Pearson PLC (PSO) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

(audio in progress)

（音訊進行中）

2024 interim results and strategic update. (Event Instructions)

2024 年中期業績與策略更新。（活動須知）

And with that, I'll hand over to Omar.

接下來，我將把工作交給奧馬爾。

Thank you, Jo. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today for our interim results and strategy update. I've been really looking forward to spending this time with you. We have a busy session.

謝謝你，喬。女士們、先生們，感謝你們今天加入我們，了解我們的中期業績和策略更新。我真的很期待和你一起度過這段時間。我們的會議很忙。

I'm going to kick off today by sharing my early impressions on the business, and then I'm going to hand over to Sally to break down our interim results that many of you will have already seen in our RNS this morning. Next, I'll share with you our strategy update and what it means for our business going forward. Sally will then highlight what this means for all of you financially, and then we'll move to Q&A.

今天我將首先分享我對這項業務的早期印象，然後我將交給莎莉來詳細介紹我們的中期業績，你們中的許多人今天早上已經在我們的 RNS 中看到了這一結果。接下來，我將與您分享我們的策略更新以及它對我們未來業務的意義。然後莎莉將強調這對你們所有人的財務意味著什麼，然後我們將進入問答環節。

For the first part of the conversation, it's just Sally and me. And then for the Q&A, I've asked some of our wonderful team to join us here, many of whom you've met before -- Art Valentine, Gio Giovannelli, Tom Ap Simon, Tony Prentice, Sue Kolloru, and our new face, Vishaal Gupta.

對話的第一部分，只有莎莉和我。然後，在問答環節，我邀請了一些出色的團隊成員加入我們，其中許多人您以前都見過——Art Valentine、Gio Giovannelli、Tom Ap Simon、Tony Prentice、Sue Kolloru 以及我們的新面孔，維沙爾·古普塔。

Since I last saw you for prelims in March, I've continued my listening and learning journey. I've had the pleasure of meeting hundreds and hundreds of our people, dozens of our customers, including following our sellers around with their customers. I met about 20 investors, a wide range of partners and with our Pearson executive team, we've conducted about 20 town halls around the world.

自從我上次在三月的預賽中見到你以來，我一直在繼續我的聽力和學習之旅。我很高興見到了數百名我們的員工、數十名客戶，包括追蹤我們的賣家和他們的客戶。我會見了大約 20 名投資者、廣泛的合作夥伴以及我們的 Pearson 執行團隊，我們在世界各地舉辦了大約 20 場市政廳會議。

Also, starting in early March through June, we ran a process with about 65 of our top leaders to look at every single aspect of our business. We've brought this group together physically and covered all the topics that you would expect, market, competition, customers, operations, and more. We organized the group into action teams, addressing core business performance and growth, people and culture, data, AI, and product and strategic partnerships. I have to tell you that the journey so far has been very exciting. I've learned a lot, and I continue to learn each day and working with this team has been thoroughly enjoyable.

此外，從 3 月初到 6 月，我們與大約 65 名高層領導進行了一個流程，以審視我們業務的各個方面。我們將這個團隊聚集在一起，涵蓋了您期望的所有主題：市場、競爭、客戶、營運等等。我們將團隊組成為行動團隊，解決核心業務績效和成長、人員和文化、數據、人工智慧以及產品和策略合作夥伴關係等問題。我必須告訴你，迄今為止的旅程非常令人興奮。我學到了很多東西，並且每天都在繼續學習，與這個團隊一起工作非常愉快。

Let me share a few perspectives with you on our business today. As I told you in March, Pearson does three things really well. We create and curate high-quality content in the form of learning materials and assessments. This ranges from assessment materials for surgery and missing exams to author driven content in Pearson Plus. We distribute this content primarily through digital systems such as the VUE testing system or the Pearson Connexus platform for virtual schools.

今天，我就我們的業務與大家分享一些觀點。正如我在三月告訴你的那樣，培生在三件事上做得非常好。我們以學習材料和評估的形式創建和策劃高品質的內容。範圍從手術和缺考的評估材料到 Pearson Plus 中作者驅動的內容。我們主要透過數位系統（例如 VUE 測試系統或虛擬學校的 Pearson Connexus 平台）分發此內容。

And we build and verify skills through assessments like Certiport and PDRI, capabilities like Faethm to skilled design and diagnosis and Credly for credentialing. So as you can see, Pearson offers a very diverse array of products across multiple learning and education segments, and this gives our business resilience and a range of options for future growth.

我們透過 Certiport 和 PDRI 等評估、Faethm 等用於熟練設計和診斷的能力以及用於認證的 Credly 等能力來建立和驗證技能。正如您所看到的，培生在多個學習和教育領域提供了非常多樣化的產品，這為我們的業務提供了彈性，並為未來的成長提供了一系列選擇。

Also, I've learned that under the hood, we have two distinct business models. The first is B2B services, for example, view, virtual schools, Pearson school qualifications. And the second is the software business model, for example, higher ed courseware or clinical assessments or Mondly. I find that thinking about the business in this way really helps us see many areas of value creation upside.

此外，我還了解到，在幕後，我們有兩種不同的商業模式。第一個是B2B服務，例如檢視、虛擬學校、培生學校資格。第二個是軟體商業模式，例如高等教育課件或臨床評估或 Mondly。我發現，以這種方式思考業務確實有助於我們看到許多價值創造領域的優勢。

So let me share three observations about our business. Firstly, we have five strong businesses, each with clear lines of accountability and each on a growth trajectory. I've kicked the tires on sales, sales operations, cost structure, processes, technology systems, skills and capabilities. And I can confirm, as I told you in March, that Pearson is a solid business on a solid foundation that provides a platform with many good strategic options.

因此，讓我分享關於我們業務的三點觀察。首先，我們擁有五個強大的業務，每個業務都有明確的職責範圍，並且每個業務都處於成長軌道。我對銷售、銷售營運、成本結構、流程、技術系統、技能和能力進行了嘗試。正如我在三月告訴你們的那樣，我可以確認，培生集團是一家擁有堅實基礎的堅實企業，提供了一個具有許多良好戰略選擇的平台。

As we look forward to understand future opportunity, we see that assessment and qualifications as a great operation. It is well run. It is highly trusted by customers. It scales well and is trusted in the most high-stake situations. Virtual schools has lots of potential as one of just two national players. Again, it performs an invaluable service, it is trusted and is back on a growth footing after a couple of lost customers in past years.

當我們期待了解未來的機會時，我們認為評估和資格認證是一項很好的操作。它運行得很好。深受客戶信賴。它具有良好的擴展性，並且在風險最高的情況下值得信賴。作為僅有的兩個全國性參與者之一，虛擬學校具有很大的潛力。同樣，它提供了寶貴的服務，值得信賴，並且在過去幾年失去了一些客戶後又恢復了成長。

English language learning, this is an entrepreneurial team. And notwithstanding the ups and downs of market trends, for example, in PTE, the team under Gio has responded extremely well by diving into hybrid institutional opportunities because they're on the detail, they're very focused on execution and getting results. Workforce skills, as you know, consists of two parts: the traditional strength in vocational qualifications in GED the US high school diploma equivalent is there, and it performs very well from a growth and a margin perspective.

英語學習，這是一個創業團隊。儘管市場趨勢起伏不定，例如在 PTE 領域，Gio 領導的團隊透過深入研究混合機構機會做出了非常好的反應，因為他們注重細節，非常注重執行和取得結果。如您所知，勞動力技能由兩部分組成：GED（相當於美國高中文憑）職業資格的傳統優勢，從成長和利潤的角度來看，它表現得非常好。

In the last couple of years, the company invested heavily in solutions given the clear upside potential in the world of skills and certifications. This is an area of focus for us and is why we have Vishaal Gupta, who's landed very well, thank you, Vishaal, focused on beefing up the go-to-market capability as we scale that offering. It's no secret that the Achilles heel of Pearson for the last 10 years has been US higher ed. Many of the issues were exogenous, secondary market open educational resources, piracy and enrollment swings, but some of our own making, for example, with product stability, sales team focus and innovation in the core product.

在過去幾年中，鑑於技能和認證領域明顯的上升潛力，該公司在解決方案上投入了大量資金。這是我們關注的一個領域，也是我們聘請維沙爾·古普塔(Vishaal Gupta) 的原因，他的表現非常好，謝謝你，維沙爾(Vishaal)，在我們擴大產品規模時，他專注於增強進入市場的能力。眾所周知，培生過去十年的致命弱點一直是美國高等教育。許多問題是外生的、二級市場開放的教育資源、盜版和招生波動，但也有一些問題是我們自己造成的，例如產品穩定性、銷售團隊的專注和核心產品的創新。

On the external factors, we see a significant reduction in the impact today and on the internal factors, higher ed is competitive again. This is why we're confident for a return to growth this year for the first time since 2014. I'm happy with our portfolio as it stands.

在外部因素上，我們看到今天的影響顯著減少，在內部因素上，高等教育再次具有競爭力。這就是為什麼我們對今年自 2014 年以來首次恢復成長充滿信心。我對我們目前的投資組合感到滿意。

Pearson is a unique company in a class of its own, delivering strong profitability great cash flow conversion and is diversified across customer segments and services. In fact, we're the only B2B services company serving the full breadth of K-12 and higher ed institutions and students, governments, employers and employees across a wide range of learning and education services. Each of our assets has a purpose in making us the natural home for learning and education.

培生是一家獨特的公司，具有強大的盈利能力和巨大的現金流轉換能力，並且在客戶群和服務方面實現多元化。事實上，我們是唯一一家為 K-12 和高等教育機構以及學生、政府、雇主和員工提供全方位學習和教育服務的 B2B 服務公司。我們的每一項資產都有一個目的，那就是讓我們成為學習和教育的天然家園。

Secondly, Pearson is a trusted business. As I spoke to our customers ranging from enterprise leaders to professional associations to higher ed leaders to school leaders to franchise owners. I heard over and over what people value in Pearson. First thing, this is our people and culture. They're collegiate, customer responsive and care deeply about helping learners around the world. In other words, they're strongly mission-driven, and our customers feel this.

其次，培生是一家值得信賴的企業。當我與我們的客戶交談時，他們包括企業領導者、專業協會、高等教育領導者、學校領導者和特許經營權所有者。我一遍又一遍聽到人們看重培生的價值。首先，這是我們的人民和文化。他們具有大學精神，對客戶反應迅速，並且非常關心幫助世界各地的學習者。換句話說，他們具有強烈的使命驅動性，我們的客戶也感受到了這一點。

Next is our domain industry knowledge. As I mentioned, Pearson is the home of learning and education. We're connected deeply to networks of authors, institutions, educators, policymakers, students, companies, start-ups and more, all in the space of learning and education. And these networks have resulted in several petabytes of data, high-quality leading-edge content and learning assessments and a deep insight into how people learn.

接下來是我們的領域產業知識。正如我所提到的，培生是學習和教育的搖籃。我們與學習和教育領域的作者、機構、教育工作者、政策制定者、學生、公司、新創公司等網絡建立了深入的聯繫。這些網路產生了數 PB 的數據、高品質的前沿內容和學習評估，以及對人們如何學習的深入洞察。

We also hear all the time from our customers that we are a gold standard. We're trusted by governments, professional organizations, educational institutions and companies to set standards and then carry the standards for them.

我們也經常從客戶那裡聽到我們是黃金標準。我們受到政府、專業組織、教育機構和公司的信任，可以建立標準並為他們執行標準。

Finally, about two-thirds of Pearson's business is pure assessments. Think of VUE, BTEC, Clinical, GED, Pearson Test of English, Versant, while the remaining one-third is products and services with assessments embedded. This means that our core business is assessment and verification, which is increasingly important in a world of AI because, in a world of AI, anyone can make out, they know almost anything. But at some point, we need to demonstrate skills and learning, and this is where assessments are so important.

最後，培生大約三分之二的業務是純粹的評估。想想 VUE、BTEC、Clinical、GED、Pearson Test of English、Versant，而剩下的三分之一是嵌入評估的產品和服務。這意味著我們的核心業務是評估和驗證，這在人工智慧世界中變得越來越重要，因為在人工智慧世界中，任何人都可以弄清楚，他們幾乎知道任何事情。但在某些時候，我們需要展示技能和學習成果，這就是評估如此重要的地方。

In March, we set out our strategic priorities for the year. We said that we will hit consensus numbers for 2024, and we would focus on the workforce opportunity and that will drive AI through our products and services. And we see AI as a tool that accelerates value and growth for Pearson. I'm happy to say that we're on track to meet our commitments for 2024.

三月份，我們制定了今年的戰略重點。我們表示，我們將在 2024 年達成共識，我們將重點關注勞動力機會，這將透過我們的產品和服務推動人工智慧的發展。我們將人工智慧視為加速培生價值和成長的工具。我很高興地說，我們正在兌現 2024 年的承諾。

And Sally will take you through our interim update now, where you'll see a little bit more detail on these numbers. After Sally does this, I'll get into the strategy update, but I'll expand further on workforce and AI.

莎莉現在將帶您了解我們的臨時更新，您將在其中看到有關這些數字的更多詳細資訊。在 Sally 完成此操作後，我將進入策略更新，但我將進一步擴展勞動力和人工智慧。

Over to you, Sally.

交給你了，莎莉。

Thanks, Omar, and hi, everyone.

謝謝奧馬爾，大家好。

We've delivered another good performance in the first half, with underlying sales excluding OPM up 2% and adjusted operating profit up 4% to GBP250 million. Earnings per share were flat at 25.6p, with higher net interest costs offset by the impact of the reduced share count, both predominantly due to the share buyback.

上半年，我們再次取得了良好的業績，不計 OPM 的基本銷售額增長了 2%，調整後的營業利潤增長了 4%，達到 2.5 億英鎊。每股盈餘持平於 25.6 便士，較高的淨利息成本被股票數量減少的影響所抵消，這主要是由於股票回購。

Operating cash performance was again strong, up GBP50 million from last year, with good underlying fundamentals, as well as some phasing and FX benefits. Free cash flow was also strong, up GBP77 million, given that operating cash performance and below the line reorganization costs have now fallen away.

營運現金表現再次強勁，比去年增加了 5,000 萬英鎊，基本面良好，以及一些階段性和外匯收益。鑑於營運現金績效和線下重組成本現已下降，自由現金流也很強勁，增加了 7,700 萬英鎊。

Our balance sheet remains robust with net debt at June 2024 of GBP1.2 billion, GBP0.3 billion more than last year, given the GBP500 million share buyback and dividends, which were partially offset by strong free cash flow. Reflecting our strong performance and our confidence in the outlook, we're proposing a 6% increase in the interim dividend to 7.4p.

我們的資產負債表依然強勁，截至2024 年6 月，淨負債為12 億英鎊，比去年增加3 億英鎊，因為我們進行了5 億英鎊的股票回購和股息，但強勁的自由現金流部分抵消了這些損失。為了反映我們強勁的業績和對前景的信心，我們建議將中期股息增加 6% 至 7.4 便士。

Touching on the key elements of divisional sales performance, assessments and qualifications grew 2%, with growth across VUE, clinical, and UK and international qualifications partially offset by an expected small decline in US student assessments. VUE renewed and won a number of key contracts, all of which support future pipeline growth. We're also pleased with the growth in PDRI, where we saw strong volumes across the TSA and United States Air Force contracts. We continue to expect low to mid-single-digit sales growth in A&Q for the full year.

就部門銷售業績的關鍵要素而言，評估和資格成長了 2%，其中 VUE、臨床、英國和國際資格的成長部分被美國學生評估的預期小幅下降所抵消。VUE 續約並贏得了多項重要合同，所有這些都支持未來管道的成長。我們也對 PDRI 的成長感到滿意，我們看到 TSA 和美國空軍合約的數量強勁。我們繼續預期 A&Q 全年銷售額將實現低至中個位數成長。

In virtual learning, sales decreased 8%, most of which is attributable to the final portion of the OPM ASU contract in H1 last year. Virtual schools was down 1%, reflecting the previously announced contract losses for the current academic year. We've already announced the opening of three new schools this year and a further 19 career programs, and we continue to expect virtual school sales to decline at a similar rate to 2023 in 2024 and for the division to return to growth in 2025.

在虛擬學習方面，銷售額下降了8%，其中大部分歸因於去年上半年OPM ASU合約的最後部分。虛擬學校下降了 1%，反映了先前宣布的本學年合約損失。我們已經宣布今年開設三所新學校以及另外 19 個職業項目，我們仍然預計 2024 年虛擬學校銷售額將以與 2023 年類似的速度下降，並在 2025 年恢復增長。

Higher education sales were down 2%, in line with our expectations, and there are encouraging signs of progress in HE with spring market adoption data indicating small share gains. In H1, we saw 3% growth in core text units, 2% growth in US digital subscriptions, 25% growth in Inclusive Access, and K-12 growth of 12%, given the strong adoption cycle fundamentals in that market this year.

高等教育銷售額下降 2%，符合我們的預期，高等教育領域出現了令人鼓舞的進展跡象，春季市場採用數據顯示份額小幅增長。鑑於今年該市場強勁的採用週期基本面，上半年我們看到核心文本單位增長了 3%，美國數位訂閱增長了 2%，包容性訪問增長了 25%，K-12 增長了 12%。

Pearson Plus performed well with 5 million registered users and 1.1 million paid subscriptions for the '23, '24 academic year, the latter representing 18% growth. So we continue to be confident that higher education will return to growth in the second half and for the full year. We are, of course, keeping a close eye on the FAFSA student aid situation, given the uncertainty it creates around enrollments but we currently expect any impact to be immaterial.

Pearson Plus 表現良好，23、24 學年擁有 500 萬名註冊用戶和 110 萬付費訂閱用戶，後者成長了 18%。因此，我們仍然對高等教育將在下半年和全年恢復成長充滿信心。當然，我們正在密切關注 FAFSA 的學生援助情況，因為它為入學帶來了不確定性，但我們目前預計任何影響都是無關緊要的。

Lastly, on higher ed, the usual reminder of the impact on digital growth, shifting rev rec from Q3 to Q4. English language learning grew 11% with strong growth in institutional and Mondly, partially offsetting a sales decline in PTE. We've continued to gain market share in PTE despite a market which has declined given the tightening of migration and international study in H1. The Argentina FX impact discussed at Q1 has faded as expected and will be immaterial in a full year context.

最後，在高等教育中，通常會提醒人們對數位成長的影響，將轉速記錄從第三季轉移到第四季。英語語言學習成長了 11%，機構和 Mondly 的強勁成長，部分抵消了 PTE 銷量的下降。儘管由於上半年移民和國際學習的收緊，市場有所下滑，但我們仍在繼續擴大 PTE 的市場份額。第一季討論的阿根廷外匯影響已如預期消退，並且在全年背景下並不重要。

Given the current market dynamics for PTE, we expect sales to be flat to down this year, offset by strong growth in other English language learning elements such that we continue to expect high single-digit sales growth for the division as a whole. Our market share gains in PTE and the ramp-up for Canada means we are well placed for English high-stakes testing market growth, which we expect in the medium term, given demographic projections. Workforce skills grew 6%, with strong performances in vocational qualifications, GED and Credly, driven by strong renewals.

鑑於 PTE 目前的市場動態，我們預計今年的銷售額將持平或下降，但被其他英語語言學習元素的強勁增長所抵消，因此我們繼續預計整個部門的銷售額將實現高個位數增長。我們在 PTE 市場份額的成長以及加拿大市場的成長意味著我們在英語高風險測試市場的成長方面處於有利地位，考慮到人口預測，我們預計在中期會實現這一成長。在強勁更新的推動下，勞動力技能成長了 6%，職業資格、GED 和 Credly 表現強勁。

Turning to profit, group adjusted operating profit was up 4% to GBP250 million, with the trading performance alongside net cost phasing of savings, partially offset by inflation and restructuring charges in higher education. These were always expected to be weighted to the first half. Divisionally, profits improved with the exception of virtual learning, given that highlighted impact of OPM on H1 profit in 2023.

轉向盈利，集團調整後營業利潤增長 4%，達到 2.5 億英鎊，交易業績與儲蓄淨成本分階段相結合，部分被通貨膨脹和高等教育重組費用所抵消。人們總是預期這些將被加權到上半年。從部門來看，鑑於 OPM 對 2023 年上半年利潤的影響突出，除虛擬學習外，利潤均有所改善。

We remain on track to meet the group sales, profit, tax and interest expectations I laid out at prelims. And as a reminder, every GBP0.01 movement in the FX rate equates to GBP5 million of adjusted operating profit.

我們仍有望實現我在預賽中所製定的集團銷售、利潤、稅收和利息預期。提醒一下，外匯匯率每變動 0.01 英鎊，就等於調整後營業利潤 500 萬英鎊。

So in summary, H1, we've seen sales growth, a 4% increase in profit and a GBP77 million increase in free cash flow, and we remain on track for the full-year guidance. At which point, I will hand back to Omar for our strategic update.

總而言之，上半年，我們看到了銷售成長、利潤成長 4% 以及自由現金流增加 7,700 萬英鎊，而且我們仍有望實現全年指引。屆時，我將把我們的策略更新交還給奧馬爾。

Thank you, Sally.

謝謝你，莎莉。

As I listen to our investors, I was trying to understand what are they really thinking, and what are really their really past experiences with Pearson. And at the bottom of it all, I heard essentially three questions. Firstly, can this team execute. Secondly, is this really a mid-single-digit growth company in the medium term? And thirdly, Pearson seems complex. What are the small number of things they're really going to focus on and be excellent at? These are fair questions, and I want to take you through an outside-in perspective on the company that I hope will answer these questions for you.

當我傾聽投資人的意見時，我試著去了解他們的真實想法，以及他們過去在培生集團的真實經歷。歸根結底，我基本上聽到了三個問題。首先，這個團隊能不能執行。其次，從中期來看，這真的是一家中等個位數成長的公司嗎？第三，皮爾森看起來很複雜。他們真正要關注並擅長的少數事情是什麼？這些都是公平的問題，我想帶您從外到內的角度了解這家公司，希望能為您解答這些問題。

We formed this perspective with our team of leaders from across the company who took part in our business review process, the one that I described earlier. As we share our update, we also want to show you some of the progress our teams are making with applying AI in our product suites, which is, of course, one of our strategic priorities for 2024.

我們與來自整個公司的領導團隊形成了這個觀點，他們參與了我之前描述的業務審查流程。在分享更新的同時，我們也想向您展示我們的團隊在產品套件中應用人工智慧方面取得的一些進展，這當然是我們 2024 年的策略重點之一。

This time last year, you saw a demo of AI capabilities planned for our higher ed products. We have executed against that and expanded that plan further for back-to-school. So I want to begin by just rolling one of those demos. If we could play the demo, please?

去年的這個時候，您看到了為我們的高等教育產品計劃的人工智慧功能演示。我們已經針對這一點執行了這項計劃，並進一步擴大了返校計劃。所以我想先推出其中一個演示。如果我們可以玩一下試玩版，可以嗎？

(video playing)

（影片播放）

Isn't that cool? The hand raise thing there is literally the AI is seeing what the student is seeing in real time in the video so they can interrupt it and essentially chat mid video for explanations. We'll have more on how AI is adding value to Pearson and its customers as we move through the presentation. So I'm going to begin the strategy update by giving you the six headline conclusions, and then I'm going to break each of these into more detail on the subsequent slides.

這不是很酷嗎？舉手的事情實際上是人工智慧正在看到學生在視訊中即時看到的內容，這樣他們就可以打斷它並在視訊中聊天以獲取解釋。隨著演示的進行，我們將更多地了解人工智慧如何為 Pearson 及其客戶增加價值。因此，我將透過向您提供六個主要結論來開始策略更新，然後我將在後續幻燈片中將每個結論分解為更多細節。

Firstly, there are two powerful secular trends that will power Pearson's growth over the next 10 years. And what's more, these trends sharpen why our purpose is so relevant in the world. The two large secular trends that will drive our market and Pearson's growth and the shift in demographics that are happening, and the growth in the power of AI. These increased the importance of learning, skills, verified skills, talent sourcing and talent management and serving these needs means Pearson will unlock growth and margin.

首先，有兩個強大的長期趨勢將推動培生未來十年的成長。更重要的是，這些趨勢凸顯了為什麼我們的目標在世界上如此重要。兩大長期趨勢將推動我們的市場和培生的成長、正在發生的人口結構變化以及人工智慧力量的成長。這些提高了學習、技能、經過驗證的技能、人才採購和人才管理的重要性，滿足這些需求意味著培生將釋放成長和利潤。

Next, Pearson has a very powerful way. We know that people benefit hugely from learning. People need to learn to progress in their lives, and Pearson is the world's lifelong learning company. Then we turn our attention to shareholder value creation and have four value drivers. First, our market analysis shows us that we are strong leaders in subsegments of the market that are about $15 billion in size, but that have been growing at about 2%. The markets that we're targeting going forward are $80 billion in size and grow at 5% or more.

接下來，皮爾森有一個非常強大的方法。我們知道人們從學習中受益匪淺。人們需要學習才能在生活中取得進步，而培生是全球終身學習的公司。然後我們將注意力轉向股東價值創造，並有四個價值驅動因素。首先，我們的市場分析表明，我們是規模約為 150 億美元的細分市場的強大領導者，但成長率約為 2%。我們未來的目標市場規模為 800 億美元，且成長率為 5% 或更高。

Second, as you know, Pearson has been on a journey from being a holding company to an operating company. This ongoing journey with increasing focus on organic growth and execution gives us opportunity to drive more performance from our existing five core businesses. Thirdly, we can unlock execution-based synergies from across the business units from products and services bundling, secondly, from a modern approach to software and product development, and finally, from a focus on strategic partnerships.

其次，如你所知，培生集團已經從控股公司轉變為營運公司。這段持續不斷的旅程，越來越注重有機成長和執行，使我們有機會提高現有五項核心業務的表現。第三，我們可以透過產品和服務捆綁，透過現代軟體和產品開發方法，最後透過對策略夥伴關係的關注，釋放跨業務部門基於執行的協同效應。

And the fourth shareholder value driver is that we see two important growth vectors in enterprise skills in early careers that are good adjacencies that we will focus on. I don't really want you to plug these into your models quite yet. But as we develop the work in the space, we'll keep you fully updated.

第四個股東價值驅動因素是，我們在早期職業生涯中看到企業技能的兩個重要成長向量，這是我們將重點關注的良好鄰接點。我真的不希望你將這些插入到你的模型中。但當我們在該領域開展工作時，我們會及時向您通報最新情況。

So let's double-click on each of these six elements. With our team, we started looking at the external context around us, and we broke it down into four areas. These were the macro environment, including government spending, geopolitics, consumer trends, then our own industry, where we studied the education and learning markets, ed tech, content, classroom trends. Then our competitive landscape from the traditional to the ed tech players to the range of platform businesses. And finally, we look at technology in all its forms that are relevant to learning and education.

因此，讓我們雙擊這六個元素中的每一個。我們的團隊開始關注周圍的外部環境，並將其分為四個領域。這些是宏觀環境，包括政府支出、地緣政治、消費者趨勢，然後是我們自己的行業，我們研究了教育和學習市場、教育科技、內容、課堂趨勢。然後我們的競爭格局從傳統企業到教育科技企業再到平台業務。最後，我們研究與學習和教育相關的各種形式的技術。

I won't get into all the details, but I will share with you that we've gone deep on the data in these areas and we've codified them in our Pearson fact book that our leaders now used to guide our decisions. But the two trends that emerge as the most pertinent growth drivers, the first is the demographic shift. This means that of the baby boomer generation, most are leaving in the next six years, which increases pressure on talent sourcing in already constrained markets.

我不會詳細介紹所有細節，但我將與您分享，我們已經深入研究了這些領域的數據，並且我們已將它們編入我們的Pearson 資料冊中，我們的領導者現在用它來指導我們的決策。但作為最相關的成長驅動力出現的兩個趨勢，第一個是人口結構的變化。這意味著嬰兒潮世代中的大多數人將在未來六年內離開，這增加了本已有限的市場的人才招募壓力。

The second is the fast development of ever more powerful AI models. The combination of these two trends means that CEOs today are trying hard to, firstly, find new pools of talent to access. Think, for example, of 135,000 GED graduates that we graduate in the US every year.

第二是更強大的人工智慧模型的快速發展。這兩種趨勢的結合意味著當今的執行長們首先要努力尋找新的人才庫。例如，每年有 135,000 名 GED 畢業生在美國畢業。

Secondly, work out how people skills can develop at a pace to cope with the advances in technology and AI. We already assess and certify millions of people in technology skills each year. Thirdly, they need to figure out how to design the future workforce that takes account of skills that can be automated or augmented by AI. This is a very real talent management question, and we have many of the elements needed to address this challenge.

其次，研究如何快速發展人際溝通能力，以因應科技和人工智慧的進步。我們每年已經對數百萬人進行技術技能評估和認證。第三，他們需要弄清楚如何設計未來的勞動力，考慮到可以透過人工智慧自動化或增強的技能。這是一個非常現實的人才管理問題，我們擁有應對這項挑戰所需的許多要素。

Technology, of course, continues to accelerate, and AI is the big story and will have profound implications over the next 10 years in the world of learning and education, thanks to the power of personalization with multi-modal models, even if we are in a high bubble in the short term. But coming together, these two trends challenge us to keep growing human skills at a pace that can somehow match the incredible speed of development in new technology. In the context of a workforce with fewer people who are augmented by AI. And it's this combination that creates great opportunities for Pearson in the world of work and learning.

當然，科技不斷加速發展，人工智慧是大事，它將在未來 10 年對學習和教育領域產生深遠影響，這要歸功於多模式模型的個人化力量，即使我們處於短期內泡沫較高。但這兩種趨勢結合在一起，挑戰我們不斷提高人類技能，以某種方式與新技術令人難以置信的發展速度相匹配。在人工智慧增強的勞動力較少的背景下。正是這種結合為培生在工作和學習領域創造了巨大的機會。

Now, let me turn to our purpose. We know that the minute a child is born, it starts learning. Learning is a very human trait like sleep and nutrition, learning is vital in our lives. And we know that when we learn more, we get happier, we get healthier, we live longer, and we can earn more. We know that with every extra year of education, there is a 2% reduction in mortality risk. And yet in a market like the United States, there are already 40 million adults without a high school diploma.

現在，讓我談談我們的目的。我們知道，孩子從出生的那一刻起，就開始學習。學習是一種非常人性化的特質，就像睡眠和營養一樣，學習在我們的生活中至關重要。我們知道，當我們學到更多東西時，我們會變得更快樂，我們會變得更健康，我們會活得更久，我們就能賺更多錢。我們知道，教育時間每增加一年，死亡風險就會降低 2%。然而在美國這樣的市場，已經有 4,000 萬成年人沒有高中文憑。

The world badly needs more learning, and Pearson is the world's lifelong learning company. Our people are propelled by this why and our purpose is to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. This is our way. So in addition to studying the trends, we also took a deep hard look at our market, and I want to illustrate this to you by looking at a very simplified version of the United States market. At the top level, this is a $2 trillion per annum market.

世界迫切需要更多的學習，而培生是全球終身學習的公司。我們的員工受到這個原因的推動，我們的目的是幫助人們透過學習來實現他們想像的生活。這是我們的方式。因此，除了研究趨勢之外，我們還深入研究了我們的市場，我想透過觀察一個非常簡化的美國市場來向您說明這一點。從頂層來看，這是一個每年 2 兆美元的市場。

And what our team did is we broke this along two dimensions. Firstly, the customer segments, the demand side, so think K-12, higher ed and enterprise and then the supply side, from offerings from content to tech services and solutions. This is where a lot of higher -- ed tech resides, to the actual delivery of the content and services. Exactly as you would expect, about $1.9 trillion is down to things like the physical delivery of learning in the form of teacher and facility costs. We've excluded this as not being part of the business that we want to focus on.

我們團隊所做的就是從兩個維度打破這一點。首先是客戶群、需求方，例如 K-12、高等教育和企業，然後是供應方，從內容到技術服務和解決方案。這是許多高等教育技術的所在地，用於內容和服務的實際交付。正如您所期望的那樣，大約 1.9 兆美元是由教師和設施成本等形式的實際教學費用決定的。我們已將其排除在外，因為這不是我們想要重點關注的業務的一部分。

To give you a sense, we actually broke down the supply side into approximately 35 different types of market services. And then we looked at the TAM, the growth rates and the profit trends for every cell in the matrix. Once we created our market analysis, we asked ourselves two things. Firstly, how is Pearson positioned in this particular cell in a segment today, and secondly, we asked, how are the profit pools going to move over the next few years given the trends that we've learned about that we looked at before. And it's that work that's guiding our thinking on the market segments and the adjacencies that we will focus on. As we dug into the market analysis, we found that Pearson is strongly established in segments worth about $15 billion, and they grow at about 2% per annum, and you can see those in Navy.

為了讓您有所了解，我們實際上將供應方細分為約 35 種不同類型的市場服務。然後我們查看矩陣中每個單元格的 TAM、成長率和利潤趨勢。創建市場分析後，我們問自己兩件事。首先，培生在當今細分市場的這個特定單元中如何定位，其次，我們詢問，鑑於我們之前了解的趨勢，未來幾年利潤池將如何變化。正是這項工作指導了我們對細分市場和我們將關注的鄰接領域的思考。當我們深入研究市場分析時，我們發現培生在價值約 150 億美元的細分市場中建立了牢固的地位，並且每年增長約 2%，您可以在海軍領域看到這一點。

We also identified another set of segments illustrated in light blue, where we already have presence or that provide a close adjacency to us where we're confident we can build a strong position. These segments, inclusive of our core market, are worth about $80 billion, and they collectively grow at 5% or faster. For example, three areas where we have strength and can grow further are in the areas of learning apps technology workforce content and organizational evaluations and analytics.

我們也確定了另一組以淺藍色表示的細分市場，我們已經在這些細分市場中佔有一席之地，或者與我們緊密相鄰，我們有信心能夠在這些細分市場中建立強大的地位。這些細分市場（包括我們的核心市場）價值約 800 億美元，整體成長率為 5% 或更快。例如，我們擁有優勢並可以進一步發展的三個領域是學習應用程式、技術、勞動力內容以及組織評估和分析領域。

We are establishing a new capital allocation approach internally that prioritizes these higher-growth segments over time. In other words, we will invest at a faster rate in the higher-growth segments going forward, and this will contribute to a higher, more sustained growth rate for the business over time.

我們正在內部建立一種新的資本分配方法，隨著時間的推移，優先考慮這些高成長的細分市場。換句話說，我們將在未來以更快的速度投資於高成長的細分市場，這將有助於隨著時間的推移實現更高、更持續的業務成長率。

The second conclusion that we have is that simply by focusing on organic growth and performance management, we can continue to drive value in our core five businesses. Our leaders have already done a lot of good work on the journey from holding company to operating company, driving growth and meaningful margin expansion.

我們得出的第二個結論是，只需專注於有機成長和績效管理，我們就可以繼續推動核心五項業務的價值。我們的領導者在從控股公司到營運公司的過程中已經做了很多出色的工作，推動了成長和有意義的利潤成長。

But as we discussed with our teams, just because we're fit doesn't mean we don't continue to get to the gym. Our team is focusing hard on areas ranging from sales, sales operations, go-to-market execution, process optimization, vendor consolidation, our performance culture, building more execution muscle. Specifically, we're focusing on increasing customer centricity in our work, investing in our leaders increasing clarity on our performance expectations by every role across the company and driving collaboration in pursuit of value.

但正如我們與團隊討論的那樣，僅僅因為我們身體健康並不意味著我們不再去健身房。我們的團隊專注於銷售、銷售營運、上市執行、流程優化、供應商整合、我們的績效文化、增強執行力等領域。具體來說，我們專注於在工作中提高以客戶為中心的水平，對領導者進行投資，提高公司各個角色對績效期望的明確性，並推動協作以追求價值。

Aggressive deployment of Mond technology is clearly a lever in all of this. Our teams are now working on leveraging AI to improve customer services, for example, and customer-facing chat bots, AI assistance for our agents and call transcribing, also to improve our productivity and performance and content generation and of course, in the core product suites themselves. We can see that effective deployment of technology will help us realize millions of dollars in savings over the medium term -- tens of millions of dollars of savings in the medium term.

Mond 技術的積極部署顯然是這一切的一個槓桿。我們的團隊現在正致力於利用人工智慧來改善客戶服務，例如，面向客戶的聊天機器人、為我們的座席提供人工智慧協助和通話轉錄，同時提高我們的生產力、效能和內容生成，當然還有核心產品套房本身。我們可以看到，科技的有效部署將幫助我們在中期節省數百萬美元——數千萬美元。

The beauty of these conclusions is that we see a solid route to continued performance improvement as part of our normal rhythms of business. Beyond these areas that apply across each of the five businesses, each individual business unit has its own view of how to better drive growth as they execute against our corporate strategy.

這些結論的美妙之處在於，我們看到了持續改善績效的可靠途徑，這是我們正常業務節奏的一部分。除了適用於五個業務中每一個業務的這些領域之外，每個業務部門對於如何在執行我們的公司策略時更好地推動成長都有自己的看法。

For example, an assessments and qualifications in English language learning, we see opportunity in geographic and vertical sector expansion. In higher ed, we can continue to accelerate the modernization of our courseware assets with AI. The same applies in virtual schools. In workforce skills, we see good growth opportunities in product bundling for enterprises. In further professionalization of our sales motions and our approach for cross-selling vocational and professional assessments. And as you can see, each of the divisions is increasing its investment in AI capabilities across the board.

例如，在英語語言學習的評估和資格方面，我們看到了地理和垂直部門擴張的機會。在高等教育中，我們可以繼續利用人工智慧來加速課件資產的現代化。這同樣適用於虛擬學校。在勞動力技能方面，我們看到企業產品捆綁的良好成長機會。我們的銷售動作和交叉銷售職業和專業評估方法的進一步專業化。正如您所看到的，每個部門都在全面增加對人工智慧能力的投資。

Our consumer product development teams also drive innovation into the business. For example, the AI study tools developed in Pearson Plus have been rapidly expanded across our platform portfolio so that by this fall, we will have over 60 Pearsons Plus and over 80 platform titles, featuring the latest office hours and AI study tools. These teams are also drivers of the practical synergies when it comes to building software; more on this in a moment.

我們的消費產品開發團隊也推動業務創新。例如，Pearson Plus 開發的人工智慧學習工具已在我們的平台產品組合中迅速擴展，到今年秋天，我們將擁有60 多個Pearson Plus 和80 多個平台標題，具有最新的辦公時間和人工智慧學習工具。在建立軟體方面，這些團隊也是實際協同作用的推動者；稍後會詳細介紹這一點。

And you can assume that an increasing focus on producing consumer-grade software is a key feature for our businesses going forward. So in addition to driving growth from capital allocation and driving performance in our five core businesses, we can also drive value from synergies across the business, and we're tackling these carefully, so it's to not diffuse accountability.

您可以認為，越來越注重生產消費級軟體是我們業務未來發展的關鍵特徵。因此，除了透過資本配置推動成長和推動五項核心業務的業績成長外，我們還可以透過整個業務的協同效應來推動價值，我們正在謹慎地解決這些問題，因此不會分散責任。

And the synergies fall in three distinct areas: firstly, product and service bundling. We're working on the incentive regime to make it easier for our sellers to bundle products where it makes sense. It does make sense for institutional and enterprise buyers. So we see packages like PDRI and TalentLens or TalentLens and Versant or VUE and Credly becoming increasingly meaningful as we make it easier for our buyers to buy.

協同效應體現在三個不同的領域：首先，產品和服務捆綁。我們正在製定激勵制度，以使我們的賣家更容易在有意義的地方捆綁產品。這對機構和企業買家來說確實有意義。因此，我們看到 PDRI 和 TalentLens 或 TalentLens 和 Versant 或 VUE 和 Credly 等套餐變得越來越有意義，因為我們讓買家更容易購買。

Secondly, on product development; I touched on this a little bit earlier, but with some customer-grade software, I want us to go a bit deeper here. By recognizing that, in fact, Pearson is a major software product developer, and that by simply adopting modern approaches to product design, the development and deployment, we can bring a range of revenue and margin synergies to the business. This comes from common services, common data platforms, harmonized tech stacks, tooling best practices and more. We're reviewing in detail our product processes and policies that will evolve this part of the business.

其次，關於產品開發；我之前談到過這一點，但對於一些客戶級軟體，我希望我們在這裡更深入一些。事實上，培生是一家主要的軟體產品開發商，透過簡單地採用現​​代方法進行產品設計、開發和部署，我們可以為業務帶來一系列收入和利潤協同效應。這來自通用服務、通用資料平台、協調的技術堆疊、工具最佳實踐等。我們正在詳細檢視我們的產品流程和政策，以推動這部分業務的發展。

Thirdly, strategic partnering; historically, we may be treated our vendors a little bit all in the same way without spending enough time distinguishing between transactional and more strategic relationships. This opens up possibilities in reciprocal trade, joint go-to-market and joint innovation.

第三，策略合作；從歷史上看，我們可能會以同樣的方式對待我們的供應商，而沒有花足夠的時間來區分交易關係和更具策略性的關係。這為互惠貿易、聯合進入市場和聯合創新開闢了可能性。

As we consolidate down to a smaller number of strategic partners, we can drive top and bottom-line synergies. Dave Treat, our new CTO, will be very helpful in advancing some of these agendas. We're planning on reviewing our strategic KPIs to reflect on the changes that I've been hinting at here across the business, and we'll update you on that in our prelims next year.

當我們整合到更少數量的策略夥伴時，我們可以推動營收和利潤的協同效應。我們的新任技術長 Dave Treat 將在推進其中一些議程方面提供很大幫助。我們計劃審查我們的策略 KPI，以反映我在此暗示的整個業務的變化，我們將在明年的預賽中向您通報最新情況。

Now, before I move on to talk about our medium-term growth vectors, let's look at some of the up-and-coming AI tools in English language learning, virtual schools and workforce skills. Please roll the video.

現在，在我繼續談論我們的中期成長向量之前，讓我們先來看看英語學習、虛擬學校和勞動力技能方面的一些新興人工智慧工具。請滾動視頻。

(video playing)

（影片播放）

I hope you like that one as well. Finally, in addition to the growth drivers that I've just talked about, we also do see two medium-term growth vectors that are a very good fit for Pearson. The first is early careers with tens of millions of jobs needing to be filled in the coming years. For example, we already have a gap of 511,000 roles for nursing jobs, 300,000 roles for engineering and 273,000 allied health roles in the US alone, we see a strong need for new approaches and alliances to talent development based around career and technical education, apprenticeships and partnerships with educational institutions and enterprises.

我希望你也喜歡那個。最後，除了我剛才談到的成長動力之外，我們還確實看到了兩個非常適合皮爾森的中期成長向量。第一個是早期職業生涯，未來幾年將有數千萬個工作機會需要填補。例如，僅在美國，我們就已經存在 511,000 個護理職位、300,000 個工程職位和 273,000 個專職醫療職位的缺口，我們認為迫切需要基於職業和技術教育、學徒制的人才發展新方法和聯盟以及與教育機構和企業的合作關係。

By building on our strong network of educational institutions, our unrivaled IP and existing strengths, including GED and vocational qualifications plus our relationships with enterprises, we're uniquely positioned to support both educational institutions and enterprises as AI and demo graphics reshape the future workforce.

透過建立我們強大的教育機構網絡、無與倫比的智慧財產權和現有優勢（包括GED 和職業資格以及我們與企業的關係），我們擁有獨特的優勢，可以在人工智慧和展示圖形重塑未來勞動力的過程中為教育機構和企業提供支援。

Also, enterprise skills; as you know, we made workforce a strategic priority for this year. The reason is that, that market is very significant, and Pearson has several very relevant capabilities there. Vishaal has focused on the following things: helping pre-assessed new employees, identifying high-value skills and aptitude and candidates for early careers -- learning upskilling pathways, diagnosing learning and future-proofing skills in age of AI.

此外，企業技能；如您所知，我們將勞動力作為今年的策略重點。原因是，這個市場非常重要，而培生在那裡擁有一些非常相關的能力。Vishaal 專注於以下事情：幫助預先評估新員工、識別高價值技能和能力以及早期職業的候選人——學習技能提升途徑、診斷人工智慧時代的學習和麵向未來的技能。

And finally, redesigning the future workforce, augmenting and automating away tasks, changing the nature of work in jobs, we can support employees with bundled solutions from across all of Pearson. Therefore, on the back of our market analysis, we're targeting capital allocation to faster growth areas by focusing on performance in our core business, we see opportunity for profit expansion, and we can add to this with synergies that are based on our execution orientation.

最後，重新設計未來的勞動力、增強和自動化任務、改變工作性質，我們可以透過整個 Pearson 的捆綁解決方案為員工提供支援。因此，根據我們的市場分析，我們透過專注於核心業務的業績，將資本配置到更快成長的領域，我們看到了利潤擴張的機會，並且我們可以透過基於我們執行的協同效應來增加這一點方向。

And finally, even if I said don't put it in your models, we see good room for medium-term expansion and the two growth vectors that I just spoke about. So what does this all add up to?

最後，即使我說不要將其放入模型中，我們也看到了中期擴張和我剛才談到的兩個成長向量的良好空間。那麼這一切意味著什麼呢？

Let me hand over to Sally to share our financial summary with you.

讓我請莎莉與您分享我們的財務摘要。

Thank you. I'll start by outlining the overall financials and then dive a bit deeper on cost.

謝謝。我將首先概述整體財務狀況，然後更深入地討論成本。

Of course, the group guidance I have previously given for 2024 and 2025 is consistent and still stands. As we look out to the medium term. Beyond this, we will be focusing our effort and investment, as Omar explained, on a larger aggregate market that's growing at 5% plus. So you can expect a CAGR underlying sales growth of mid-single digits.

當然，我之前給出的2024年和2025年的集團指導是一致的，仍然有效。當我們展望中期。除此之外，正如奧馬爾所解釋的那樣，我們將把我們的努力和投資集中在一個以 5% 以上的速度成長的更大的整體市場上。因此，您可以預期複合年增長率將達到中個位數的潛在銷售成長。

As we continue to drive operational improvements, we expect to be able to deliver sustained margin improvement over time that will equate to an average of 40 basis points per annum beyond 2025. And we expect to maintain strong free cash flow conversion in the region of 90% to 100% and on average across that period. The Pearson investment proposition provides diversified access to the growing learning market, strong financials and highly rated planet, people and product credentials.

隨著我們繼續推動營運改進，我們預計能夠隨著時間的推移實現持續的利潤率改善，相當於 2025 年後每年平均提高 40 個基點。我們預計該期間的平均自由現金流轉換率將維持在 90% 至 100% 左右。培生的投資主張提供了進入不斷增長的學習市場的多元化途徑、強大的財務實力以及高度評價的地球、人員和產品證書。

In terms of capital allocation, we are aligning our investment priorities around where we see the best opportunities for growth and returns. Firstly, assessments and verifications and then enterprise skills and early careers. English language learning is, of course, relevant to each of these areas of investment focus. We expect to invest both organically and inorganically, always following the disciplined approach that Omar will describe shortly.

在資本配置方面，我們正在圍繞我們看到的最佳成長和回報機會調整我們的投資重​​點。首先是評估和驗證，然後是企業技能和早期職業。當然，英語學習與每個投資重點領域相關。我們期望進行有機和無機投資，並始終遵循奧馬爾稍後將描述的嚴格方法。

We will continue to maintain a strong balance sheet by which I mean net debt-to-EBITDA of around 2x on average over time, equating approximately to the guidelines of our rating agencies. Shorter term, it will likely be somewhat lower than that as we want to have the flexibility to make selective high-returning investments to complement or accelerate growth in line with our allocation priorities.

我們將繼續保持強勁的資產負債表，我的意思是隨著時間的推移，淨債務與 EBITDA 的比率平均約為 2 倍，大約相當於我們評級機構的指導方針。短期來看，它可能會略低於這個水平，因為我們希望能夠靈活地進行選擇性高回報投資，以根據我們的分配優先事項補充或加速成長。

Our dividend policy is progressive and sustainable. And having bought back GBP1 billion of our shares in the last few years, we don't at present plan to further extend our buyback program, but we are committed to regularly reviewing this in the context of foreseeable investment opportunities and maintaining a strong but efficient balance sheet. We are also focused on continuing cost efficiency and customer experience.

我們的股利政策是漸進且可持續的。在過去幾年中，我們回購了10 億英鎊的股票，目前我們不打算進一步擴大回購計劃，但我們致力於在可預見的投資機會的背景下定期審查這一計劃，並保持強大而高效的回購計劃。我們也專注於持續的成本效率和客戶體驗。

Our last AI demo demonstrates some of the early ways we are using the strategies this technology enables.

我們的最後一個人工智慧演示展示了我們使用該技術所支援的策略的一些早期方法。

(video playing)

（影片播放）

So let me expand on this. We've identified a number of technology-enabled initiatives, which we expect to unlock tens of billions of pounds of savings over the medium term. Initially, those savings will be offset by our restructuring cost. But as these pay back, they will enable us to further invest in the opportunities Omar has highlighted to drive future growth.

讓我對此進行擴展。我們已經確定了許多技術支援的舉措，我們預計這些舉措將在中期節省數百億英鎊。最初，這些節省的費用將被我們的重組成本所抵銷。但隨著這些回報的回報，它們將使我們能夠進一步投資於奧馬爾所強調的推動未來成長的機會。

You saw what we're doing in customer services and content in the video. In addition to this, our technology teams will continue to consolidate the services used across our business units to remove duplication and ensure the highest quality security.

您在影片中看到了我們在客戶服務和內容方面所做的工作。除此之外，我們的技術團隊將繼續整合我們業務部門所使用的服務，以消除重複並確保最高品質的安全性。

We will choose partners who use the latest technologies to reduce outsourced costs as well as enhanced trading balance. And the improved product design processes and tools, Omar discussed, will enhance our consumer-grade product as well as reducing the related cost base. These initiatives will drive better operational performance, improved customer experience and enhanced productivity.

我們將選擇使用最新技術的合作夥伴，以降低外包成本並增強貿易平衡。奧馬爾表示，改進的產品設計流程和工具將增強我們的消費級產品並降低相關成本基礎。這些措施將推動更好的營運績效、改善客戶體驗並提高生產力。

Now, back to Omar to close this out.

現在，回到奧馬爾來結束這個話題。

Thank you, Sally. Hopefully, this gives you a good sense of how we're thinking about our capital structure and future financial posture. I want to dig into the one area that Sally touched on here on M&A.

謝謝你，莎莉。希望這能讓您更了解我們如何考慮我們的資本結構和未來的財務狀況。我想深入探討莎莉在這裡談到的併購領域。

In our leadership team, we're being very, very clear about the criteria under which we may consider acquisitions. Firstly, we will strongly prefer deals that are part of a pre-agreed strategy. Next, we expect our teams to originate thoughtfully and build up solid pipelines of possible deals over time. In other words, we will be proactive.

在我們的領導團隊中，我們非常非常清楚我們考慮收​​購的標準。首先，我們強烈青睞屬於預先商定策略一部分的交易。接下來，我們希望我們的團隊深思熟慮，並隨著時間的推移建立穩固的潛在交易管道。換句話說，我們將採取主動。

Deals need to have very clear synergies with our core business. Synergies can be capability extensions that bring us into a new area or perhaps that may extend our reach on to newer markets. Very important for me. We're very mindful of who can do an acquisition. This means landing deals in areas with a track record of past success. And finally, it has to be a good deal at a good price. If one steps back, we can see that Pearson is rapidly evolving.

交易需要與我們的核心業務產生非常明顯的綜效。協同效應可以是能力的擴展，將我們帶入一個新的領域，或者可能將我們的觸角擴展到新的市場。對我來說非常重要。我們非常關注誰可以進行收購。這意味著在具有過去成功記錄的領域達成交易。最後，它必須以優惠的價格進行交易。如果退一步，我們可以看到培生正在迅速發展。

Once upon a time, it was a holding company with a set of loosely held assets where the company moved in and out of different markets. Now, we're a unified operating company with very clear higher-growth addressable markets with a capital allocation approach focused on assessment and verifications, early careers and enterprise skills.

曾幾何時，它是一家控股公司，擁有一系列鬆散持有的資產，公司進出不同的市場。現在，我們是一家統一運作的公司，擁有非常明確的高成長目標市場，其資本分配方法專注於評估和驗證、早期職業生涯和企業技能。

As you can see, the analog publishing business is a very small part of our current and future business. And the company today is a digital learning and assessment company. It serves its customers through convenient, usable and AI-powered platforms. Our company is well focused with 80% of our revenues coming from the US and the UK, and we're moving quickly from a legacy culture to a more modern one oriented on execution and high performance.

正如您所看到的，模擬出版業務僅占我們當前和未來業務的一小部分。今天的公司是一家數位學習和評估公司。它透過方便、可用且由人工智慧驅動的平台為客戶提供服務。我們公司非常專注，80% 的收入來自美國和英國，我們正在迅速從傳統文化轉向注重執行和高性能的更現代文化。

So to wrap up, Pearson is the world's lifelong learning company. We have 17,000 people who are exceptionally focused on this mission and on helping individuals realize the life they imagine through learning. We have a strong core business in the world of learning and education, through our assessments and verification strength, which is the bulk of our business. And we can grow value around this core through organic business performance, targeted capital allocation and disciplined M&A. And in the medium term, our growth is fueled by the two secular trends of the demographic shift and the expansion of AI, which drive demand in our two natural adjacencies of early careers and enterprise skills.

總而言之，培生是一家全球終身學習公司。我們有 17,000 名員工，他們特別專注於這項使命，致力於幫助個人透過學習實現他們想像的生活。透過我們的評估和驗證實力，我們在學習和教育領域擁有強大的核心業務，這是我們業務的主體。我們可以透過有機的業務績效、有針對性的資本配置和嚴格的併購來圍繞這一核心增加價值。從中期來看，我們的成長是由人口變化和人工智慧擴張這兩個長期趨勢所推動的，這兩個趨勢推動了我們對早期職業和企業技能這兩個自然相鄰領域的需求。

We're allocating capital in the United States to a large market of $80 billion that grows at 5% or more, and we're committed to growing at mid-single-digit underlying sales CAGR, while also driving margin expansion of at least 40 bps on average per annum. You can put those in your models. And we're making this happen through a capital allocation approach targeted against this strategy, a deep focus on product innovation and an increased execution orientation through our performance culture.

我們將在美國的資本分配給一個規模達800 億美元、成長率為5% 或以上的大市場，我們致力於以中等個位數的基本銷售額複合年增長率成長，同時推動利潤率至少成長40每年平均 bps。您可以將它們放入您的模型中。我們正在透過針對此策略的資本分配方法、對產品創新的深度關注以及透過我們的績效文化增強執行導向來實現這一目標。

We're well advanced with our 2024 priorities with progress on our numbers on AI and on workforce. For the coming years, we're focused on a small number of growth areas with a clear path to sustain growth with a leadership team that is oriented on execution.

我們在 2024 年優先事項方面取得了很大進展，在人工智慧和勞動力方面取得了進展。未來幾年，我們將重點放在少數成長領域，並透過以執行為導向的領導團隊來維持成長的明確路徑。

With that, let's go to Q&A. Hey Jo, any questions coming through?

接下來，讓我們進入問答環節。嘿，喬，有什麼問題嗎？

I think we might have one question on the line.

我想我們可能有一個問題要問。

I don't know if you can hear me, it's Tom from Citi. I had a few sort of questions if it was okay actually. First one, on adoption share, which obviously you flag has ticked up. But I'm just interested in whether you could give some qualitative commentary on whether that's a function of AI investments that you've already done and the trials in place. Or is it a function of primarily the sort of change in approach for the sales force?

我不知道你是否聽得到我的聲音，我是花旗銀行的湯姆。我有一些問題，如果實際上可以的話。第一個是關於採用份額，顯然您標記的比例已經上升。但我只是感興趣，你是否可以就這是否是你已經完成的人工智慧投資和正在進行的試驗的一個功能給出一些定性評論。還是這主要是銷售人員方法改變的結果？

I'm just trying to work out whether it's a -- I'd say, whether the AI effect is already kicking in or it's a down payment, if that's sort of -- we're putting it on AI investment or whether the AI effect on adoption is yet to come? That was the first question.

我只是想弄清楚，我想說的是，人工智慧的影響是否已經開始顯現，或者是首付，如果是這樣的話——我們將其投入人工智慧投資，或者人工智慧是否已經發揮作用。影響尚未到來？這是第一個問題。

And then secondly, on AI, actually, I think it was as long ago as 12 months ago, you did talk about sort of interest in sort of -- from third parties in sort of licensing content of you've got data sort of coming out of the platforms that you operate. I'm just interested in your philosophy towards licensing data whether you're just completely against it in all instances or whether it could form part of the approach with respect to sort of strategic partnerships. Those are the two questions I've got.

其次，關於人工智慧，實際上，我認為早在 12 個月前，您確實談到了第三方對授權內容的興趣，您已經獲得了即將到來的數據從您運營的平台中。我只是對您對許可資料的理念感興趣，無論您在所有情況下都完全反對它，還是它是否可以構成某種策略合作夥伴關係方法的一部分。這是我的兩個問題。

Well, Tom, thank you very much. On the adoption share, I'm going to pick on Tom here. It's true, and you're right to ask us the question because over the years, perhaps we've landed some surprises in that sense that none of us wanted. I don't think we would have come out this strongly and said about our confidence about higher ed coming back to growth had we not really sort of double clicked on what's going on in the operation in that market.

嗯，湯姆，非常感謝你。關於收養份額，我要在這裡挑選湯姆。這是真的，你問我們這個問題是對的，因為多年來，也許我們已經得到了一些我們都不想要的驚喜。如果我們沒有真正了解該市場的運作情況，我認為我們不會如此強烈地表達我們對高等教育恢復成長的信心。

But I'll let Tom comment a bit on what he's seeing in the adoption share space and what we believe is behind it.

但我會讓湯姆評論一下他在採用共享空間中看到的情況以及我們認為背後的原因。

Yes, sure. Thanks, Omar. So Tom, a great question. So from an adoption market share perspective, that was an output for to got out, I would say that this is not really a function of any of the AI yet. This is a function of just the improvements we put in place in terms of the sales force in terms of product stability in terms of go-to-market coverage in terms of the general manager operating model. So we've got much more specific plans in math and science business and economics, vocational or professional.

是的，當然。謝謝，奧馬爾。湯姆，這是一個很好的問題。因此，從採用市場份額的角度來看，這是一個需要退出的輸出，我想說這還不是任何人工智慧的真正功能。這只是我們在銷售團隊、產品穩定性、市場覆蓋率、總經理營運模式所進行的改進的結果。因此，我們在數學和科學、商業和經濟、職業或專業方面有更具體的計劃。

What was pleasing about the market share improvements was it within two years, is in full year. It was across all of the major portfolios. So we were really pleased with the first half performance. And although we've been pushing our CRO, it was all delivered without any of the new AI-related features, which are coming out this fall. So I'm hopeful that that will continue to bode well for a really strong fall.

令人高興的是市場份額的提高是在兩年內，是全年。它涉及所有主要投資組合。所以我們對上半場的表現非常滿意。儘管我們一直在推動 CRO，但它在交付時並沒有任何與人工智慧相關的新功能，這些功能將於今年秋天推出。因此，我希望這將繼續預示著真正強勁的下跌。

So in short, not much AI in the numbers, product stability, high-quality sales, better quality sales operations and the new operating model leading to dividends.

簡而言之，人工智慧的數量不多，產品穩定，銷售品質高，銷售營運品質更好，以及帶來紅利的新營運模式。

But also kudos to Tom and the team for leaning into the innovation with the AI -- in the product set, which we're getting great anecdotal feedback from our students and professors that they love it, and it really helps them, and our sellers are commenting on how that helps them with win rates, which is just fantastic.

但也要讚揚湯姆和團隊在產品集中致力於人工智慧創新，我們從學生和教授那裡得到了很好的軼事反饋，他們喜歡它，這確實對他們和我們的賣家有幫助正在評論這如何幫助他們提高勝率，這真是太棒了。

Tom, on your second question regarding AI and licensing, let me give you a synopsis. So of course, as we've said before, Pearson sits on an enormous amount of high-quality curated professionally developed data, several petabytes worth of data as it happens. And indeed, if you're trying to build a very accurate LLM, our data is valuable. And as you suspect, all the characters in the West Coast and beyond have approached us about various licensing agreements.

Tom，關於你關於人工智慧和許可的第二個問題，讓我給你一個概要。當然，正如我們之前所說，Pearson 擁有大量高品質、精心策劃的專業開發數據，這些數據價值達數 PB。事實上，如果您想建立一個非常準確的法學碩士，我們的數據是有價值的。正如您所懷疑的那樣，西海岸及其他地區的所有人物都曾就各種許可協議與我們接洽。

I'm not against it. I just don't think that licensing needs to be our primary strategy. It's a kind of a one-off thing where you trade IP for money. Our value comes from bringing the great content with our knowledge of learning science baked into the learning pathways in our platforms with AI modules along the lines that you saw earlier in the demonstrations, packaged together in a piece of courseware that really helps students or professors attain the outcomes there after.

我並不反對。我只是認為許可不需要成為我們的主要策略。這是一種用智慧財產權換取金錢的一次性行為。我們的價之後的結果。

That is very valuable. But rest assured, in fact, I just spent a week out in Palo Alto a couple of weeks back, met all the key characters across the businesses. These companies want to work with Pearson. They see us as a leader in the world of education and learning. And so we'll, of course, double down on those relationships going forward.

這是非常有價值的。但請放心，事實上，幾週前我剛剛在帕洛阿爾托度過了一周，並會見了各企業的所有關鍵人物。這些公司希望與培生合作。他們將我們視為教育和學習領域的領導者。因此，我們當然會加倍努力發展這些關係。

Anyone else coming up on the platform, Jo?

喬，還有其他人出現在這個平台上嗎？

No.

不。

Okay. Thank you. well, just to say everyone, thank you so much for coming in and dialing into our call, spending time with us. We appreciate it very much indeed. Thanks to the team for all the great work that we're doing and looking forward to seeing you back, I guess, in the October timeframe.

好的。謝謝。好吧，我想對大家說，非常感謝您撥打我們的電話，與我們共度時光。我們確實非常感謝。感謝團隊所做的所有出色工作，我想，期待在 10 月見到您回來。

So take care, everyone. Thank you.

所以大家要保重。謝謝。