得益於業務組合的改進和持續的生產力計劃。我們一直在對 IBM 進行數字化轉型，這與我們使用 IBM 和第三方功能幫助客戶進行轉型的方式大致相同。將 IBM 視為零客戶。我們通過重新構想和轉變我們的工作方式來提高 G&A 效率。這包括優化我們的基礎架構和應用程序環境，以及重新設計我們的端到端業務流程。

Let me give you a few examples. Across IBM's IT environment, we're realizing the value of hybrid cloud. We reduced the average cost of running an application by 90% by moving from a legacy data center environment to a hybrid cloud environment running on Red Hat OpenShift. We've been simplifying our application environment. By standardizing global processes and applying AIOps, we are reducing our application portfolio by more than 35%. We've automated over 24 million transactions with RPA, avoiding hundreds of thousands of manual tasks and eliminating the risk of human error, and we're deploying AI at scale to reengineer our business processes. We're doing that in areas like HR and talent, finance and end-to-end processes like quote-to-cash and source-to-pay. For example, in HR, we now handle 94% of our company-wide HR inquiries with our AskHR digital system, speeding up the completion of many HR tasks by up to 75%. These productivity initiatives free up spending for reinvestment and contribute to margin expansion.

讓我舉幾個例子。在 IBM 的 IT 環境中，我們正在實現混合雲的價值。通過從傳統數據中心環境遷移到在 Red Hat OpenShift 上運行的混合雲環境，我們將運行應用程序的平均成本降低了 90%。我們一直在簡化我們的應用程序環境。通過標準化全球流程和應用 AIOps，我們將應用程序組合減少了 35% 以上。我們已經使用 RPA 實現了超過 2400 萬筆交易的自動化，避免了數十萬次手動任務並消除了人為錯誤的風險，並且我們正在大規模部署 AI 以重新設計我們的業務流程。我們正在人力資源和人才、財務和端到端流程（如報價到現金和貨源到付款）等領域這樣做。例如，在人力資源方面，我們現在使用 AskHR 數字系統處理全公司 94% 的人力資源查詢，將許多人力資源任務的完成速度提高了 75%。這些生產力舉措釋放了用於再投資的支出，並有助於擴大利潤率。

Turning to free cash flow. We generated $1.3 billion in the quarter. This is up $100 million year-to-year and puts us on track to our full year expectation. Growth is driven by our profit performance and working capital efficiencies as well as lower payments for structural action. This was mitigated by an increase in capital expenditures and higher performance-based compensation payments, given last year's strong results. In terms of cash uses, we returned $1.5 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends.

轉向自由現金流。我們在本季度創造了 13 億美元的收入。這比去年同期增加了 1 億美元，使我們有望實現全年預期。增長是由我們的利潤表現和營運資本效率以及結構性行動的較低支付推動的。鑑於去年的強勁業績，資本支出的增加和基於績效的薪酬支付的增加緩解了這種情況。在現金使用方面，我們以股息的形式向股東返還了 15 億美元。

From a balance sheet perspective, we have a very strong liquidity position with cash over $17 billion, which is up nearly $9 billion from December. We have been opportunistic in accessing the debt market and issued debt early in the year to prudently get ahead of 2023 and 2024 maturities. Our debt balance at the end of the first quarter was over $58 billion, up nearly $8 billion from year-end.

從資產負債表的角度來看，我們的流動性狀況非常強勁，現金超過 170 億美元，比去年 12 月增加了近 90 億美元。我們一直在機會主義地進入債務市場並在年初發行債券，以謹慎地提前於 2023 年和 2024 年到期。我們在第一季度末的債務餘額超過 580 億美元，比年底增加了近 80 億美元。

Turning to the segments. Software revenue grew nearly 6%, in line with software's mid-single-digit model. We had growth in both hybrid platform and solutions and transaction processing. This performance captures the benefits of our growing recurring revenue stream, which is about 80% of annual software revenue with continued strong renewal rates. This, together with growth in software transactions this quarter, demonstrates clients' commitment to our hybrid cloud and AI platforms.

轉向細分市場。軟件收入增長近 6%，符合軟件的中等個位數模型。我們在混合平台和解決方案以及交易處理方面都有增長。這一業績體現了我們不斷增長的經常性收入流的好處，該收入流約佔年度軟件收入的 80%，續訂率持續強勁。這與本季度軟件交易的增長一起表明了客戶對我們的混合雲和人工智能平台的承諾。

In hybrid platform and solutions, revenue was up 5%, fueled by growth across all business areas. We continue to see client demand for broad capabilities across Red Hat, automation, data in AI and security. Red Hat revenue grew 11%, with growth across all major offerings. We have particular strength in our hybrid cloud platform, OpenShift, and Ansible, our IT automation solution. Both offerings also continue to take market share this quarter. Automation revenue was up 2%, driven by integration and application servers, given client demand for improved IT performance and costs. In data and AI, revenue grew 3%, reflecting growth across data management, business analytics and asset and supply chain management. Many of these offerings, like Db2, serve as the underpinnings for modern AI and mission-critical workloads.

在混合平台和解決方案方面，受所有業務領域增長的推動，收入增長了 5%。我們繼續看到客戶對 Red Hat、自動化、AI 數據和安全方面的廣泛功能的需求。紅帽收入增長 11%，所有主要產品均有增長。我們在混合雲平台 OpenShift 和我們的 IT 自動化解決方案 Ansible 方面擁有特別的優勢。這兩種產品在本季度也繼續佔據市場份額。考慮到客戶對提高 IT 性能和成本的需求，在集成和應用服務器的推動下，自動化收入增長了 2%。在數據和人工智能方面，收入增長了 3%，反映了數據管理、業務分析以及資產和供應鏈管理方面的增長。其中許多產品（如 Db2）充當現代 AI 和任務關鍵型工作負載的基礎。

Security revenue was up 2%, with growth across security for hybrid cloud, which includes both identity and threat management and security for data. Bringing this all together, our hybrid platform and solutions' ARR is now at $13.5 billion. In transaction processing, revenue grew 6.5%. The software remains core to our clients' hybrid cloud strategies. The strong performance of the last couple z Systems' cycles drove significant capacity growth. In fact, installed MIPS growth during our z15 cycle was 2x that of z14. This translates to software opportunity and contributed to growth in both recurring and transactional revenue. Layering in this year's price increases, we delivered good performance in Transaction Processing this quarter.

安全收入增長了 2%，混合雲的安全性有所增長，其中包括身份和威脅管理以及數據安全性。綜上所述，我們的混合平台和解決方案的 ARR 現在為 135 億美元。在交易處理方面，收入增長了 6.5%。該軟件仍然是我們客戶混合雲戰略的核心。最近幾個 z Systems 週期的強勁表現推動了顯著的容量增長。事實上，在我們的 z15 週期內安裝的 MIPS 增長是 z14 的 2 倍。這轉化為軟件機會，並促進了經常性和交易收入的增長。結合今年的價格上漲，我們在本季度的交易處理方面表現良好。

Moving to profit for the software segment. Gross margin was up and pretax margin was flat this quarter, with the latter absorbing nearly 1 point of impact from currency. Consulting revenue was up 8%, and I'll remind you, we had a strong growth in the first quarter of last year. Our book-to-bill ratio over the last 12 months was 1.07. Signings in the quarter grew 7%, with similar performance across both larger and smaller engagements. We continue to see broad demand for projects that deliver technology-driven transformation, leveraging a hybrid cloud environment. Within the quarter, demand was solid for cloud modernization offerings, and we had one of our largest Red Hat signings quarters ever.

軟件部門開始盈利。本季度毛利率上升，稅前利潤率持平，後者吸收了近 1 個貨幣點的影響。諮詢收入增長了 8%，我會提醒你，我們在去年第一季度實現了強勁增長。我們過去 12 個月的訂單出貨比為 1.07。本季度的簽約增長了 7%，無論規模大小，簽約的表現都差不多。我們繼續看到對利用混合雲環境提供技術驅動轉型的項目的廣泛需求。在本季度內，對雲現代化產品的需求強勁，我們迎來了有史以來最大的 Red Hat 簽約季度之一。

More recently, clients are particularly focused on driving productivity and cost reductions with greater agility and faster time to value. This is contributing to signings growth from digital transformations in areas such as talent, finance and supply chain transformation. In terms of revenue, while we had solid growth overall, we have seen some clients in the U.S. pull back on more discretionary projects, impacting backlog realization within the quarter.

最近，客戶特別關注以更高的靈活性和更快的價值實現時間來提高生產力和降低成本。這有助於人才、金融和供應鏈轉型等領域的數字化轉型帶來的簽約增長。在收入方面，雖然我們整體增長穩健，但我們看到美國的一些客戶撤回了更多可自由支配的項目，影響了本季度的積壓訂單實現。

Bringing it back up to the global level, business transformation grew 6%, technology consulting grew 4% and application operations grew 13%. Revenue growth was led by data and customer experience transformation project, in addition to cloud application development and management. Our hybrid cloud expertise and depth and breadth of strategic partnerships differentiate IBM Consulting in today's market. Red Hat consulting revenue, now over $2 billion annually, continue to grow at a double-digit rate. And our strategic partnerships continued strong growth, making up over 35% of our revenue in this segment over the last 12 months.

回到全球水平，業務轉型增長 6%，技術諮詢增長 4%，應用運營增長 13%。收入增長由數據和客戶體驗轉型項目以及雲應用程序開發和管理帶動。我們的混合雲專業知識以及深度和廣度的戰略合作夥伴關係使 IBM 諮詢在當今市場中脫穎而出。紅帽諮詢收入現在每年超過 20 億美元，並繼續以兩位數的速度增長。我們的戰略合作夥伴關係持續強勁增長，在過去 12 個月中占我們該領域收入的 35% 以上。

Moving to consulting profit, we expanded both gross and pretax margins. Our pretax margin of about 8% in the quarter was up 50 basis points year-to-year as we continue to benefit from the productivity actions we've taken.

轉向諮詢利潤，我們擴大了毛利率和稅前利潤率。我們本季度的稅前利潤率約為 8%，同比增長 50 個基點，因為我們繼續受益於我們採取的提高生產力的措施。

Turning to the Infrastructure segment. Revenue was flat. Hybrid infrastructure revenue was up 4% and infrastructure support revenue was down 4%. Within hybrid infrastructure, z Systems revenue was up 11%. This was a fourth quarter of z16 availability, and the solid program performance has outpaced that of prior cycles. In addition to capabilities around embedded AI at scale, cloud-native development for hybrid cloud and cyber resilience security, clients are also leveraging z16 for its energy efficiency.

轉向基礎設施部分。收入持平。混合基礎設施收入增長 4%，基礎設施支持收入下降 4%。在混合基礎架構中，z Systems 收入增長了 11%。這是 z16 可用性的第四個季度，可靠的程序性能已經超過了之前的周期。除了圍繞大規模嵌入式 AI 的功能、混合雲的雲原生開發和網絡彈性安全，客戶還利用 z16 提高能效。

For example, consolidating Linux workloads on a single z16 system can reduce energy consumption by up to 75%. We continue to see strong growth in shipped MIPS for new Linux workloads on z16. Distributed infrastructure revenue was flat. Growth in storage was offset by declines in power as we have wrapped on the launch of the Power10 high-end systems. Moving to infrastructure profit. We expanded both gross and pretax margins. The 80 basis point improvement in pretax margin reflects benefits from both the z Systems' product cycle and changes in useful life, partially offset by nearly 2 points of currency impact.

例如，將 Linux 工作負載整合到單個 z16 系統上可以減少高達 75% 的能耗。我們繼續看到 z16 上新 Linux 工作負載的已交付 MIPS 強勁增長。分佈式基礎設施收入持平。存儲的增長被功率的下降所抵消，因為我們已經結束了 Power10 高端系統的發布。轉向基礎設施利潤。我們擴大了毛利率和稅前利潤率。稅前利潤率提高 80 個基點反映了 z Systems 的產品週期和使用壽命變化帶來的好處，部分被近 2 個點的貨幣影響所抵消。

Now let me bring it back up to the IBM level to wrap it up. When we first introduced today's IBM back in October of 2021, we provided a midterm model for revenue growth, margin expansion and free cash flow growth. We delivered on that model throughout last year and now have a good start to 2023. In the first quarter, we delivered constant currency revenue growth in line with our mid-single-digit model, expanded gross margin, drove productivity in our underlying business and grew our free cash flow.

現在讓我把它帶回到 IBM 層面來總結一下。當我們在 2021 年 10 月首次推出今天的 IBM 時，我們提供了一個收入增長、利潤率擴張和自由現金流增長的中期模型。我們在去年全年都採用了這種模式，現在在 2023 年有了一個良好的開端。在第一季度，我們實現了與我們的中等個位數模式一致的貨幣收入增長，擴大了毛利率，提高了我們基礎業務的生產力，以及增加了我們的自由現金流。

Looking at full year 2023, as always, I'll start with our 2 primary metrics: revenue growth and free cash flow. On the top line, we expect constant currency revenue growth of 3% to 5%. And we continue to expect free cash flow of about $10.5 billion, which is up over $1 billion year-to-year. Inherent in our midterm model is margin expansion, driven by improving business mix, efficiency initiatives and productivity enhancement. Driving efficiency and productivity has always been a part of our operating and financial models.

展望 2023 年全年，我將一如既往地從我們的 2 個主要指標開始：收入增長和自由現金流。最重要的是，我們預計貨幣收入將持續增長 3% 至 5%。我們繼續預計自由現金流約為 105 億美元，同比增長超過 10 億美元。我們的中期模型固有的是利潤率擴張，這是由改善業務組合、效率舉措和生產力提高所驅動的。提高效率和生產力一直是我們運營和財務模式的一部分。

I mentioned some of the initiatives we have underway and we continue to evaluate additional actions. Altogether, the current initiatives are expected to deliver $2 billion in annual run rate savings by the end of 2024. These initiatives provide additional flexibility, enabling reinvestment in the business to support future growth, contributing to margin expansion and increasing financial flexibility.

我提到了我們正在進行的一些舉措，我們將繼續評估其他行動。總而言之，到 2024 年底，目前的舉措預計將每年節省 20 億美元的運營成本。這些舉措提供了額外的靈活性，能夠對業務進行再投資以支持未來的增長，有助於擴大利潤率並提高財務靈活性。

Let me spend a minute on our expectations for constant currency revenue and pretax profit performance by segment. In software, we continue to expect revenue growth in line with software's mid-single-digit model. This revenue growth drives operating leverage, and we still expect software pretax margin to expand by about 2 points year-to-year. In Consulting, we continue to see strong demand for digital transformations and application modernization. So as I said, we are seeing some pressure on more discretionary projects in the United States.

讓我花一點時間談談我們對固定貨幣收入和按部門劃分的稅前利潤表現的預期。在軟件方面，我們繼續預計收入增長符合軟件的中個位數模型。這種收入增長推動了經營槓桿，我們仍然預計軟件稅前利潤率將同比增長約 2 個百分點。在諮詢領域，我們繼續看到對數字化轉型和應用程序現代化的強勁需求。因此，正如我所說，我們看到美國更多可自由支配的項目面臨一些壓力。

We now see Consulting revenue growth in the range of 6% to 8% and continue to expect to expand Consulting pretax margin by at least 1 point as we capitalize on the yield of our productivity actions. Infrastructure revenue is roughly flat over the midterm model horizon, with performance in any year reflecting product cycle dynamics. We're about to wrap on the z16 introduction. As a result, we expect 2023 infrastructure revenue to decline, with pretax margin in the low teens.

我們現在看到諮詢收入增長在 6% 到 8% 之間，並且隨著我們利用生產力行動的收益，我們繼續期望將諮詢稅前利潤率擴大至少 1 個百分點。基礎設施收入在中期模型範圍內大致持平，任何一年的表現都反映了產品週期動態。我們即將結束對 z16 的介紹。因此，我們預計 2023 年基礎設施收入將下降，稅前利潤率將處於較低水平。

To provide some perspective, Infrastructure should impact IBM's overall revenue growth by over 1 point. With these segment dynamics, we would expect IBM's operating pretax margin to expand by about 0.5 point year-to-year. That's in line with our model. And we continue to expect our tax rate to be in the mid- to high teens range. As I mentioned earlier, the dollar has strengthened over the last 90 days. We now expect currency translation to be fairly neutral to our revenue growth for the year, which is about 0.5 point worse than 90 days ago. I'll remind you that our profit and cash dynamics this year are impacted by the unwinding of last year's hedging gain, which is about 1 point of headwind to our pretax margin expansion.

從某種角度來看，基礎設施應該對 IBM 的整體收入增長產生超過 1 個百分點的影響。憑藉這些細分市場動態，我們預計 IBM 的營業稅前利潤率將同比增長約 0.5 個百分點。這符合我們的模型。我們繼續期望我們的稅率處於中高十幾歲的範圍內。正如我之前提到的，美元在過去 90 天裡走強。我們現在預計貨幣換算對我們今年的收入增長相當中性，這比 90 天前低了約 0.5 個百分點。我會提醒您，我們今年的利潤和現金動態受到去年對沖收益平倉的影響，這對我們的稅前利潤率擴張造成了大約 1 個百分點的不利影響。

Looking at the second quarter, we expect first to second quarter revenue seasonality to be fairly consistent with last year. That's up about $1.3 billion, though the underlying dynamics are different due primarily to z Systems' product cycle and currency. I'll remind you, we had a successful launch of our z16 in the second quarter of last year, and that creates a year-to-year headwind to growth of about 3 points.

展望第二季度，我們預計第一季度至第二季度的收入季節性將與去年相當一致。這增加了大約 13 億美元，儘管主要由於 z Systems 的產品週期和貨幣而導致基本動態不同。我會提醒你，我們在去年第二季度成功推出了 z16，這造成了同比增長約 3 個百分點的逆風。

In terms of profit, we now expect a little over 1/3 of our operating net income in the first half and just under 2/3 in the second half. This reflects a first half headwind from currency and workforce rebalancing dynamics, both of which flip to a tailwind in the second half. I mentioned the workforce rebalancing activity we have underway. Between the first and second quarter, the charge should be in the range of $300 million, maybe a little more. We still expect this action to pay back by the end of the year.

就利潤而言，我們現在預計上半年的營業淨收入略高於 1/3，下半年略低於 2/3。這反映了上半年貨幣和勞動力再平衡動態的逆風，這兩者在下半年都轉為順風。我提到了我們正在進行的勞動力再平衡活動。在第一季度和第二季度之間，費用應該在 3 億美元左右，也許更多一點。我們仍然預計這一行動將在年底前得到回報。

In closing, we entered the year as a more focused business with solid fundamentals. We had a good start to 2023 and are positioned to deliver revenue growth, expand margins and grow free cash flow for the year. I'm happy to provide more color on the quarter and our expectations in the Q&A.

最後，我們進入了這一年，成為一個更加專注、基礎紮實的企業。我們在 2023 年有了一個良好的開端，並準備好在這一年實現收入增長、擴大利潤率和增加自由現金流。我很高興在問答中提供更多有關本季度的信息和我們的期望。

Patricia, let's get started.

帕特里夏，讓我們開始吧。

Thank you, Jim. Before we begin the Q&A, I'd like to mention a couple of items. First, supplemental information is provided at the end of the presentation; and second, as always, I'd ask you to refrain from multipart questions.

謝謝你，吉姆。在我們開始問答之前，我想提幾個問題。首先，在演示結束時提供補充信息；其次，一如既往，我會要求您不要提出多部分問題。

Operator, let's please open it up for questions.

接線員，請打開它提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Shannon Cross with Credit Suisse.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自瑞士信貸的 Shannon Cross。

Arvind, there's a significant amount of uncertainty with regard to end demand in the marketplace right now. So I'm wondering, as you speak to customers, can you talk to demand trends you're seeing both on a vertical and a geographic basis? Just give us some more color on what you're hearing because, I mean, after CDW, I know it's a different market, but there's a lot of questions out there in terms of what people are spending money on, why they want to spend and if it's going to continue in the second half.

Arvind，目前市場上的最終需求存在很大的不確定性。所以我想知道，當你與客戶交談時，你能否談談你在垂直和地理基礎上看到的需求趨勢？只是給我們更多關於你聽到的內容的顏色，因為，我的意思是，在 CDW 之後，我知道這是一個不同的市場，但是關於人們把錢花在什麼上，他們為什麼要花錢，有很多問題以及它是否會在下半場繼續。

Shannon, thank you for the question. And as you can imagine, we spend a lot of time both digesting and making our own estimates based on what our clients are saying. So you said geography verticals and then within technology segments, so let me try to unpack it a little. So on a geography level, a lot of the uncertainty that is in the media here, certainly in North America, is not there in Asia at all. If I look across Japan, India, the Middle East, which kind of covers the broad swath of Asia, with the exception of China, we don't see any of that playing out. The geopolitics around China is a slightly different piece, but I think everyone is subject to that right now.

香農，謝謝你的提問。正如您可以想像的那樣，我們花了很多時間根據客戶所說的內容進行消化和做出我們自己的估計。所以你說地理垂直然後在技術領域內，所以讓我試著解開它一點。因此，在地理層面上，這裡（當然是北美）媒體中存在的許多不確定性在亞洲根本不存在。如果我環顧日本、印度、中東，這些地區覆蓋了亞洲的廣大地區，但中國除外，我們看不到任何結果。中國周圍的地緣政治略有不同，但我認為現在每個人都受制於它。

Then if I come to Europe, it's actually been stronger than I would have predicted 6 months ago, but that is because of my point on technology as a deflationary force. When we look at the mixture of interest rates, inflation, wage inflation, demographic, meaning labor shortages, supply chain resiliency, cyber, technology is actually the only answer companies have against all that. Now that does apply to the larger enterprises who are our primary customers.

然後，如果我來到歐洲，它實際上比我 6 個月前預測的要強，但那是因為我認為技術是一種通貨緊縮力量。當我們綜合考慮利率、通貨膨脹、工資上漲、人口統計，即勞動力短缺、供應鏈彈性、網絡時，技術實際上是公司應對這一切的唯一答案。現在這確實適用於作為我們主要客戶的大型企業。

When I come to the United States, we did see some slowing down in consulting projects, as I said, but that is because consulting is somewhat discretionary. However, we are not seeing people cancel projects. What they are doing is slowing them down, meaning pushing to the right, which is why we took the numbers down for consulting, believing that, that may spread, in some sense, to other parts of the globe as well.

當我來到美國時，正如我所說，我們確實看到諮詢項目有些放緩，但那是因為諮詢在某種程度上是自由裁量的。但是，我們沒有看到人們取消項目。他們正在做的是放慢他們的速度，這意味著向右推，這就是為什麼我們把這些數字記下來進行諮詢，相信這在某種意義上也可能傳播到全球其他地區。

Software, we are seeing demand remain very steady. We're not seeing any signs of weakness in software. Admittedly, we are in B2B software. We are not in any B2C segment. And in infrastructure, I think it's less of a macro. It's much more, in our case, a product cycle issue that is playing through.

軟件，我們看到需求保持非常穩定。我們沒有看到軟件有任何弱點的跡象。誠然，我們在 B2B 軟件領域。我們不屬於任何 B2C 領域。在基礎設施方面，我認為它不那麼宏觀。在我們的案例中，它更像是一個正在發揮作用的產品週期問題。

I hope that gave you some color on why we have confidence in the demand, weakness in one particular area, which we think will likely play through. But I want to caution that weakness is not us shrinking. It just says that double-digit rates went down into the 6% to 8%, which is still healthy.

我希望這能給你一些顏色，說明為什麼我們對需求有信心，一個特定領域的疲軟，我們認為這可能會持續下去。但我要提醒的是，軟弱並不是我們退縮。它只是說兩位數的利率下降到 6% 到 8%，這仍然是健康的。

Our next question comes from Amit Daryanani with Evercore.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Amit Daryanani。

I guess I was hoping you could talk a bit more on the software side, and I think growth across both hybrid and transaction seems to be fairly good in the quarter. But Arvind, if you think about some of these consulting softness that's happening, you talked about that in North America. How do you think about the risk of that potentially spreading to some of the software side as well? So I'd love to understand, are you seeing any sense, any of that pushout happening in the software side as well? And then as you -- secondly, as you think about this mid-single-digit growth in software for the year, how do you think that stacks up between hybrid versus Transaction Processing?

我想我希望你能在軟件方面多談一點，我認為本季度混合和交易的增長似乎相當不錯。但是 Arvind，如果你想想正在發生的一些諮詢軟性，你就在北美談到了這一點。您如何看待這種潛在傳播到某些軟件方面的風險？所以我很想知道，你是否看到任何意義，軟件方面也發生了任何推出？然後，當你 - 其次，當你考慮今年軟件的中等個位數增長時，你如何看待混合與事務處理之間的疊加？

So Amit, let me just take the first part of your question on the linkage between consulting and software, and then I'll hand it to Jim for other parts of the question. So I think that if I look at the consulting, it's not going to spread to software in our belief. Remember, our consulting is comprised, if you just want to break it down, into sort of 3 parts. We work with a lot of other partners including on the public clouds, including with large software providers, and we tend to do these projects for our clients.

所以阿米特，讓我只回答你關於諮詢和軟件之間聯繫的問題的第一部分，然後我會把它交給吉姆來解決問題的其他部分。所以我認為，如果我看一下諮詢，我們相信它不會傳播到軟件。請記住，如果您只想將其分解，我們的諮詢包括 3 個部分。我們與包括公共雲在內的許多其他合作夥伴合作，包括大型軟件提供商，我們傾向於為我們的客戶做這些項目。

I keep cautioning, it's slowing down but still in the 6% to 8%, not in a rate lower than that. Yes, there is a linkage to software, but a lot of our software is running critical systems for our clients, and we don't see those very subject to what we see in the current macroeconomic environment. And so that's what gives us confidence on those.

我一直警告說，它正在放緩，但仍處於 6% 至 8% 之間，不會低於此水平。是的，這與軟件有聯繫，但我們的很多軟件都在為我們的客戶運行關鍵系統，我們認為這些軟件不會受到我們在當前宏觀經濟環境中看到的情況的影響。這就是讓我們對這些充滿信心的原因。

Also, I think the movement towards hybrid clouds and the ability to take advantage of AI for enterprise productivity is perhaps going to be a tailwind as we enter the second half of the year because I do think that clients are going to do a lot of automation and a lot of cost cutting, which will likely benefit elements of our software portfolio. Jim?

此外，我認為，隨著我們進入下半年，向混合雲的轉變以及利用 AI 提高企業生產力的能力可能會順風順水，因為我確實認為客戶將進行大量自動化以及大量削減成本，這可能會使我們的軟件組合元素受益。吉姆？

Yes. So Amit, thank you very much for the question. I mean, as building on what Arvind just said, we are very pleased overall with our start to the year with regards to software here in the first quarter, nearly 6% growth at the high end of our model overall. By the way, the fundamentals of that business doing extremely well, growing gross margins 60 basis points, growing pretax income. But software is an integral part of not only our hybrid cloud platform thesis but also an integral part of that economic multiplier equation.

是的。阿米特，非常感謝你提出這個問題。我的意思是，正如 Arvind 剛才所說的那樣，我們對今年第一季度軟件方面的開局總體感到非常滿意，整體模型的高端增長了近 6%。順便說一句，該業務的基本面非常好，毛利率增長了 60 個基點，稅前收入也在增長。但軟件不僅是我們混合雲平台論文的組成部分，也是經濟乘數方程的組成部分。

$25 billion of revenue, over 40% of IBM's revenue composition, over 2/3 of IBM's profit, solid ARR at $13.5 billion, growing 7%, and a flywheel effect of NRR going well north of 100%. And I think linking back to Shannon's question and part of your question, Arvind's been very clear that we believe that technology is a source of competitive advantage for every industry and every client now, and we built out a portfolio to go capitalize on that.

250 億美元的收入，超過 IBM 收入構成的 40%，超過 IBM 利潤的 2/3，穩定的 ARR 為 135 億美元，增長 7%，NRR 的飛輪效應遠高於 100%。我認為回到 Shannon 的問題和你的部分問題，Arvind 非常清楚我們相信技術是現在每個行業和每個客戶的競爭優勢的來源，我們建立了一個投資組合來利用這一點。

Now let's take a step back because you asked a question about revenue contribution and then the mix of hybrid platform and solution versus transactional. Let's talk first about the revenue contribution. Going back 90 days ago, we laid out the year. We said we were confident in our software portfolio growing on model. We started off the first quarter with putting a dot on the board and contributing to that level actually near the high end. But we said entering the year that we've got about 80% of our portfolio is high-value recurring revenue, annuitized revenue. And we thought that, that is going to contribute a little over 5 points of that midterm model growth -- mid-single-digit model growth.

現在讓我們退後一步，因為您問了一個關於收入貢獻的問題，然後是混合平台和解決方案與交易的混合。讓我們先談談收入貢獻。回到 90 天前，我們規劃了這一年。我們說我們對我們的軟件組合在模型上的增長充滿信心。我們從第一季度開始就在董事會上放了一個點，並為實際上接近高端的水平做出了貢獻。但我們說進入今年，我們的投資組合中約有 80% 是高價值的經常性收入，即年金收入。我們認為，這將為中期模型增長貢獻 5 個多點——中個位數模型增長。

And underneath that 5 points, about half of it is going to come out of Red Hat, by the way, growing 11% to 13% for the year, and about half of that out of our recurring revenue stream from IBM, capitalizing on a very strong installed MIPS capacity and renewal rates, along with some price optimization. And by the way, first quarter played out that way. Now transaction, the remaining 20%, we said we definitely acknowledge we're heading into the down cycle on ELAs. And by the way, ELAs don't go up 100% 1 year and down. Over a 3-year period, you typically get 60% in the first year and then it whittles down over the next couple of years. And we said we expect about a 0 to 1-point headwind. And in the first quarter, we actually did quite well. The transactional volume actually contributed over 1 point of software's growth. So that's kind of a buildup of the contribution between our 2 businesses.

在這 5 點之下，大約一半來自 Red Hat，順便說一下，今年增長 11% 到 13%，其中大約一半來自 IBM 的經常性收入流，利用非常強大的安裝 MIPS 容量和更新率，以及一些價格優化。順便說一句，第一節就是這樣進行的。現在交易，剩下的 20%，我們說我們肯定承認我們正在進入 ELA 的下行週期。順便說一句，ELA 不會在 1 年內上升 100% 或下降。在 3 年期間，您通常在第一年獲得 60%，然後在接下來的幾年中逐漸減少。我們說我們預計會有 0 到 1 點的逆風。在第一季度，我們實際上做得很好。交易量實際上貢獻了超過 1 個百分點的軟件增長。所以這是我們兩家企業之間貢獻的積累。

Now around the lines of business, hybrid platform and solution, our model is anywhere from mid- to high single digit. We delivered 5% in the first quarter. And what we see for the full year is right along that model. Red Hat improving, given the performance of a renewal cycle. We've got an ARR at $13.5 billion, growing 7%. And by the way, that's a leading indicator, which is positive for us. Our Cloud Pak growth continues to be very strong, and we got new innovation that we continue to bring to market.

現在圍繞業務線、混合平台和解決方案，我們的模型從中等到高個位數不等。我們在第一季度交付了 5%。我們全年看到的情況都符合該模型。考慮到更新周期的性能，Red Hat 正在改進。我們的 ARR 為 135 億美元，增長 7%。順便說一下，這是一個領先指標，對我們來說是積極的。我們的 Cloud Pak 增長繼續非常強勁，我們獲得了不斷推向市場的新創新。

And then Transaction Processing, very pleased overall first quarter, 6.5% growth. We believe full year is going to be somewhere in the low to mid-single digit. And again, that is capitalizing on that 2x growth in installed MIPS and those strong renewal and price. So that kind of hopefully sums up the software portfolio for your question.

然後是交易處理，第一季度整體增長 6.5%，非常令人滿意。我們認為全年將處於中低個位數。同樣，這是利用已安裝 MIPS 的 2 倍增長以及強勁的更新和價格。因此，希望可以總結出您的問題的軟件組合。

Our next question comes from Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自 Toni Sacconaghi 和 Bernstein。

I was just wondering if you could comment a little bit about Red Hat. I think I recall your guidance was for mid-teens growth for the year. And in the first quarter, it was 11% at constant currency, but ex deferred revenue accounting was probably 7% or 8%. So how do we get confident that the back half of the year where there's little to no deferred revenue accounting contribution can be fundamentally like 17%, 18%, so an acceleration from 7% or 8% to 17% or 18%.

我只是想知道您是否可以對 Red Hat 發表一些評論。我想我記得你的指導是針對今年的青少年成長。而在第一季度，按固定匯率計算為 11%，但扣除遞延收入後可能佔 7% 或 8%。那麼，我們如何確信幾乎沒有遞延收入會計貢獻的下半年可以從根本上達到 17%、18%，從而從 7% 或 8% 加速到 17% 或 18%。

And then secondly, can you comment just on the impact of software pricing? Are you only seeing that in Transaction Processing? Or are you seeing in other parts of the software business? And how should we be thinking about sort of the magnitude of the impact of price increases?

其次，您能否評論一下軟件定價的影響？您只在事務處理中看到了嗎？還是您在軟件業務的其他部分看到了？我們應該如何考慮價格上漲影響的程度？

So great questions. So let me start, and then I'm going to give it to Jim for a lot more detail. So first of all, on Red Hat, as I think Jim answered in one of the prior questions and in some of the prepared remarks as well, we are now expecting 11% to 13% for the year. That's kind of where we expect Red Hat to be. And that's an all-in number for the year that's inclusive of Q1. So Q1 was at the bottom end of that range.

這麼好的問題。那麼讓我開始吧，然後我將把它交給吉姆以獲得更多細節。所以首先，關於 Red Hat，正如我認為 Jim 在之前的一個問題和一些準備好的評論中回答的那樣，我們現在預計今年的增長率為 11% 到 13%。這就是我們對 Red Hat 的期望。這是包括第一季度在內的一年的總數字。所以 Q1 處於該範圍的底部。

We are seeing more demand coming up as we go through the year. We know our cycles of renewals in Red Hat. If you sort of think that much like other software businesses, it's about a 3-year cycle. If you go all the way back to 2020, which was a boom year, those are coming up in 2023. And so we believe that will give us 1 point or 2 further tailwind behind the Q1 numbers.

隨著這一年的過去，我們看到更多的需求出現。我們知道 Red Hat 的更新周期。如果你有點像其他軟件企業那樣思考，它大約是 3 年的周期。如果你一直追溯到 2020 年，那是繁榮的一年，那麼這些將在 2023 年出現。因此我們相信這將使我們比第一季度的數字進一步落後 1 點或 2 點。

So as we sort of go through that, that gives us confidence based on the demand profile, the renewals as well as the uptick of the faster-growing areas like both OpenShift and likely Ansible coming down the road that we'll see numbers in that range. So with that sort of color on that, let me give it to Jim to add a lot more color on to both Red Hat and the other part on your pricing question.

因此，當我們經歷這些時，這讓我們有信心基於需求概況、更新以及增長更快的領域（如 OpenShift 和可能的 Ansible）的上升，我們將在未來看到數字範圍。因此，有了這種顏色，讓我把它交給吉姆，為 Red Hat 和定價問題的其他部分添加更多顏色。

Yes. Thanks, Arvind, and thanks, Toni for the question so we can get some clarity out here because I know this has been a hot topic of all of my discussion with investors over the first quarter, especially in light of the macroeconomic environment. First of all, as Arvind indicated, we're pretty pleased with the performance overall of our Red Hat portfolio. 11% growth here in the first quarter, off of, by the way, the toughest compare last year at 21% growth overall.

是的。謝謝 Arvind，也謝謝 Toni 提出的問題，所以我們可以在這裡弄清楚一些，因為我知道這是我在第一季度與投資者討論的所有熱門話題，尤其是考慮到宏觀經濟環境。首先，正如 Arvind 所指出的，我們對 Red Hat 產品組合的整體表現非常滿意。第一季度這裡增長了 11%，順便說一句，與去年 21% 的整體增長相比，增長最為艱難。

And by the way, just to put this to rest, the operational growth compared to the GAAP growth is very similar in the first quarter. So the combination of deferred revenue, which, by the way, is de minimis, it's like in the single million dollars, and the intercompany, to get a bridge from operational to GAAP is a rounding error in the first quarter. And by the way, we continue to expect that as we go forward.

順便說一下，第一季度的運營增長與 GAAP 增長非常相似。因此，遞延收入的組合，順便說一句，是微量的，就像一百萬美元一樣，以及公司內部，從運營到 GAAP 的橋樑是第一季度的捨入誤差。順便說一句，我們繼續期待這一點。

So the number that we report, and by the way, we're, what, 4 years into this acquisition now and we continue to talk about deferred revenue. But let's put that aside. Underneath the performance of 11%. Red Hat OpenShift's strong performance here in the quarter, growing north of 40%. We talked about 90 days ago, we put the number out there. Now that we've got to a $1 billion ARR business, we're seeing very good momentum in OpenShift as the leading hybrid cloud platform overall. And our Ansible portfolio, to Arvind's point, is scaling nicely and taking share on top of that.

因此，我們報告的數字，順便說一下，我們現在已經進行了 4 年的收購，我們繼續談論遞延收入。但是讓我們把它放在一邊。低於11%的表現。 Red Hat OpenShift 在本季度表現強勁，增長率超過 40%。我們在 90 天前談過，我們把數字放在那裡。現在我們已經擁有 10 億美元的 ARR 業務，我們看到 OpenShift 作為整體領先的混合雲平台的勢頭非常好。就 Arvind 的觀點而言，我們的 Ansible 產品組合正在很好地擴展並在此基礎上佔據份額。

Now what's going to drive the growth in the second half of that 11%? We called the year now at 11% to 13%, I think being prudently cautious. We have a strong renewal available base that will start kicking in, in the second half. So I think that's really the core to the answer about the renewal base on the subscription. But just wrapping up Red Hat and the discussion I have with investors, taking a big step back, we're pleased overall. We're 4 years into this acquisition. We have quadrupled the Red Hat revenue from pre-acquisition in 3.5 years.

現在是什麼將推動這 11% 下半年的增長？我們現在將這一年定為 11% 至 13%，我認為謹慎行事。我們有一個強大的續約基礎，將在下半年開始發揮作用。所以我認為這才是關於基於訂閱的續訂的答案的核心。但只要結束 Red Hat 和我與投資者的討論，退後一大步，我們總體上感到滿意。我們進行此次收購已有 4 年時間。我們在 3.5 年內將紅帽從收購前獲得的收入翻了兩番。

And around the multiplier effect, we've accelerated our software portfolio, and we've accelerated our consulting portfolio to a high -- mid- to high single-digit growth business overall. So we're very pleased overall.

圍繞乘數效應，我們加速了我們的軟件產品組合，並且我們已經將我們的諮詢產品組合加速到整體的高 - 中高個位數增長業務。所以我們總體上非常滿意。

Our next question will come from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題將來自美國銀行的 Wamsi Mohan。

Arvind, you're now incorporating the possibility for slightly lower revenue growth, sounds like both around consulting, some areas like Red Hat and some of this is clearly macro. But at the same time, profitability is even more back-end loaded now. So what is giving you the confidence that these PTI improvements that you're targeting by segment, 100 bps in consulting and 200 bps in software, is really going to come through in the second half of the year? And free cash flow guide remains unchanged despite sort of the revenue outlook having potential deterioration. Love to get some color on that.

Arvind，你現在考慮了收入增長略有下降的可能性，聽起來像是圍繞諮詢，一些領域如 Red Hat，其中一些顯然是宏觀的。但與此同時，盈利能力現在更加靠後。那麼，是什麼讓您有信心，您按細分市場定位的這些 PTI 改進，100 個基點的諮詢和 200 個基點的軟件，真的會在今年下半年實現？儘管收入前景可能惡化，但自由現金流指南保持不變。喜歡在上面塗一些顏色。

Sure, Wamsi. Look, I'll answer it in terms of what I'm seeing on the business, and I'll let Jim then put some precise numbers on it. We actually -- when we spoke to all of you in January, we were saying about 1/3 in the first half and 2/3 in the second half. Now we are saying actually a little bit more than 1/3 in the first half and the remaining in the second half. So actually, we are actually bringing it up a little bit despite taking on the restructuring charges and some of the Kyndryl associated charges that we're absorbing in those numbers.

當然，Wamsi。看，我會根據我在業務中看到的情況來回答它，然後我會讓吉姆在上面加上一些精確的數字。我們實際上 - 當我們在 1 月份與大家交談時，我們說的是上半年的 1/3 和下半年的 2/3。現在我們說的實際上是上半場超過 1/3，下半場剩下的。所以實際上，儘管承擔了重組費用和我們在這些數字中吸收的一些 Kyndryl 相關費用，但我們實際上還是提出了一點。

So what gives me confidence is when we look at the underlying performance in the first quarter, not all of our actions and productivity play out right in the quarter. But we are seeing enough green shoots in all of them to be able to predict those increases, of 1 point in consulting, the 2 points in software, et cetera, as you play through the year. And that allows us to have confidence in both the PTI and the cash flow despite the revenue numbers that we are projecting going forward.

因此，讓我充滿信心的是，當我們查看第一季度的基本業績時，並非我們所有的行動和生產力都在本季度發揮作用。但我們在所有這些方面都看到了足夠多的萌芽，能夠預測這些增長，在你玩這一年的過程中，諮詢 1 分，軟件 2 分，等等。這讓我們對 PTI 和現金流充滿信心，儘管我們預測未來的收入數字。

And I think actually, Q1 is a good down payment towards that, Wamsi. Despite the restructuring charge, we increased free cash flow by $100 million, and so that actually all goes together towards our numbers. Jim, anything you'd like to add to that?

我認為實際上，Wamsi，Q1 是一筆很好的首付。儘管有重組費用，我們還是將自由現金流增加了 1 億美元，因此實際上所有這些都對我們的數字產生了影響。吉姆，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. I would just say, I mean, you nailed it, Arvind. Wamsi, thank you very much for the question. Again, another important topic for our investors overall. The real 2 issues that are driving this distortion of seasonality of our profit and our cash, to Arvind's point, is currency and the workforce rebalancing charge. We said on the latter that it would pay back in the year, maybe a little bit more, but that is a big distortion of a $300-plus million charge in the first half and a significant return in the second half. And by the way, that will benefit all of our segments. As you know, we fully allocate all of our indirect support costs to all of our segments so they'll get margin leverage off of that.

是的。我只想說，我的意思是，你成功了，Arvind。 Wamsi，非常感謝你提出這個問題。同樣，對於我們的整體投資者來說，這是另一個重要話題。在 Arvind 看來，導致我們的利潤和現金季節性扭曲的真正 2 個問題是貨幣和勞動力再平衡費用。我們對後者說，它會在今年收回成本，可能會多一點，但這是對上半年 300 多萬美元費用和下半年顯著回報的嚴重扭曲。順便說一下，這將有利於我們所有的細分市場。如您所知，我們將所有間接支持成本完全分配給我們所有的部門，以便他們從中獲得利潤槓桿。

But the only point I'd make on currency. Currency is a very different picture half to half. Revenue, neutral for the year, a headwind -- by the way, it was a bigger headwind in the first quarter. It was at the high end of 400 basis points. Second quarter, we say it's about 100 basis points headwind. That turns into a nice tailwind in the second half. And as we talked about many times in the past, currency impacts our business differently. Between our human capital-based consulting business, which, by the way, as you all understand, is a natural hedge because cost to source the same way as revenue. But our product-based businesses have a distortion in predominantly U.S. dollar cost and revenue in local currency.

但我唯一要說的是貨幣。貨幣是完全不同的情況。收入，全年中性，逆風——順便說一句，第一季度的逆風更大。它處於 400 個基點的高端。第二季度，我們說這是大約 100 個基點的逆風。這在下半場變成了順風。正如我們過去多次談到的那樣，貨幣對我們的業務有不同的影響。在我們基於人力資本的諮詢業務之間，順便說一句，眾所周知，這是一種自然的對沖，因為成本與收入的來源方式相同。但我們以產品為基礎的業務在以美元為主的成本和以當地貨幣計算的收入方面存在扭曲。

So when currency flips to a translation benefit in the second half, it has substantial margin leveragability coupled with that software growing at mid-single digit and a high-value annuitized TP world that carries very high marginal dollar profitability. So all else equal, currency and workforce rebalancing aside, it's a pretty typical year. And we, on top of that, have put out the $2 billion productivity number that we're going to continue aggressively going after.

因此，當貨幣在下半年轉向轉換收益時，它具有可觀的利潤槓桿，加上該軟件以中等個位數增長，以及具有非常高邊際美元盈利能力的高價值年金化 TP 世界。因此，在其他條件相同的情況下，拋開貨幣和勞動力再平衡不談，這是非常典型的一年。最重要的是，我們已經提出了我們將繼續積極追求的 20 億美元的生產率數字。

Our next question comes from Lisa Ellis with MoffettNathanson.

我們的下一個問題來自 Lisa Ellis 和 MoffettNathanson。

Wanted to ask about the impact of the recent banking mini crisis we've had over the last 6 weeks or so. What impact are you seeing on your business, given how much work IBM does with financial services firms? Like are you seeing any disruption, or maybe on the flip side of that, any acceleration in demand for products and services, say, in like the risk management area?

想詢問我們在過去 6 週左右的時間裡最近發生的銀行迷你危機的影響。考慮到 IBM 與金融服務公司的合作，您對您的業務有何影響？就像你看到任何中斷，或者在另一方面，對產品和服務的需求加速，比如在風險管理領域？

Lisa, great question. I'll begin by saying that what we have seen, which is so far mostly United States and a little bit in Europe, is going to be a second-order impact on us, not a first-order impact. Let me unpack that and say what I mean. The bulk of the uncertainty is around the smaller banks. They're being labeled regional banks, but let me acknowledge some of these regional banks are really national banks.

麗莎，好問題。我首先要說的是，到目前為止，我們所看到的主要是美國，歐洲有一點，這將對我們產生二階影響，而不是一階影響。讓我打開包裝，說出我的意思。大部分不確定性都圍繞著較小的銀行。他們被貼上了區域銀行的標籤，但讓我承認其中一些區域銀行實際上是國家銀行。

But that said, now as they get forced into tightening some of their lending standards, that is largely going to have an impact on SMB, small and medium business clients who are not our direct clients. Now let me acknowledge they are clients, though, of other larger companies who are our clients, but it gets muted as in the impact on us. When we're looking at our large banking clients, whether you think of the top 5 or 10 in the United States, you think of the top 20 in Europe, we are seeing pretty consistent demand right now because that is largely driven by payments, by retail accounts, by capital markets.

但話雖如此，現在隨著他們被迫收緊部分貸款標準，這在很大程度上將對 SMB、非我們直接客戶的中小型企業客戶產生影響。現在讓我承認他們是我們客戶的其他大公司的客戶，但由於對我們的影響，它變得無聲。當我們審視我們的大型銀行客戶時，無論您想到美國的前 5 名還是前 10 名，還是歐洲的前 20 名，我們現在看到的需求非常穩定，因為這主要是由支付驅動的，通過零售賬戶，通過資本市場。

And as you think about all of those, as long as you have reasonable employment and reasonable GDPs, we expect that, that demand is going to continue for our first-order clients. The second order will no doubt have a muted but it's a very tiny impact, and that is kind of what is baked into our current growth assumptions.

當你考慮所有這些時，只要你有合理的就業和合理的 GDP，我們預計，我們的一階客戶的需求將繼續存在。毫無疑問，第二個訂單會產生微弱的影響，但影響非常小，而這正是我們當前增長假設中所包含的。

Our next question comes from Erik Woodring with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Erik Woodring。

I guess, Arvind, maybe if you can just give us an update on how you're thinking about M&A, just given the broader macro environment, some of the comments you made about the consulting business, interest rates, your cash balance. If you could just bring it all together, maybe just provide an update today and if anything has changed relative to 90 days ago.

我想，Arvind，也許你可以向我們介紹一下你對併購的最新看法，考慮到更廣泛的宏觀環境，你對諮詢業務、利率和現金餘額的一些評論。如果您可以將所有內容放在一起，也許今天就提供更新，看看與 90 天前相比是否有任何變化。

Thanks, Erik. Great question. So I actually believe -- I'll begin by saying, I believe that as asset prices adjust, this could be quite an opportunistic time. Now is it going to be opportunistic in a month or in 3 months or in 12 months? I can't really predict. I'll be candid to say most of you probably determine that far more than we do.

謝謝，埃里克。很好的問題。所以我實際上相信——我首先要說，我相信隨著資產價格的調整，這可能是一個相當機會主義的時期。現在它會在一個月或 3 個月或 12 個月內成為機會主義的嗎？我真的無法預測。我會坦率地說，你們中的大多數人可能比我們更能確定這一點。

Now what are we doing to prepare and in what areas are we interested? If you notice, we carry a fair amount of cash on our balance sheet. As we have pointed out, we have a fair amount of FINFLEX at the IBM level. Even accounting for the dividend, because if you look at it over a 3-year period, that leaves circa $20 billion of total FINFLEX over 3 years. We're going to be judicious. We're going to wait for the right time. And it is going to be in the areas that we want. Those areas are going to be in our higher-value software and in areas where consulting can accelerate. We expect to remain 60%, maybe 75% of our total spend will be in software. The remaining will be in consulting.

現在我們正在做什麼準備，我們對哪些領域感興趣？如果您注意到，我們的資產負債表上有相當數量的現金。正如我們所指出的，我們在 IBM 級別擁有相當數量的 FINFLEX。即使考慮到股息，因為如果你在 3 年的時間段內查看它，那麼 3 年內 FINFLEX 總額將剩下大約 200 億美元。我們要審慎行事。我們要等待合適的時機。它將出現在我們想要的區域。這些領域將出現在我們的高價值軟件中，以及諮詢可以加速發展的領域。我們預計將保持 60%，也許我們總支出的 75% 將用於軟件。其餘的將用於諮詢。

In software, we're going to stick to our areas: hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence and data, cyber, automation, the areas we have talked about. So those are the areas, that is the amount we have, and we're going to wait for the appropriate time to leverage. But Erik, to answer, M&A is a very definite part of our model, and it is part of what is baked into both our mid- and long-term models for growth.

在軟件方面，我們將堅持我們的領域：混合雲、人工智能和數據、網絡、自動化，我們已經討論過的領域。所以這些就是領域，那就是我們擁有的數量，我們將等待適當的時間來利用。但是埃里克，要回答，併購是我們模型中非常明確的一部分，它是我們中長期增長模型中的一部分。

Our next question will come from David Grossman with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Stifel 的 David Grossman。

Arvind, maybe you could talk a little bit more about the pricing dynamic in the marketplace and the pricing environment, given the shifting macro that we face. And perhaps you could help us better understand how to think of pricing and its impact on revenue growth this year and just prepare us for some of the potential outcomes in pricing and its impact on revenue growth next year.

Arvind，考慮到我們面臨的不斷變化的宏觀環境，也許你可以多談談市場上的定價動態和定價環境。也許你可以幫助我們更好地理解如何考慮定價及其對今年收入增長的影響，並讓我們為明年定價的一些潛在結果及其對收入增長的影響做好準備。

Okay. Thank you, David. Look, I'm going to break my answer up differently between the labor-based businesses and the technology businesses. In a labor-based business, we face the same inflation that the rest of the world is seeing. Our employees are expecting higher wages. As we hire new people, they get hired in at higher wages than their similar colleagues were a year ago. We have to get a return on that back from our clients.

好的。謝謝你，大衛。看，我將在基於勞動力的企業和技術企業之間以不同的方式分解我的答案。在以勞動力為基礎的企業中，我們面臨著與世界其他地區相同的通貨膨脹。我們的員工期望更高的工資。當我們僱用新人時，他們的薪水比一年前的同類同事要高。我們必須從客戶那裡得到回報。

That said, if you take a 12- to 18-month period, all of that has to get baked in. Otherwise, that's not a healthy business. But if I take a 6- to 12-month period, there is a slight lag, which is why you get some but not all of that, and you can see that in the consulting margins late last year. We expect that we'll begin to get some of that back. But if inflation remains at 10%, then you're kind of behind that but you get pricing power over the medium term there.

也就是說，如果您需要 12 到 18 個月的時間，那麼所有這些都必須融入其中。否則，這不是一項健康的業務。但如果我用 6 到 12 個月的時間，就會有輕微的滯後，這就是為什麼你得到一些但不是全部，你可以在去年年底的諮詢利潤率中看到這一點。我們希望我們會開始收回其中的一部分。但如果通貨膨脹率保持在 10%，那麼你就有點落後了，但你在中期獲得了定價權。

If I go to our technology businesses, there is a gain. There is inflation in the goods that we purchase against those. And we invest very heavily in R&D and in technology-experienced people to help our clients. So there is, again, inflation in there. There is also inflation currency rates. But it's all in, it's packaged into what I'll use the word inflation. We expect that we will not get the full inflation. If I looked at the number this morning, the U.K. was saying 10%.

如果我去我們的技術業務，就會有所收穫。我們購買的商品存在通貨膨脹。我們在研發和技術經驗豐富的人員方面投入了大量資金，以幫助我們的客戶。因此，那裡又存在通貨膨脹。還有通貨膨脹率。但這一切都包含在我將使用通貨膨脹一詞中。我們預計我們不會得到完全的通貨膨脹。如果我今天早上看這個數字，英國說的是 10%。

We may not get 10% but we will get 4% or 5% or 6%. So over 2 or 3 years, you can feather that inflation back in, which is, again, required. Otherwise, we will not be able to invest in the innovation that our clients want. And that's how we should think about it, that we are willing to sort of feather it in so that our clients don't get a sticker shock right away. But over time, that is, I think, the nature of inflation, if I remember my college economics class.

我們可能得不到 10%，但我們會得到 4%、5% 或 6%。因此，在 2 或 3 年的時間裡，您可以將通貨膨脹重新考慮在內，這同樣是必需的。否則，我們將無法投資於客戶想要的創新。這就是我們應該考慮的方式，我們願意將其納入其中，以便我們的客戶不會立即受到價格衝擊。但隨著時間的推移，我認為，通貨膨脹的本質，如果我還記得我的大學經濟學課的話。

I would just add one thing. It goes without saying as Arvind continues to coach me, pricing optimization is always a direct reflection of the value that you have and the differentiation you have within your offering portfolio overall. So we talked about the consulting side. By the way, fourth consecutive quarter of nice improvement on price margins. You're seeing that play out in the gross margin up 90 basis points.

我只想補充一件事。不用說，隨著 Arvind 繼續指導我，定價優化始終直接反映您所擁有的價值以及您在整體產品組合中的差異化。所以我們談到了諮詢方面。順便說一句，連續第四個季度價格利潤率有了很好的改善。你看到毛利率上升了 90 個基點。

But our software-based portfolio, where we do have differentiation overall, we talked about 90 days ago, right, we had some price optimization. You're seeing some of that play. And in the first quarter, probably about 1 point. For the full year, we think of our mid-single-digit model might be a couple of points. So somewhere in that ballpark, David.

但是我們基於軟件的產品組合，我們在整體上確實有差異化，我們在 90 天前談到，對，我們有一些價格優化。你正在看那齣戲。而在第一節，大概1分左右。對於全年，我們認為我們的中個位數模型可能有幾點。所以在那個球場的某個地方，大衛。

Our last question will come from Kyle McNealy with Jefferies.

我們的最後一個問題將來自 Jefferies 的 Kyle McNealy。

I wonder if you could talk a little bit about your opportunity with AI, whether you're doing anything different with your business now versus the past few years. Do you have any new stand-alone AI products that you're launching that you could use to help reaccelerate in data and AI? I know that products go across the whole business, but some reacceleration in data and AI software products would be great. And what areas of the business do you see the most near-term opportunity, whether it's end-to-end applications or foundational models or infrastructure like the Vela cloud-native supercomputer you just announced?

我想知道您是否可以談談您在 AI 方面的機會，與過去幾年相比，您現在的業務是否有所不同。您是否有正在推出的任何新的獨立 AI 產品可以用來幫助重新加速數據和 AI 的發展？我知道產品貫穿整個業務，但數據和人工智能軟件產品的一些再加速會很棒。您認為哪些業務領域近期機會最大，是端到端應用程序還是基礎模型或基礎設施，例如您剛剛宣布的 Vela 雲原生超級計算機？

Kyle, great question. I'm not sure we have an hour so I'll try to my answer into 2 or 3 minutes. So we see a lot of opportunities. You used the word foundational models. So I think that, look, just for everybody else, AI has gone through sort of 4 generations very quickly, from expert systems in the '80s and '90s, to machine learning, through about 2010, deep learning for the last decade and now this era of large language models and generative AI.

凱爾，好問題。我不確定我們有一個小時的時間，所以我會盡量在 2 或 3 分鐘內完成我的回答。所以我們看到了很多機會。您使用了基礎模型這個詞。所以我認為，對於其他人來說，AI 已經經歷了 4 代，從 80 年代和 90 年代的專家系統，到機器學習，大約在 2010 年，過去十年的深度學習和現在這個大型語言模型和生成人工智能的時代。

We believe it has a tremendous application to the B2B side of AI inside enterprises. I kind of capture it as AI for business as opposed to AI for consumers. A lot of the excitement out there is on AI for consumers, and I think it's going to be a home run for those companies that are going down that path. But there's a lot of industries where people still worry about their data. They are careful about what's used to train the data. They cannot have an answer that occasionally inserts some fiction into the answer. You need an answer that is from reliable sources only.

我們相信它在企業內部 AI 的 B2B 方面有巨大的應用。我將其理解為商業人工智能，而不是消費者人工智能。人工智能對消費者來說有很多令人興奮的地方，我認為對於那些沿著這條路走下去的公司來說，這將是一個本壘打。但在很多行業，人們仍然擔心他們的數據。他們對用於訓練數據的內容很謹慎。他們不能有一個偶爾會在答案中插入一些虛構的答案。您需要一個僅來自可靠來源的答案。

Then the second part is a lot of these techniques, what people don't realize is it takes down the cost of deploying AI. What we are seeing is that a large language model can be trained and then do 100 tasks with very minor additional training. So yes, the first training is a lot more expensive, maybe 4, 5 times. But then if you can do 100 tasks for almost no additional cost, you can see that the overall is a 4 to 5x benefit in terms of time to value and productivity.

然後第二部分是很多這樣的技術，人們沒有意識到的是它降低了部署人工智能的成本。我們看到的是，可以訓練一個大型語言模型，然後用非常少的額外訓練完成 100 個任務。所以是的，第一次培訓要貴得多，可能是 4、5 倍。但是，如果您幾乎可以在不增加成本的情況下完成 100 項任務，您會發現在實現價值的時間和生產力方面，整體收益提高了 4 到 5 倍。

So what are some examples? We did a preview of AI for ITOps around a product called Ansible. We're calling it Project Wisdom is our internal code name, but it shows that you can get 60% to 80% of the code that our IT operations person might write gets written by the AI. Well, that's a 3 to 4x productivity for that individual. That's one example.

那麼有哪些例子呢？我們圍繞名為 Ansible 的產品對 ITOps 進行了 AI 預覽。我們稱之為 Project Wisdom 是我們的內部代號，但它表明您可以獲得 60% 到 80% 的代碼，我們的 IT 運營人員可能編寫的代碼是由 AI 編寫的。那麼，對於那個人來說，這是 3 到 4 倍的生產力。那是一個例子。

Another example that we used, and you can see that play through in our customer care examples, which are multitudes, whether it's order-taking at McDonald's or CVS Health or Bradesco Bank, where we can now do 10 to 15 to 20 languages as in Spanish, French, English, German, for the cost of effectively 1 language from the past. So that shows through the speed of deployment that we can do there.

我們使用的另一個示例，您可以在我們的客戶服務示例中看到這一點，這些示例很多，無論是在麥當勞、CVS Health 還是 Bradesco Bank 接受訂單，我們現在可以使用 10 到 15 到 20 種語言，如西班牙文、法文、英文、德文，只需支付有效的 1 種過去語言的費用。因此，通過我們可以在那裡進行的部署速度表明了這一點。

The areas that we are focused on to go drive all this is customer care, IT operations, digital labor. And an example of that is what Jim talked about in our internal service centers and in cybersecurity. You'll see it come through sometimes directly, like I talked about in Wisdom, sometimes embedded with one of our software partners and sometimes as a piece of one of our products, be it our data lake products or our cybersecurity products. So in all those 3 flavors, consulting with clients, products from IBM and products with ISVs.

我們專注於推動這一切的領域是客戶服務、IT 運營、數字勞動力。 Jim 在我們的內部服務中心和網絡安全中談到的就是一個例子。你會看到它有時直接出現，就像我在 Wisdom 中談到的那樣，有時嵌入我們的軟件合作夥伴之一，有時作為我們產品的一部分，無論是我們的數據湖產品還是我們的網絡安全產品。因此，在所有這 3 種風格中，諮詢客戶、來自 IBM 的產品和來自 ISV 的產品。

So let me now wrap up the call. I hope what you took away from this discussion over the last hour is we feel very good and confident about our ability to meet client needs in this environment and our ability to deliver value to shareholders. I look forward to continuing the dialogue as we move through the year.

現在讓我結束通話。我希望你從過去一個小時的討論中得到的收穫是，我們對我們在這種環境下滿足客戶需求的能力以及我們為股東創造價值的能力感到非常滿意和自信。我期待著在我們度過這一年的過程中繼續對話。

Sheila, I'll turn it over to you to wrap up the call.

希拉，我會把它交給你來結束通話。

Thank you for participating on today's call. The conference has now ended. You may disconnect at this time.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。會議現已結束。此時您可以斷開連接。