SoundHound AI Inc (SOUN) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

內容摘要

  1. 摘要
    • Q4 營收 5,510 萬美元,年增 59%;全年營收 1.69 億美元,年增 99%;所有獲利指標均有改善,Q4 non-GAAP 淨損 730 萬美元,non-GAAP EPS -0.02 美元。
    • 2026 年營收指引為 2.25 億至 2.6 億美元,預期全年持續強勁成長,長期目標為 70%+ 毛利率、30%+ EBIT margin。
    • Q4 簽下超過 100 筆客戶合約,客戶分布多元,無單一客戶貢獻超過 10% 營收;公司現金部位 2.48 億美元、無負債。
  2. 成長動能 & 風險
    • 成長動能:
      • AI 市場需求強勁,生成式 AI、agentic AI、voice AI 已成企業客戶基本需求。
      • Q4 簽約數創新高,橫跨汽車、電信、運動品牌、醫療、金融、保險、零售等多元產業,全球布局擴大。
      • 汽車領域持續突破,新增日本、韓國、義大利、中國、越南等 OEM 客戶,並推動 Voice Commerce 生態系。
      • 企業 AI 平台推動客戶自動化,提升 containment rate,帶動 upsell 與續約時價格提升。
      • 自有技術(如 Polaris 語音模型)與多元 AI 模型整合能力,提供客戶最佳解決方案,強化競爭護城河。
    • 風險:
      • 產業競爭激烈,來自大型 LLM 供應商與新創對手的威脅持續存在。
      • 高比例的股權激勵(stock-based comp)造成稀釋壓力,市場對此敏感。
      • 部分低毛利合約需持續優化或淘汰,短期內毛利率提升仍需觀察。
  3. 核心 KPI / 事業群
    • 汽車月活躍用戶(MAU):Q4 年增超過 50%,雲端語音查詢量年增約 75%。
    • IoT & 智慧裝置語音查詢量:規模大於汽車領域,持續強勁成長。
    • 餐飲事業群:Q4 處理訂單通話首次突破 900 萬通,年增雙位數百分比。
    • 企業 AI 平台 containment rate 創新高,多數 inbound 互動無需人工介入,部分用戶 containment 超過 90%。
    • 總查詢量:每月已達數十億次,較上市初期成長 12 倍。
  4. 財務預測
    • 2026 年營收預估區間為 2.25 億至 2.6 億美元,全年預期持續強勁成長。
    • 長期毛利率目標為 70% 以上,短期內 non-GAAP 毛利率 Q4 為 61%。
    • 資本支出(CapEx)未具體揭露。
  5. 法人 Q&A
    • Q: 在多產業快速擴張下,部署與客戶服務能力是否感到吃緊?
      A: AI 技術進步讓部署、開發速度加快,所需人力與資源反而下降,能有效跟上需求成長。
    • Q: 續約過程中有無價格調整或 upsell?
      A: 續約時多為升級 agentic 解決方案,通常伴隨價格提升與更大用量承諾,containment rate 提升也帶動收入增加。
    • Q: 大型 LLM 供應商可能直接切入市場,對企業 AI 業務的耐久性有何看法?
      A: AI 自動化趨勢反而帶來追求自動化的客戶,SoundHound 能利用 AI 加速交付,並整合多家大廠與自家模型,維持競爭優勢。
    • Q: 2026 年投資與營運效率規劃?EBITDA margin 是否會改善?
      A: 將持續投資於成長與創新,但隨規模擴大,預期營運槓桿提升,EBITDA margin 年年改善,逐步邁向損益兩平。
    • Q: 2026 年財測是否包含未來 M&A?股權激勵政策如何因應市場稀釋疑慮?
      A: 財測未納入未來潛在 M&A,僅反映現有業務與 pipeline。股權激勵會持續審慎控管,隨規模擴大預期佔比下降,但仍重視全員持股文化。

完整原文

使用警語:中文譯文來源為 Google 翻譯,僅供參考,實際內容請以英文原文為主

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Good day, everyone. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SoundHound Q4 2025 earnings conference call.

    大家好。感謝您的耐心等待。歡迎參加 SoundHound 2025 年第四季財報電話會議。

  • (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

    (操作人員指示)請注意,今天的會議正在錄音。

  • I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Scott Smith, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

    現在我謹將會議交給今天的第一位發言人,投資者關係主管史考特史密斯。請繼續。

  • Scott Smith - Head - Investor Relations

    Scott Smith - Head - Investor Relations

  • Good afternoon and thank you for joining our fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 conference call.

    下午好,感謝各位參加我們2025年第四季及全年業績電話會議。

  • With me today is our CEO, Keyvan Mohajer; and our CFO, Nitesh Sharan.

    今天陪同我的是我們的執行長 Keyvan Mohajer 和我們的財務長 Nitesh Sharan。

  • We will begin with some short remarks before moving to Q&A.

    在進入問答環節之前,我們將先作一些簡短的發言。

  • We'd also like to remind everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements on this call. Actual results could differ materially from those suggested by our forward-looking statements.

    我們也要提醒大家,我們將在本次電話會議上發表一些前瞻性聲明。實際結果可能與我們前瞻性聲明中暗示的結果有重大差異。

  • Please refer to our filings with the SEC for a detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could affect our business and for discussion statements that qualify as forward-looking statements.

    有關可能影響我們業務的風險和不確定性的詳細討論,以及構成前瞻性陳述的討論性聲明,請參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。

  • In addition, we may discuss certain non-GAAP measures.

    此外,我們可能也會討論一些非GAAP指標。

  • Please refer to today's press release for more detailed financial results and further details on the definitions, limitations, and uses of those measures and reconciliations from GAAP to non-GAAP.

    有關更詳細的財務業績以及這些指標的定義、限制和用途以及從 GAAP 到非 GAAP 的調節的更多詳細信息,請參閱今天的新聞稿。

  • Also note that the forward-looking statements on this call are based on information available to us as of today's date. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

    另請注意,本次電話會議中的前瞻性陳述均基於截至今日我們所掌握的資訊。除法律要求外,我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性聲明的義務。

  • Finally, this call is being audio webcast in its entirety on our Investor Relations website. An audio replay will be available, following today's call.

    最後,本次電話會議將在我們的投資者關係網站上進行全程音訊網路直播。今天的電話會議結束後,將提供音訊回放。

  • With that, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Keyvan Mohajer. Please go ahead, Keyvan.

    接下來,我將把電話交給我們的執行長凱文·莫哈傑爾。請繼續,凱文。

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Thank you, Scott. Thank you to everyone for joining the call today.

    謝謝你,斯科特。感謝各位今天參加電話會議。

  • 2025 was a record year for SoundHound, nearly doubling our revenue, year over year. We also had a record fourth quarter.

    2025 年是 SoundHound 創紀錄的一年,收入幾乎比前一年翻了一番。我們第四季也創下了紀錄。

  • Revenue was up 59%, while all key profit metrics improved.

    營收成長59%,所有關鍵利潤指標均有所改善。

  • We broke another record in Q4. We signed over 100 customer deals, making it our biggest quarter yet. We won across different industries in a variety of regions. Just to name a few:

    我們在第四季又打破了一項紀錄。我們簽署了超過 100 份客戶合同,這是我們迄今為止業績最好的一個季度。我們在不同行業、不同地區都取得了成功。僅舉幾例:

  • We signed a new prominent automotive logo in Japan to use our AI assistant with a seven-digit unit commitment.

    我們與日本一家知名汽車公司簽署了一份新的汽車標誌合作協議,承諾使用我們的人工智慧助手,訂單金額達七位數。

  • In the US, we signed a multiyear deal with one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world to use our technology.

    在美國,我們與全球最大的電信公司之一簽署了一項多年協議,使用我們的技術。

  • We signed a multiyear global deal with one of the largest athletic shoes and apparel companies to power their AI customer service.

    我們與一家全球最大的運動鞋服公司簽署了一項多年期全球協議,為其人工智慧客戶服務提供支援。

  • We closed deals with healthcare providers, universities, insurance companies, financial institutions, e-commerce merchants, retail, military, and many more.

    我們與醫療服務提供者、大學、保險公司、金融機構、電子商務商家、零售商、軍方等眾多機構達成了合作協議。

  • Our execution with channel partners was also exceptional, with multiple seven-figure deals in 2025.

    我們與通路夥伴的合作執行也非常出色,在 2025 年達成了多項七位數的交易。

  • I'll dive into other business highlights specific to Q4 shortly. But, first, I wanted to touch on a few recent market dynamics.

    稍後我將深入探討第四季的其他業務亮點。但首先,我想談談最近的一些市場動態。

  • The power of AI is disrupting traditional software and services companies. This is creating further tailwinds for SoundHound.

    人工智慧的力量正在顛覆傳統的軟體和服務公司。這將為 SoundHound 的發展創造更多有利條件。

  • In this inevitable AI transformation, companies need a partner like SoundHound to help them rapidly reinvent themselves. We partner with our customers to overcome their challenges and achieve their ambitions, creating incredible end-user experiences for their employees and customers.

    在這場不可避免的人工智慧變革中,企業需要像 SoundHound 這樣的合作夥伴來幫助他們快速重塑自我。我們與客戶攜手合作,克服他們的挑戰,實現他們的目標,為他們的員工和客戶創造卓越的終端用戶體驗。

  • With the exponential advances in AI, we believe we are entering a new era where companies with deep tech and data moats will create the most value. This makes SoundHound very well positioned, with decades of deep-tech innovation and data accumulation.

    隨著人工智慧的指數級發展,我們相信我們正在進入一個新時代,在這個時代,擁有深厚技術和數據護城河的公司將創造最大的價值。憑藉數十年的深科技創新和數據積累,SoundHound 佔據了非常有利的地位。

  • SoundHound AI was founded with a mission to deliver voice and conversational AI experiences that are deeply integrated into user environments and deliver value where it matters most. This early vision now positions us perfectly for the agentic AI revolution we are seeing today.

    SoundHound AI 的創立使命是提供與用戶環境深度整合的語音和對話式 AI 體驗,並在最關鍵的地方創造價值。這一早期遠見使我們完美地迎接了今天我們所看到的智慧人工智慧革命。

  • We believe our agentic platform is the only solution that is ready to be deployed across a multitude of vertical use cases; and a huge and growing range of touch points and modalities, from call centers to cars, robots, phones, apps, TVs, and websites, all with a unified AI agent framework. This means that our customers can build an agent once and deploy it anywhere.

    我們相信,我們的代理平台是唯一能夠部署到眾多垂直應用場景的解決方案;並且能夠涵蓋廣泛且不斷增長的接觸點和模式,從呼叫中心到汽車、機器人、手機、應用程式、電視和網站,所有這些都基於統一的 AI 代理框架。這意味著我們的客戶只需建置一次代理,即可部署到任何地方。

  • At SoundHound, we offer the best models and innovation, regardless of where they come from. We can give customers access to big-tech models, emerging models, other third-party models, as well as SoundHound's own models that consistently outperform big-tech players.

    SoundHound 致力於提供最好的產品和創新技術,無論它們來自哪裡。我們可以讓客戶接觸到大型科技公司的模型、新興模型、其他第三方模型,以及 SoundHound 自己的模型,這些模型始終優於大型科技公司的產品。

  • With us, our customers will have access to the latest and greatest technologies as fast as they become available.

    選擇我們,我們的客戶將能夠第一時間獲得最新、最先進的技術。

  • Because of our deep expertise in conversational AI, we are able to optimize our own technologies to meet customer needs. This ranges from offering Polaris, our custom speech recognition foundation model, to our unique method of arbitrating the conversation across on-device, cloud, on-premise, and even human-augmented services.

    憑藉我們在對話式人工智慧領域的深厚專業知識,我們能夠優化自身技術以滿足客戶需求。這包括提供我們客製化的語音辨識基礎模型 Polaris,以及我們獨特的跨裝置、雲端、本地甚至人工增強服務進行對話仲裁的方法。

  • This combination of capabilities is the foundation of our unique and differentiated agentic-plus framework, which blends agentic, deterministic, and human-assisted understanding, representing the full mix of what our customers want.

    這種能力的結合是我們獨特且差異化的智能體+框架的基礎,它融合了智能體、確定性和人類輔助理解,代表了我們客戶想要的全部組合。

  • In addition, SoundHound has a massive amount of data and has processed billions of interactions over the years across all major global languages, supported by having a physical presence in multiple markets and geographies. This allows us to compete and win against big tech, while new players are faced with the traditional limitations of scale and reach we've long since overcome.

    此外,SoundHound 擁有大量數據,多年來處理了數十億次互動,涵蓋所有主要全球語言,並在多個市場和地區設有實體機構。這使我們能夠與大型科技公司競爭並取得勝利,而新進入者則面臨著我們早已克服的規模和覆蓋範圍方面的傳統限制。

  • With those considerations in mind, we believe SoundHound is the strongest bet in an ever-changing world of AI evolution.

    考慮到這些因素,我們認為在瞬息萬變的人工智慧發展世界中,SoundHound 是最穩健的選擇。

  • We recently previewed our Agentic platform to public audiences. They were blown away.

    我們最近向公眾展示了我們的 Agentic 平台。他們都被震撼了。

  • The Consumer Technology Association, the body that organizes CES, consistently calls our tech as an example of one of the most exciting trends at the whole show.

    CES 的組織機構—消費科技協會一直稱我們的科技是整個展會上最令人興奮的趨勢之一。

  • Our customers agree. We are proud to navigate this exciting and dynamic period by their side.

    我們的客戶也同意這一點。我們很榮幸能與他們一起度過這段激動人心、充滿活力的時期。

  • Here are some proof points, as I highlight, some of the many wins in this quarter alone.

    以下是一些證明要點,正如我所強調的,光是本季就取得了許多成就。

  • In Automotive, besides the Japanese OEM previously mentioned, other notable customer wins include a new Korean OEM with a global footprint, an iconic Italian manufacturer of high-performance luxury sports cars, as well as a Chinese and Vietnamese manufacturer.

    在汽車領域,除了前面提到的日本 OEM 之外,其他值得注意的客戶還包括一家具有全球影響力的韓國 OEM、一家標誌性的義大利高性能豪華跑車製造商,以及一家中國和一家越南製造商。

  • We also signed our first two-wheeler and have seen strong interest from at least a half dozen other OEMs.

    我們還簽下了第一份兩輪車訂單,並且至少有六家其他汽車製造商表現出了濃厚的興趣。

  • Stellantis also expanded further, with the adoption of live generative AI capabilities for real-time responses.

    Stellantis 也進一步擴展了其功能,採用了即時生成式人工智慧技術來實現即時回應。

  • We added an Italian commercial truck company, which will offer SoundHound voice assistant to its wide range of vehicles.

    我們新增了一家義大利商用卡車公司,該公司將在其各種車型中提供 SoundHound 語音助理。

  • We also signed a multiyear renewal with one of the largest American automobile manufacturers to deploy our enterprise AI solutions.

    我們還與美國最大的汽車製造商之一簽署了多年續約協議,以部署我們的企業級人工智慧解決方案。

  • In Voice Commerce, coming off a successful CES, we are seeing lots of momentum. Thanks to our deep penetration in Restaurants, this highly anticipated solution is quickly advancing to go live in the US, with a prominent German automotive OEM.

    在語音商務領域,繼CES展會成功之後,我們看到了強勁的發展動能。由於我們在餐飲業的深厚滲透,這項備受期待的解決方案正在迅速推進,即將在美國上線,合作方是一家知名的德國汽車OEM廠商。

  • The list of engaged OEMs is growing rapidly. We are now starting to see early signs of the flywheel effect taking shape.

    參與合作的原始設備製造商名單正在迅速增長。我們現在開始看到飛輪效應的早期跡象正在形成。

  • In January, we also unveiled our fully agentic voice platform for in-vehicle and on-TV commerce; and showcased a leading smart TV manufacturer and a national pizza restaurant working together, seamlessly. The solution is expected to go live later this year.

    1 月,我們還推出了用於車載和電視商務的全智慧語音平台;並展示了一家領先的智慧電視製造商和一家全國連鎖披薩餐廳無縫合作的案例。該方案預計將於今年稍晚上線。

  • We are quickly building out an ecosystem well beyond food ordering from the car or TV with Parkopedia and OpenTable partnerships announced in Q4; and further plans to extend to events and travel booking very soon.

    我們正在迅速建立一個遠超在車內或電視上訂餐的生態系統,第四季度宣布與 Parkopedia 和 OpenTable 建立合作關係;併計劃很快將業務擴展到活動和旅行預訂領域。

  • In Restaurants, our voice-inside solution is seeing high demand, with a number of top 25 restaurant chains signing up to collect data for drive-thru efficiency.

    在餐飲業,我們的店內語音解決方案需求量很大,排名前 25 的多家連鎖餐廳已簽約收集數據,以提高得來速效率。

  • Panda Express also expanded into dozens more locations, while Casey's General Store agreed to a multiyear renewal and added Smart Answering to handle non-food ordering calls.

    熊貓快餐也擴展到了數十個新地點,而凱西便利商店同意續簽多年合同,並增加了智能應答系統來處理非食品訂購電話。

  • We had franchise wins with both IHOP and Jersey Mike's.

    我們曾成功拿下 IHOP 和 Jersey Mike's 的特許經營權。

  • In Retail and Consumer Goods, we signed one of the fastest-growing global health clubs in the US and a multi-hundred unit personal care company to adopt our outbound innovative automated solution for customer retention campaigns.

    在零售和消費品領域,我們與美國發展最快的全球健身俱樂部之一以及一家擁有數百家門市的個人護理公司簽約,採用我們創新的自動化外呼解決方案來開展客戶留存活動。

  • For managing inbound calls, we signed two non-profit organizations; one that has a large network of thrift stores and another one with a large number of fitness and health locations.

    為了管理來電,我們與兩家非營利組織簽約;一家擁有龐大的舊貨店網絡,另一家擁有大量的健身和健康場所。

  • In Enterprise AI, we signed a record number of deals across various solutions and verticals, including:

    在企業人工智慧領域,我們簽署了涵蓋各種解決方案和垂直行業的創紀錄數量的交易,其中包括:

  • In financial services, a New York-based global financial services platforms company, a large American multinational payment card services corporation, and BNP Paribas;

    在金融服務領域,一家總部位於紐約的全球金融服務平台公司、一家大型美國跨國支付卡服務公司和法國巴黎銀行;

  • In healthcare, an eyewear and optical retailer, which operates or manages over 700 stores in 40 US states, an independent healthcare practice that supports more than 1,300 locations in 45 states, and a Virginia-based healthcare and wellness services with over 80 health care facilities;

    在醫療保健領域,一家眼鏡和光學零售商在美國 40 個州經營或管理著 700 多家門店,一家獨立的醫療保健機構在 45 個州為 1300 多個地點提供支持,以及一家總部位於弗吉尼亞州的醫療保健和健康服務機構,擁有 80 多家醫療保健機構;

  • In insurance, a Fortune 100 multinational insurance and asset management company headquartered in Germany, a global Japanese insurance company that has offices spread throughout the US, and one of the first motor clubs in the US with more than 16 million members across 21 states;

    在保險領域,一家總部位於德國的財富 100 強跨國保險和資產管理公司,一家在美國各地設有辦事處的全球性日本保險公司,以及美國最早的汽車俱樂部之一,該俱樂部在 21 個州擁有超過 1600 萬會員;

  • In government and education, a US government-sponsored enterprise helping to make housing more accessible and affordable, a large Florida-based university to support their health system -- likewise, we signed on with a local government to a city in Florida;

    在政府和教育領域,我們與一家美國政府資助的企業合作,幫助住房更加普及和負擔得起;我們也與佛羅裡達州的一所大型大學合作,支持其醫療系統——同樣,我們也與佛羅裡達州的一個城市的地方政府簽約;

  • In hospitality, one of the world's leading providers of food and support services operating in over 25 countries and an American ticket sales and distribution company with operations in over 35 countries around the world;

    在酒店業,全球領先的食品和配套服務供應商,業務遍及 25 多個國家;以及一家美國票務銷售和分銷公司,業務遍及全球 35 多個國家;

  • In telecommunications, in addition to the large telco I mentioned previously, we signed a European telecommunications company that provides cable television, broadband internet, and fixed telephony; and a large British broadcast and telecommunications company.

    在電信領域,除了我之前提到的大型電信公司之外,我們還與一家提供有線電視、寬頻網路和固定電話服務的歐洲電信公司以及一家大型英國廣播和電信公司簽署了協議。

  • I mentioned some of the success we've had with large seven-figure deals in 2025 with our channel partners.

    我提到了一些我們與通路夥伴在 2025 年達成的七位數大額交易的成功案例。

  • In Q4, we continue to build out our ecosystem with the following partners:

    第四季度,我們將繼續與以下合作夥伴共同建構我們的生態系統:

  • With one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, we are adding SoundHound agentic AI call center automation to [SMBs] in their large business marketplace.

    我們正在與全球最大的電信公司之一合作,在其龐大的商業市場中為中小企業添加 SoundHound 智慧代理 AI 呼叫中心自動化功能。

  • In addition, we partnered with Bridgepointe, which expands our enterprise AI adoption across their vast network; and a large customer experience management company providing services to approximately 150,000 businesses.

    此外,我們還與 Bridgepointe 建立了合作關係,這擴大了我們在他們龐大網絡中的企業人工智慧應用範圍;以及與一家為大約 15 萬家企業提供服務的大型客戶體驗管理公司建立了合作關係。

  • We renewed our partnership with a global technology and professional services company that delivers technology solutions and mission services to every major agency across the US government and a large multinational professional services firm to provide our solutions to financial services firms across Spain.

    我們與一家全球技術和專業服務公司續簽了合作協議,該公司為美國政府的每個主要機構提供技術解決方案和任務服務;同時,我們也與一家大型跨國專業服務公司續簽了合作協議,以便為西班牙各地的金融服務公司提供我們的解決方案。

  • Importantly, our Enterprise AI technology is making a difference and helping businesses tackle some of their biggest challenges.

    重要的是,我們的企業級人工智慧技術正在發揮作用,幫助企業應對一些最大的挑戰。

  • One large healthcare network reported that their AI agent built on SoundHound platform now handles more than a third of all patient appointment scheduling, helping to unclog the system that gets patients what they need more quickly. This customer is already looking to expand our platform to tackle additional use cases, like prescription refills and pharmacy inquiries.

    一家大型醫療保健網絡報告稱,他們基於 SoundHound 平台構建的 AI 代理現在處理超過三分之一的患者預約安排,有助於疏通系統,讓患者更快地獲得所需服務。這位客戶已經希望擴展我們的平台,以應對更多用例,例如處方續藥和藥房諮詢。

  • In a completely different industry, telecommunications, another customer reported a 20% reduction in the labor costs associated with billing disputes, thanks to AI agents that analyze invoices and execute adjustments.

    在完全不同的電信業,另一位客戶表示,由於人工智慧代理商分析發票並執行調整,與帳單糾紛相關的勞動成本降低了 20%。

  • In auto insurance, our platform was able to help the customer increase containment by 10 percentage points, with respect to very complex use cases in under 60 days.

    在汽車保險領域,我們的平台能夠在不到 60 天的時間內,針對非常複雜的用例,幫助客戶將風險控制率提高 10 個百分點。

  • In short, we are seeing great traction because our technology is delivering real-world results.

    簡而言之,我們之所以取得巨大成功,是因為我們的技術帶來了實際效果。

  • In closing, we had a record 2025. This is happening because we are an AI-first company and customers from a broad range of verticals are coming to us to automate their complex processes and make them more human-like to better serve their customers.

    總之,我們迎來了創紀錄的2025年。這種情況的出現是因為我們是一家以人工智慧為先導的公司,來自各個垂直領域的客戶都來尋求我們的幫助,以實現其複雜流程的自動化,並使其更像人類一樣,從而更好地服務於他們的客戶。

  • We are leading the charge in a market disruption that is in the very early stages. We have a massive TAM. We are poised to win.

    我們正在引領一場尚處於初期階段的市場變革。我們擁有龐大的潛在市場。我們已做好獲勝的準備。

  • With that, I'll now turn the call over to Nitesh to talk about our financial performance, key growth drivers, and business outlook.

    接下來,我將把電話交給 Nitesh,讓他談談我們的財務表現、關鍵成長驅動因素和業務前景。

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • Thank you, Keyvan. Good afternoon, everyone.

    謝謝你,凱文。大家下午好。

  • Q4 was our strongest quarter, with $55.1 million in revenue, up 59%; and improvements across all profit measures. For the full year, we delivered $169 million in revenue, up 99% versus the prior year and up more than fivefold in the few years that we have been a public company.

    第四季是我們業績最好的一個季度,營收達 5,510 萬美元,成長 59%;所有獲利指標均有所改善。全年來看,我們的收入為 1.69 億美元,比上一年增長了 99%,比我們上市以來的短短幾年增長了五倍多。

  • We achieved this record performance through our disruptive technology, breakthrough innovation, hyperresponsiveness to customers, and by scaling across our broadening enterprise portfolio. We operationalize this with cost discipline, driving a clear pathway to breakeven profitability.

    我們憑藉顛覆性技術、突破性創新、對客戶的超快速響應以及不斷擴大的企業產品組合,實現了這項創紀錄的業績。我們透過嚴格的成本控制來實現這一目標,從而開闢一條清晰的實現盈虧平衡盈利的道路。

  • The market momentum in our space continues to accelerate. Generative AI, agentic AI, and voice AI are now base level customer requirements. Customer service is undergoing a once-in-a-generation disruption and enterprises are clamoring for innovators like us to provide high-customer engagement solutions to improve their top and bottom lines.

    我們所在領域的市場動能持續加速。生成式人工智慧、智慧體人工智慧和語音人工智慧現在已成為客戶的基本需求。客戶服務正經歷一代人一次的變革,企業迫切需要像我們這樣的創新者來提供高客戶參與度的解決方案,以提高其收入和利潤。

  • From the beginning, we have built our business to deliver successful AI-driven outcomes. Our pricing architecture is purpose-built for that.

    從一開始,我們就致力於打造一家能夠成功實現人工智慧驅動成果的企業。我們的定價架構正是為此而設計的。

  • In a world where seat-based pricing models are quickly becoming antiquated because of their deteriorating price/value equations, our agentic solutions seamlessly drive outcome-focused consumption and success rates that create economic incentives fully aligned with our customers.

    在座位定價模式因其價格/價值比不斷惡化而迅速過時的當今世界,我們的代理商解決方案能夠無縫地推動以結果為導向的消費和成功率,從而創造與客戶完全一致的經濟誘因。

  • That's a sustainable model. It's a differentiated moat with our entrenchment deepening.

    那是一種可持續的模式。這是一條差異化的護城河,我們的防禦工事不斷加深。

  • Let me share some examples across our business:

    讓我分享一些我們公司內部的例子:

  • We have been growing the Automotive installed base for years. Our monthly active users continue to expand rapidly, with Q4 growth in excess of 50%, year on year.

    多年來,我們一直在不斷擴大汽車產業的裝機量。我們的每月活躍用戶數持續快速成長,第四季年增超過 50%。

  • More notably, their query activity or usage continues to accelerate, with Q4 audio queries up roughly 75% from the prior year.

    更值得注意的是,他們的查詢活動或使用量持續加速成長,第四季音訊查詢量比去年同期成長了約 75%。

  • Note that this is only cloud-based queries. We also offer edge-based solutions that don't require internet connectivity so these volume metrics meaningfully understate the full auto customer engagement.

    請注意,這僅適用於基於雲端的查詢。我們也提供無需網路連線的邊緣解決方案,因此這些銷售指標嚴重低估了汽車客戶參與度。

  • The volume of queries we deliver in IoT & smart devices is even larger than the Automotive base and also growing strongly.

    我們在物聯網和智慧型裝置領域提供的查詢量甚至比汽車領域還要大,而且還在快速成長。

  • Our new Voice Commerce engines fit so well here and the idea of ordering a pizza or a salad naturally via voice ordering on your TV while watching the Super Bowl or Olympics personally resonates with me.

    我們全新的語音商務引擎非常適合這裡,一邊在電視上看超級盃或奧運會,一邊透過語音訂購披薩或沙拉的想法,讓我深有同感。

  • On that point, in Restaurants, we continue to grow locations but what's even more directly impacting our revenue and our customers' business is order activity, which, in Q4, we saw cross 9 million calls for the first time, up strong double digits from the prior year. That's a lot of meals from Chipotle, Casey's, and many others.

    就這一點而言,在餐飲方面,我們繼續拓展門市,但對我們的收入和客戶業務產生更直接影響的是訂單活動,在第四季度,我們的訂單量首次突破 900 萬,比上年同期實現了強勁的兩位數增長。那可是來自 Chipotle、Casey's 以及其他很多快餐店的飯菜啊。

  • In our Enterprise business, our AI platform is delivering measurably better customer outcomes, quarter after quarter. Containment rates hit record-highs, now resolving the majority of inbound interactions without any human escalation; and with certain containment levels even crossing 90%.

    在我們的企業業務中,我們的人工智慧平台每季都在顯著改善客戶體驗。疫情控制率達到歷史新高,現在無需任何人為幹預即可解決大部分入境互動;某些控制水平甚至超過 90%。

  • Our automation intensity crossed a meaningful architectural threshold in Q4, chaining multiple targeted actions per customer engagement into fully autonomous resolutions.

    第四季度,我們的自動化程度突破了重要的架構閾值,將每次客戶互動中的多個目標操作串聯成完全自主的解決方案。

  • Our omnichannel multimodal systems are driving better resolution rates, resulting in compounding returns per interaction.

    我們的全通路多模態系統正在提高問題解決率,從而為每次互動帶來複合效益。

  • All this comes together in our comprehensive query volume, which, now, is in the billions per month, up 12x since we went public.

    所有這些都匯聚成我們全面的查詢量,目前每月查詢量已達數十億次,比上市以來增長了 12 倍。

  • With that, let me discuss the fourth-quarter financial results in more detail:

    接下來,我將更詳細地討論一下第四季的財務表現:

  • Q4 revenue was $55.1 million, up 59%, year over year. The growth was driven across multiple verticals.

    第四季營收為5,510萬美元,較去年同期成長59%。成長是由多個垂直領域共同推動的。

  • Our Enterprise AI business performed particularly well in healthcare and financial services.

    我們的企業人工智慧業務在醫療保健和金融服務領域表現尤為出色。

  • We also saw strong year-over-year growth in our Restaurant business, as our automation rates continue to improve, integrations deepen, and customer adoption continues to expand at a healthy rate.

    我們的餐飲業務也實現了強勁的年成長,自動化程度不斷提高,整合度不斷加深,客戶接受度也持續健康成長。

  • In Automotive, we continue to accelerate our Asia business and see traction in the world's fastest-growing markets.

    在汽車領域,我們繼續加速發展亞洲業務,並在全球成長最快的市場中取得了進展。

  • As Keyvan mentioned, we signed a new Japanese automotive OEM in Q4. We had several deals in Asia in 2025, with commitments of millions of units. This broad-based expansion, once again, enabled us to realize strong customer diversification, with no customers contributing greater than 10% of our revenue for the quarter or full year.

    正如 Keyvan 所提到的,我們在第四季與一家新的日本汽車 OEM 廠商簽署了協議。我們在 2025 年與亞洲達成了多項交易,承諾交付數百萬台設備。這種廣泛的擴張再次使我們能夠實現強大的客戶多元化,沒有任何一個客戶對季度或全年收入的貢獻超過 10%。

  • In Q4, our GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins were both up, year over year. Our GAAP gross margin was 48%. Adjusted for non-cash amortization of purchase intangibles and employee stock compensation, our non-GAAP gross margin was 61%.

    第四季度,我們的GAAP和非GAAP毛利率均較去年同期成長。我們的GAAP毛利率為48%。經調整非現金購買無形資產攤銷及員工股票補償後,我們的非GAAP毛利率為61%。

  • We continue to drive efficiencies by modernizing infrastructure, optimizing cloud spend, consolidating legacy systems, and improving the efficiency of our core platforms, such as shifting from third-party solutions to our own homebuilt ones.

    我們不斷提高效率,透過基礎設施現代化、優化雲端支出、整合傳統系統以及提高核心平台的效率(例如從第三方解決方案轉向我們自己建構的解決方案)。

  • Our continued efforts to prune our portfolio of low-margin acquired contracts has been resulting in the sequential improvements in non-GAAP gross margin this year. We expect to continue focusing on profitable contracts and either adjusting or moving away from those that don't meet our minimum thresholds.

    我們持續努力精簡低利潤率的收購合約組合,使得今年的非GAAP毛利率較上季改善。我們將繼續專注於獲利的合同,並調整或放棄那些不符合我們最低標準的合約。

  • That said, there are deals that have a clear near-term path to automation using our AI. We will not hesitate to make the critical investments in them to build long-term sustainable profitable returns.

    也就是說,有些交易已經明確表明,利用我們的人工智慧技術,可以在近期內自動化。我們將毫不猶豫地將它們進行關鍵投資,以建立長期可持續的獲利回報。

  • R&D expenses were $24.8 million in Q4, up 22% year over year, largely due to acquisitions and related headcount and development costs.

    第四季研發費用為 2,480 萬美元,年增 22%,主要原因是收購以及相關的人員和開發成本。

  • We continue to invest in innovation to maintain our technological leadership. For example, we continue building our agentic AI solutions, leveraging our vast data to further improve our Polaris foundation model; and are expanding our in-house real-time audio-to-audio and embedded vertical API integrations into production environments.

    我們將繼續加大創新投入,以維持我們的技術領先地位。例如,我們繼續建立我們的智慧AI解決方案,利用我們龐大的數據進一步改進我們的Polaris基礎模型;並且正在將我們內部的即時音訊到音訊和嵌入式垂直API整合擴展到生產環境中。

  • We also continue to differentiate across the entire voice AI stack, including via best-in-class text-to-speech, built on modern architectures for differentiated speed, accuracy, prosody; and with code switching multilingual capability for an increasingly diverse and integrated world.

    我們也在整個語音 AI 技術堆疊中不斷實現差異化,包括透過一流的文字轉語音技術,該技術基於現代架構構建,可在速度、準確性和韻律方面實現差異化;並具備代碼切換多語言功能,以適應日益多元化和一體化的世界。

  • Sales and marketing expenses were $17.4 million in Q4, reflecting an 82% year-over-year increase, primarily driven by acquisitions. We continue to invest in go-to-market efforts via direct and indirect sales, as well as customer success to increase retention.

    第四季銷售和行銷費用為 1,740 萬美元,年增 82%,主要由收購推動。我們將繼續透過直接和間接銷售以及客戶成功等方式加大市場推廣力度,以提高客戶留存率。

  • In addition, we continue to elevate our brand and market presence to drive demand and lead generation.

    此外,我們不斷提升品牌形象和市場影響力,以推動需求成長和潛在客戶開發。

  • G&A expenses were $21.2 million in Q4, reflecting a 29% year-over-year increase, primarily driven by various legal, advisory, and other costs related to our acquisitions.

    第四季一般及行政費用為 2,120 萬美元,年增 29%,主要原因是與收購相關的各種法律、諮詢和其他費用。

  • We also continue to drive operational efficiencies throughout the organization and improve our global control environment.

    我們將繼續提高整個組織的營運效率,並改善我們的全球控制環境。

  • We had non-cash employee stock compensation of $20.8 million; and depreciation and amortization, including the amortization of intangibles of $10 million in Q4, all of which are included in our GAAP results.

    我們有 2080 萬美元的非現金員工股票補償;以及折舊和攤銷,包括第四季度 1000 萬美元的無形資產攤銷,所有這些都包含在我們的 GAAP 結果中。

  • Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $7.4 million, an improvement of 56%, year over year.

    調整後的 EBITDA 虧損 740 萬美元,較去年同期改善 56%。

  • GAAP net income of $40.1 million and GAAP net earnings per share of $0.10 were positively impacted by the change in fair value of contingent liabilities of approximately $85 million. This relates to the acquisitions we have completed; is a non-operating and non-cash expense; and primarily reflects the quarter-on-quarter fluctuation in our stock price.

    GAAP淨收入為4010萬美元,GAAP每股淨收益為0.10美元,主要得益於或有負債公允價值變動約8,500萬美元。這與我們已完成的收購有關;屬於非經營性非現金支出;主要反映了我們股價的季度環比波動。

  • As such, this item has been excluded in our non-GAAP results.

    因此,該項目已從我們的非GAAP績效中剔除。

  • Non-GAAP net loss was $7.3 million. Non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.02 in the quarter. This adjusts for items such as non-cash depreciation and amortization, M&A transaction costs, and stock-based compensation.

    非GAAP淨虧損為730萬美元。本季每股淨虧損為0.02美元。這調整了非現金折舊和攤提、併購交易成本和股票選擇權等項目。

  • Our balance sheet remains strong, with cash and equivalents at quarter end of $248 million, with no debt.

    我們的資產負債表依然穩健,截至季末現金及等價物為 2.48 億美元,且無任何債務。

  • With that, let me discuss our financial outlook:

    接下來,我將談談我們的財務前景:

  • We are starting 2026 with strong momentum. As Keyvan mentioned, we broke a record in Q4 with over 100 customer deals across every industry we operate in.

    我們以強勁的勢頭開啟了2026年。正如 Keyvan 所提到的,我們在第四季度打破了紀錄,在我們營運的每個行業中達成了 100 多筆客戶交易。

  • Our pipeline continues to build across several verticals. We have a strong foundational customer base to expand upon through full portfolio upsell and cross-sell. We continue to aggressively release new agentic and voice AI capabilities to dramatically improve customer outcomes.

    我們的業務管道在多個垂直領域持續拓展。我們擁有強大的客戶基礎,可以透過全線產品追加銷售和交叉銷售來拓展業務。我們將繼續積極推出新的智慧代理和語音人工智慧功能,以顯著改善客戶體驗。

  • With the greater scale achieved in 2025, we have increased visibility in the near-term; and expect to continue to grow rapidly over the long-term.

    隨著 2025 年規模的擴大,我們在近期內獲得了更高的可見度;並預計在長期內將繼續快速成長。

  • For 2026, we expect our revenue to be in a range of $225 million to $260 million. As in prior years, there will be a ramp in revenue through the year, given the nature of our customer base, underlying seasonality, and expected large deal timing, both for renewals and new deals.

    我們預計 2026 年的營收將在 2.25 億至 2.6 億美元之間。與往年一樣,鑑於我們客戶群的性質、潛在的季節性因素以及預期的大宗交易時間(包括續約和新交易),全年收入將逐步增長。

  • That said, we expect the seasonality to improve, as our recurring mix of business continues to grow. Overall, this outlook affirms our expectation of another year of very strong growth.

    也就是說,隨著我們經常性業務組合的持續成長,我們預期季節性因素會有所改善。整體而言,這項展望證實了我們對又一個強勁成長年的預期。

  • We remain committed to delivering accelerated growth, while being mindful of the journey to profitability.

    我們將繼續致力於實現加速成長,同時兼顧實現獲利的路徑。

  • Our strong cash position and debt-free balance sheet gives us the capacity to remain prudent in appropriately balancing growth with profit maximization.

    我們雄厚的現金儲備和零負債的資產負債表使我們能夠在成長與利潤最大化之間保持審慎的平衡。

  • We will continue to drive scale through targeted investments.

    我們將繼續透過有針對性的投資來擴大規模。

  • Last quarter, I mentioned that we see additional acquisition cost synergies of $20 million on an annualized basis. In Q1, we have already executed most of that, the effect of which we expect to appear in future quarters.

    上個季度我提到過,我們預計每年可額外節省 2,000 萬美元的收購成本綜效。第一季度,我們已經完成了大部分工作,預計其效果將在未來幾季顯現。

  • I also noted last quarter that we are entering our breakeven phase, after many years in heavy investment mode. This transition won't be linear or uniform. We expect it should be progressive and, ultimately, compounding.

    我在上個季度也提過,經過多年的大力投資,我們即將進入損益平衡階段。這種轉變不會是線性或均勻的。我們預計它應該是漸進的,並且最終會產生複利效應。

  • Our long-term expectation is that we can operate this business at scale, with 70%-plus gross margins and 30%-plus EBIT margins. For the near-term, though, we expect to calibrate the investments, based on the opportunities in front of us and their expected returns. We will continue to balance the importance of delivering profitability in the near term, with fueling sustainable, profitable growth over the long term.

    我們的長期預期是,我們可以大規模經營這項業務,毛利率達到 70% 以上,息稅前利潤率達到 30% 以上。不過,就短期而言,我們預期會根據擺在我們面前的機會及其預期回報來調整投資。我們將繼續在短期內實現盈利的重要性與長期內推動可持續盈利增長的重要性之間取得平衡。

  • With that, we will now move to Q&A.

    接下來,我們將進入問答環節。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • (Operator Instructions)

    (操作說明)

  • Scott Buck, HC Wainwright & Company.

    Scott Buck,HC Wainwright & Company。

  • Scott Buck - Analyst

    Scott Buck - Analyst

  • As we went through the 4Q highlights, clearly, a lot of balls in the air. I'm curious, how are you handling from a deployment and customer service capacity standpoint? Are you starting to feel a little constrained?

    回顧第四節比賽的精彩瞬間,很明顯,場上有很多球在空中飛舞。我很好奇,從部署和客戶服務能力的角度來看,你們是如何應對的?你是不是開始覺得有點束縛了?

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Thanks for the question.

    謝謝你的提問。

  • We are definitely doing a lot. I've been saying for the past few quarters that this is the time for us to do more, partly because, yes, we are in many industries but the ingredients we are using to power these experiences is the same.

    我們確實做了很多事。過去幾季我一直在說,現在是我們加大投入的時候了,部分原因是,是的,我們涉足很多行業,但我們用來推動這些體驗的要素是相同的。

  • The decades of work we've done to build the best-in-class speech recognition, conversational AI, agentic orchestration, all of that is the same, regardless of whether we are in Automotive or we are providing customer service for a healthcare company or insurance company.

    幾十年來,我們致力於打造一流的語音辨識、對話式人工智慧和智慧體編排技術,無論我們身處汽車產業,還是為醫療保健公司或保險公司提供客戶服務,所有這些努力都是相同的。

  • Because of the advances in AI, we are actually able to deploy faster, go live faster, develop faster.

    由於人工智慧的進步,我們實際上能夠更快地部署、更快地上線、更快地開發。

  • We are able to keep up with the demand, with fewer people and less resources. Demand is going up. What we need to do to deliver to these customers -- the resources requirement is actually going down so we expect that to be a further tailwind for us.

    我們能夠以更少的人力和資源滿足需求。需求正在上升。為了滿足這些客戶的需求,我們需要做的是——資源需求實際上正在下降,因此我們預計這將成為我們進一步的利好因素。

  • Scott Buck - Analyst

    Scott Buck - Analyst

  • Great. That's helpful.

    偉大的。那很有幫助。

  • And then, I wanted to ask, you called out a number of renewals. Can you talk a little bit about any changes in pricing or upselling you're seeing, as you go through the renewal process with customers?

    然後,我想問一下,您提到了一些續約事宜。在與客戶進行續約的過程中,您能否談談您在定價或追加銷售方面是否觀察到任何變化?

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Yeah. We have customers that we've had for a while; for example, some of the Automotive logos that we've had for a number of years. These renewals are actually an upsell moment because we bring them the agentic solution.

    是的。我們有一些長期合作的客戶;例如,我們已經合作了好幾年的一些汽車標誌。這些續約實際上是追加銷售的機會,因為我們為他們帶來了代理解決方案。

  • The gen AI solution that we developed three years ago, that was an upsell moment. Now, we have the agentic solution. That's another upsell moment.

    三年前我們開發的 gen AI 解決方案,那是一個追加銷售的機會。現在,我們有了智能體解決方案。這是另一個追加銷售的機會。

  • It's basically a renewal with a price increase and, sometimes, with a bigger volume commitment.

    基本上就是續約,價格上漲,有時還會要求增加訂購量。

  • We are seeing the same in customer service; again, especially with the customers we've had for a number of years.

    我們在客戶服務方面也看到了同樣的情況;尤其是對於我們多年的老客戶而言。

  • The agentic platform that is an upgrade, partly, it could come at a higher price.

    作為升級版的代理平台,它的價格可能會更高。

  • For deals that are based on containment rate, we expect to generate more revenue because we contain more of the incoming calls. For example, if I'm going to use some numbers but, in the industry, there's no, like, one number for containment rate because it depends on the use case.

    對於基於攔截率的交易,我們預計會產生更多收入,因為我們攔截了更多來電。例如,如果我要使用一些數字,但在行業中,並沒有一個統一的遏制率數字,因為它取決於特定應用場景。

  • We've seen, for example, in the use case, a 30% containment go to 70%, 80%; sometimes, over 90%. That means we handle more than 90% of the incoming calls without kicking to a human. We get paid more, as we contain more calls.

    例如,在實際應用中,我們看到 30% 的遏制率上升到 70%、80%;有時甚至超過 90%。這意味著我們能夠處理超過 90% 的來電,而無需轉接給人工客服。我們接到的電話越多,收入就越高。

  • Some of the increase in revenue is just going to come from upgrading our existing customers to the agentic solution. Even without a renewal and even without increasing the price, it's going to generate more revenue for us.

    部分收入成長將來自現有客戶升級到代理解決方案。即使不續約,即使不漲價,它也會為我們帶來更多收入。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Brian Schwartz, Oppenheimer.

    Brian Schwartz,奧本海默。

  • Brian Schwartz - Equity Analyst

    Brian Schwartz - Equity Analyst

  • Congratulations on a very good year.

    恭喜你度過了非常成功的一年。

  • Keyvan, I want to start with you. Your Enterprise AI business clearly has strong momentum, especially in the higher-regulated industries that you pointed out. You're building deeper entrenchment.

    Keyvan,我想先從你開始。貴公司的企業人工智慧業務顯然發展勢頭強勁,尤其是在您提到的監管較為嚴格的行業。你這是在加深自己的防禦工事。

  • But, in the market, certainly, over the last, like, three, four, five months, there's been a lot of fear about software companies' long-term growth that these larger LLM providers are going to be able to just build workflows above software companies' platforms and bypass them. It's going to be much more challenging for companies to grow.

    但是,在過去的三個月、四個月、五個月裡,市場上確實存在著許多對軟體公司長期成長的擔憂,擔心這些規模更大的LLM提供者能夠直接在軟體公司的平台之上建立工作流程,從而繞過它們。企業發展將面臨更大的挑戰。

  • I was hoping you could address that; how you see the durability of the Enterprise AI business, as we enter this agentic era?

    我希望您能談談這個問題:隨著我們進入智能體時代,您如何看待企業人工智慧業務的持久性?

  • And then, I have a follow-up for Nitesh.

    然後,我還有一個問題要問尼特什。

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Sure. That's a great question.

    當然。這是一個很好的問題。

  • I think there are two flavors of that question;

    我認為這個問題有兩種不同的解讀;

  • One is, what's happening to software and services companies so not necessarily SoundHound. That has been a tailwind for us for the past three-plus years because of gen AI.

    一是軟體和服務公司正在發生的事情,所以不一定是 SoundHound。過去三年多來,人工智慧的發展一直對我們有利。

  • The concept of that is the automation is coming. That is going to disrupt services companies and SaaS companies. Everything is going to get automated and more and more automated.

    這個概念的核心是:自動化時代即將來臨。這將對服務型公司和SaaS公司造成衝擊。一切都將自動化,而且自動化程度會越來越高。

  • That's not a new thing. We've been benefiting from that for three years. These companies that want to automate basically come to SoundHound to help them automate.

    這並非什麼新鮮事。我們已經從中受益三年了。這些想要自動化的公司基本上都會來找 SoundHound 尋求協助。

  • There is maybe a second flavor, off that question, which is what happens to companies like SoundHound with the latest advances in AI, where software development is becoming easier.

    這個問題可能還有第二個方面,那就是隨著人工智慧的最新進展,軟體開發變得越來越容易,像 SoundHound 這樣的公司會發生什麼變化。

  • We think of that as another tailwind. A really good analogy that has resonated with me is, imagine the Internet companies when we had connections with dial-up modems.

    我們認為這是另一個順風。我印象最深刻的一個比喻是:想像一下我們用撥接數據機連接網路時的網路公司。

  • Good Internet companies were there. They were delivering their websites to their visitors. And then, dial-up modem became broadband internet so bandwidths went up in orders of magnitude. That was a great thing for Internet companies.

    當時有很多優秀的網路公司。他們正在向訪客提供他們的網站。然後,撥接數據機發展成了寬頻互聯網,頻寬也隨之呈數量級增長。這對網路公司來說是件好事。

  • Now, some didn't maybe reinvent themselves quickly. But the services that these Internet companies could provide became a lot more richer and powerful.

    當然,有些人可能沒能迅速實現自我革新。但這些網路公司所能提供的服務變得更加豐富和強大。

  • We feel the same way, that we can move faster, like the earlier question that was asked -- like, can we -- we have so many customers, how quickly can we deliver? We use AI to build AI to deliver to the customers that want AI.

    我們也有同樣的感受,那就是我們可以加快速度,就像之前提出的問題一樣——我們能不能——我們有這麼多客戶,我們能多快交付?我們利用人工智慧建構人工智慧,以滿足客戶對人工智慧的需求。

  • We think that pace is going to be better for us. The quality is going to be higher because we are utilizing these advances in AI.

    我們認為這樣的節奏對我們更有利。由於我們利用了人工智慧領域的這些進步,品質將會更高。

  • Brian Schwartz - Equity Analyst

    Brian Schwartz - Equity Analyst

  • I just wanted to ask you that question, Keyvan, because you're such a pioneer, in terms of technology in this industry. I appreciate you sharing your perspective.

    Keyvan,我之所以想問你這個問題,是因為你是這個產業技術領域的先驅。感謝您分享您的觀點。

  • The question I have for Nitesh is, just thinking about how you're thinking about planning the progression of the efficiency of the business; maybe asking it, in terms of the operating profile here in 2026.

    我想問 Nitesh 的問題是,您是如何考慮規劃提高業務效率的?或許可以問問,就 2026 年的營運狀況而言,情況如何?

  • Clearly, the business is accelerating. I think you're gaining efficiency in your development from your -- as Keyvan talked about, with your own agentic (inaudible) AI.

    顯然,業務正在加速發展。我認為,正如 Keyvan 所說,透過你自己的智慧(聽不清楚)人工智慧,你在開發過程中獲得了效率。

  • But how do you think about the rest of the investment profile? Are you looking to accelerate your investments? Are you looking to keep your margins stable where they are today? Are you looking to show improvement, in terms of the efficiency and the EBITDA margin 2026?

    但您對投資組合的其他部分有何看法?您是否正在尋求加快投資步伐?您是否希望維持目前的利潤率水準?您是否希望在2026年提高效率和EBITDA利潤率?

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • Thanks, Brian. I'll take that from a couple of different angles.

    謝謝你,布萊恩。我會從幾個不同的角度來看這個問題。

  • First, with respect to continuing that AI efficiency play, I think there's a multitude of ways, as that plays out here.

    首先,關於繼續推動人工智慧效率提升,我認為有很多方法可以實現,就像這裡的情況一樣。

  • Number 1, our efficiency in product development is better. Certainly, we're seeing that. I think our efficiency in deployment and delivery is better. We're seeing that. And then, even just operationally, we're all across the company, utilizing tools that may not be core to what SoundHound develops.

    第一,我們的產品開發效率更高。當然,我們已經看到了這一點。我認為我們在部署和交付方面的效率更高了。我們看到了這一點。而且,即使從營運角度來看,我們公司內部也在使用一些可能並非 SoundHound 開發的核心工具。

  • But, certainly, in my G&A function, there's definitely a number of areas that we're driving efficiencies. I think that's a responsibility that all of us take to leverage the latest and greatest to be responsible with our costs.

    但可以肯定的是,在我負責的行政管理職能部門,我們確實在許多方面都努力提高效率。我認為,利用最新、最好的技術來合理控製成本是我們每個人都應承擔的責任。

  • Number 2, to your question on just the profile, I'll go back to my prepared remarks a little bit. We are now shifting from an era, I'd say, from the origins of SoundHound, where we were heavily investing primarily in our innovation but maybe, more recently, in building up the go-to-market capabilities to, now, to this era of breakeven.

    第二點,關於你提出的個人資料方面的問題,我稍微回顧一下我事先準備好的發言。我們現在正從一個時代(可以說,是從 SoundHound 的創立之初)過渡到一個實現收支平衡的時代。在那個時代,我們主要投資於創新,但最近可能更多地投資於建立市場推廣能力。

  • We're not trying to be super precise one quarter delivering one specific number.

    我們並不追求每季都達到一個具體的數字,而是力求做到非常精確。

  • But, more importantly, we start with the premise that we are in the very early innings of massive transformational shift, whether that's the LLM-driven capabilities that we're seeing with these amazing engines to the voice AI era of how we're able to engage with consumers and customers in really unique, more efficient, seamless ways to get all sorts of transactions done or, obviously, now, to agentic and how we can deliver great platforms and capabilities to enhance customer capabilities and solutions, predominantly, I think, for us in the customer service space and rewrite how those traditional ways that people get their billing inquiries resolved or they book travel or they order food or whatnot or get health care appointments, all that's getting rewritten.

    但更重要的是,我們首先要認識到,我們正處於一場巨大變革的初期階段,無論是我們看到的由LLM驅動的強大引擎所帶來的能力,還是語音AI時代我們如何以真正獨特、更有效率、更無縫的方式與消費者和客戶互動以完成各種交易,又或是現在,代理技術如何提供強大的平台和功能來增強客戶的能力和解決方案,我認為這主要對我們客戶服務領域而言,並將徹底改變人們解決賬單查詢、預訂旅行、訂餐或預約醫療保健等傳統方式的方式。

  • We're just in the early innings of it. We need to be focused because we know that the outsized returns are there for us to go after. We're going to keep fueling in getting the hyper growth that we've been delivering over the last couple of years.

    我們現在還處於起步階段。我們需要集中精力,因為我們知道,巨大的回報就在那裡等著我們去爭取。我們將繼續保持過去幾年一直實現的高速成長動能。

  • It's our view that that level of growth -- very strong growth -- should continue for the foreseeable future.

    我們認為,這種成長水準——非常強勁的成長——在可預見的未來應該會繼續保持下去。

  • With that, to every incremental dollar point, that should go into fueling growth. But we need to be mindful that we're going to do it efficiently.

    因此,每一美元的成長都應該用於推動經濟成長。但我們需要注意的是,我們要有效率地完成這項工作。

  • To your point, as we continue to scale, we absolutely expect efficiencies on our operating leverage.

    正如您所說,隨著我們不斷擴大規模,我們絕對期望在營運槓桿方面提高效率。

  • I think, from an EBITDA basis, we'll continue to see year-over-year improvements in EBITDA.

    我認為,從 EBITDA 的角度來看,我們將繼續看到 EBITDA 逐年改善。

  • We'll continue to see leverage on the P&L.

    我們將繼續看到損益表上的槓桿效應。

  • I think our R&D, in particular, we'll be able to drive efficiencies.

    我認為,尤其是在研發方面,我們將能夠提高效率。

  • And then, I think it's a matter of go-to-market -- we're going to -- we are investing both in direct and indirect channel. I think the indirect channel has been great for us. We highlighted it briefly in the prepared remarks of just, the, additional scale we can get through indirect channel partners.

    然後,我認為這關乎市場推廣策略——我們將——我們正在投資直接管道和間接管道。我認為間接通路對我們來說非常棒。我們在事先準備好的發言稿中簡要地強調了這一點,即我們可以透過間接通路合作夥伴獲得額外的規模。

  • Across R&D, across sales and marketing, and across G&A, we think there's efficiency and, ultimately, that will land towards what I characterized in the prepared remarks is us moving into this era of breakeven zone.

    在研發、銷售和行銷以及一般及行政管理方面,我們認為效率會提高,最終,正如我在準備好的演講稿中所描述的那樣,我們將進入一個盈虧平衡的時代。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Gil Luria, DA Davidson.

    吉爾·盧裡亞,地方檢察官戴維森。

  • Unidentified Participant

    Unidentified Participant

  • Great. This is [Lucky], on for Gil Luria.

    偉大的。這是[Lucky],由吉爾·盧裡亞執教。

  • You guys had pretty strong traction, it sounds, like, with Auto OEMs, especially on net new in the quarter, despite previous headwinds from tariffs impacting the industry. Is there anything to call out as to why you had, particularly, prominent success in that vertical this quarter?

    聽起來,你們在汽車OEM廠商方面取得了相當不錯的成績,尤其是在本季的新增客戶方面,儘管此前關稅對該行業造成了不利影響。有什麼特別值得一提的原因可以解釋為什麼你在本季在該垂直領域取得了顯著的成功嗎?

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Yeah. It actually was a great year in Automotive for us. Earlier in the year, we closed with a big Chinese OEM, also with multiple millions of units committed. Then, we had a robot maker in China. And then, we had more deals in India. And then, we're very proud that we have won a prominent logo in Japan.

    是的。對我們來說,今年在汽車產業確實是碩果累累的一年。今年早些時候,我們與一家大型中國汽車製造商達成了協議,訂單量也達到數百萬輛。然後,我們找到了一家中國的機器人製造商。然後,我們在印度又達成了更多交易。而且,我們非常自豪地宣布,我們在日本贏得了一個知名的標誌。

  • I think it's because of the great solutions we've created. We've been in Automotive for a number of years. We are well known for having the best solution. We partner with our customers to achieve their vision and ambition.

    我認為這是因為我們創造了出色的解決方案。我們從事汽車行業多年。我們以擁有最佳解決方案而聞名。我們與客戶攜手合作,共同實現他們的願景和目標。

  • Our [Pillar 3] vision is paying off. We predicted a flywheel effect from Pillar 3.

    我們的[支柱3]願景正在發揮成效。我們預測第三支柱會產生飛輪效應。

  • To summarize it quickly: We power cars and TVs and devices in Pillar 1; and then, we power customer service for merchants in Pillar 2; and then, we connect them in Pillar 3 together. While you're driving, you can order a copy, you can book appointments, you can reserve tables.

    簡單來說:我們在第一支柱中為汽車、電視和設備提供動力;然後,我們在第二支柱中為商家提供客戶服務;然後,我們透過第三支柱將它們連接起來。開車時,您可以訂購報紙、預約用餐、預訂餐位。

  • That's a monetizable moment. We call it the Voice Commerce.

    這是一個可以獲利的時刻。我們稱之為語音商務。

  • Just the concept of being able to deliver value to the drivers, while generating revenue for us and share that revenue with the OEM is creating a flywheel for us. A lot of OEMs are choosing to work with us.

    能夠為駕駛員創造價值,同時為我們創造收入,並將這些收入與 OEM 分享,這種理念本身就為我們創造了一個良性循環。很多原始設備製造商選擇與我們合作。

  • It's a combination of being a great partner, having the best technology, and the concept of monetization with our agentic AI in the cars.

    這是因為我們擁有優秀的合作夥伴、一流的技術,以及將我們的智慧AI應用於汽車以實現獲利的概念。

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • Hopefully, Lucky, you're also noticing that we're seeing this growth in the fastest-growing markets, too. Oftentimes, in the fastest-growing markets, it's where they want the best-of-breed technology. I think that's what's playing out here, as well.

    Lucky,希望你也注意到,我們在成長最快的市場中也看到了這種成長。通常情況下,在成長最快的市場中,他們最需要的就是最先進的技術。我認為這裡的情況也是如此。

  • Unidentified Participant

    Unidentified Participant

  • I think that makes a lot of sense. Maybe, the last question from me: As you enter your next phase of growth here, you touched on it already but can you stack-rank the top investment priorities to capture the opportunity in front of you?

    我覺得很有道理。也許,我最後一個問題是:隨著您進入下一個成長階段,您已經提到過,您能否對最重要的投資事項進行排序,以抓住眼前的機會?

  • Any update on your M&A strategy, in light of the broad decline in valuations across software here, recently?

    鑑於近期本地軟體產業估值普遍下滑,貴公司的併購策略有任何最新進展嗎?

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Maybe I'll take some of it. Nitesh can add.

    或許我會拿走一些。Nitesh可以補充。

  • Our agentic platform is an area we are heavily investing in. It delivers a much better user experience. It has a higher containment rate.

    我們的代理平台是我們正在大力投資的領域。它能提供更好的使用者體驗。它的控制率更高。

  • And then, the latest version of our platform, it uses AI to create AI. A lot of the experiences (inaudible) it used to take us -- maybe a team of -- a large team of developers, weeks and months to deliver. You just tell it what you need to do and it just does it for you .That is going to allow us to move faster, deliver better quality, have a higher containment rates, win more customers.

    然後,我們平台的最新版本利用人工智慧來創造人工智慧。很多體驗(聽不清楚)以前需要我們——也許是一個龐大的開發團隊——花費數週甚至數月的時間才能完成。你只要告訴它你需要做什麼,它就會為你完成。這將使我們能夠更快地前進,提供更好的質量,擁有更高的控制率,贏得更多客戶。

  • That's one area of focus for us. That is going to be everywhere. It's going to be in Automotive. It's going to be in customer service, Pillar 1, Pillar 2, Pillar 3.

    這是我們關注的重點領域之一。那將會無所不在。它將屬於汽車產業。它將屬於客戶服務領域,支柱一、支柱二、支柱三。

  • The next area that I would highlight is Voice Commerce. We've been -- it's a vision that we pioneered. We are ahead of others in the space.

    接下來我想重點介紹的是語音商務。我們一直都是——這是我們開創的願景。我們在這一領域處於領先地位。

  • It's a great idea. But it will take time for people to catch up because we have the largest number of merchants that are using our voice AI. Like, we have the largest number of restaurants. We have a huge footprint in cars, TVs, and devices. We are in a very good position to bring this to market.

    這是個好主意。但人們需要時間來適應,因為我們擁有數量最多的使用我們語音人工智慧的商家。例如,我們擁有最多的餐廳。我們在汽車、電視和電子設備領域擁有龐大的市場份額。我們處於非常有利的位置,可以將這項產品推向市場。

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • Yeah. I can add on the M&A part of your question. I think, a couple of years in, I'll just say, I think the M&A approach we're taking seems right to us. I think we'll keep being mindful about what's in the marketplace and potential partnerships -- being aware of opportunities to combine.

    是的。我可以補充您問題中關於併購的部分。我想,經過幾年的發展,我只能說,我認為我們目前採取的併購方式對我們來說是正確的。我認為我們會繼續關注市場動態和潛在的合作夥伴關係——時刻留意合作機會。

  • So far, they've been companies that we have had really amazing customer relationships. We've been able to harness together and bring our innovation, jointly, to expand those relationships; use some of those landing points to expand broader in the relevant industries.

    到目前為止,我們與這些公司都建立了非常好的客戶關係。我們能夠攜手合作,共同創新,拓展這些關係;利用這些切入點,在相關產業中實現更廣泛的擴張。

  • I think we'll continue to seek some of those opportunities.

    我認為我們會繼續尋找這些機會。

  • Because we've done a few, I'd say there's a lot more inbound, also, interest. And so we have a pretty strict and disciplined formula or methodology we go through in assessing if one may make sense. We'll just keep that discipline.

    因為我們已經做了一些,所以我認為還有更多人對此感興趣。因此,我們有一套相當嚴格且嚴謹的公式或方法,用於評估某件事是否有意義。我們會繼續保持這種紀律。

  • There's plenty that we look at that don't make sense for us. I think we put a lot of scrutiny into when it might.

    我們看到很多東西,但它們對我們來說毫無意義。我認為我們應該仔細檢視它何時可能出現的情況。

  • Again, since things are moving really fast, we've said before and I'll just repeat that we know we can do a lot of good things with what we've built here but we don't want to be insular. And so we want to be aware of all the great things and partnerships that we can build.

    再說一遍,由於事情發展得非常快,我們之前說過,我再說一遍,我們知道我們可以利用我們在這裡建立的一切做很多好事,但我們不想封閉自己。因此,我們希望了解我們可以建立的所有偉大的事物和合作關係。

  • I think M&A, certainly, thinking out the next few years, will continue to be a really important part of our muscle.

    我認為,展望未來幾年,併購無疑將繼續成為我們實力的重要組成部分。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Mike Latimore, Northland Capital Markets.

    Mike Latimore,北地資本市場。

  • Vijay Devar - Analyst

    Vijay Devar - Analyst

  • This is Vijay Devar, for Mike Latimore. A couple of questions.

    我是 Vijay Devar,代表 Mike Latimore。幾個問題。

  • One, how many Amelia customers are live on your agentic AI version 7.3 ;and are likely to go live this year?

    第一,目前有多少 Amelia 客戶正在使用貴公司的代理 AI 版本 7.3;今年可能會有多少客戶上線?

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • Yeah. Hey, Vijay. We said, last time -- and I think we're just continuing to make progress that we had early last year -- early adopter program, where we piloted with, I think, at the time, we said 15 or so customers and that ramped through the summer.

    是的。嘿,維傑。我們上次說過——而且我認為我們只是在繼續推進去年年初取得的進展——早期採用者計劃,當時我們試點了大約 15 位客戶,並在夏季逐步擴大規模。

  • We've been on this pathway of migration where we assume that we are on a pathway to get the majority -- vast majority -- I think over 75% migrated over by the middle of this year. We're continuing to be on that pathway, making incremental progress every quarter that we go by.

    我們一直走在這條移民道路上,我們認為到今年年中,絕大多數人——我認為超過 75% 的人已經移民過來。我們正沿著這條道路繼續前進,每個季度都取得穩定進展。

  • We continue to see that in Q4. We're already continuing to see acceleration in Q1.

    我們在第四季繼續看到這種情況。第一季我們已經看到成長動能持續加快。

  • One of the good things with our new agentic platform that we highlighted at the Consumer Electronics Show that we talked about in the prepared remarks is that's something that we're getting a lot of early traction from customers.

    我們在消費電子展上重點介紹的新代理平台的一個優點是,我們已經從客戶那裡獲得了大量的早期回饋。

  • On the channel -- our Head of Sales there, saying that the customer feedback has been superb.

    通路方面-我們那裡的銷售主管表示,客戶回饋非常好。

  • And so one of the great things we've been trying to deploy is automated migration paths to allow people to migrate from prior version to Amelia 7.3 onto the new version that we're rolling out.

    因此,我們一直在努力部署的一項重要功能是自動化遷移路徑,以便人們能夠從 Amelia 7.3 的早期版本遷移到我們正在推出的新版本。

  • We are excited that our migration path in -- especially going back to one of the earlier questions about the efficiency now with delivery and AI and what it's allowing us, it is allowing for more rapid migration patterns.

    我們很高興我們的遷移路徑——特別是回到先前關於交付和人工智慧的效率以及它給我們帶來的益處的問題,它正在實現更快速的遷移模式。

  • Vijay Devar - Analyst

    Vijay Devar - Analyst

  • Got it. When the customer moves to 7.3, is there incremental revenue to SoundHound?

    知道了。當客戶升級到 7.3 版本時,SoundHound 的收入會增加嗎?

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Yeah. As I mentioned, just a pure higher containment rate is expected to increase our revenue. Many of our deals, we get paid when we successfully avoid a caller to go to a human.

    是的。正如我之前提到的,更高的感染控制率預計就能增加我們的收入。我們很多時候都是透過成功避免客戶撥打電話後轉接人工客服來獲得報酬的。

  • By going to agentic, we've seen, just as an example, numbers going from, like, a 30% containment to over 90% containment. In some cases, we also get paid more for the upgrading to agentic.

    透過採用代理技術,我們看到,例如,控制率從 30% 提高到 90% 以上。在某些情況下,我們將在升級到 agentic 後獲得更多報酬。

  • It's a mix of both. But, either way, it's directionally positive for revenue.

    兩者兼而有之。但無論如何,從方向上看,這對收入來說是正面的。

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • The other thing we've seen with the recent versions is interactions that previously fell outside or would have to get escalated or things we can capture now at a much greater rate. All of that is incremental revenue for us.

    我們從最近的版本中也看到,以前屬於例外情況或需要升級處理的交互,現在我們可以以更高的頻率捕捉到。所有這些都將為我們帶來增量收入。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • (Operator Instructions)

    (操作說明)

  • James Fish, Piper Sandler.

    詹姆斯·菲什,派珀·桑德勒。

  • James Fish - Analyst

    James Fish - Analyst

  • Just on the CX side of things, how is Amelia effectively winning new customers versus the contact center pure play, the CRM offerings, and even some of the other standalone AI solutions out there? Really, what's making them different that's resonating with customers?

    僅就客戶體驗 (CX) 方面而言,與純粹的呼叫中心解決方案、客戶關係管理 (CRM) 產品,甚至其他一些獨立的 AI 解決方案相比,Amelia 如何有效地贏得新客戶?究竟是什麼讓它們與眾不同,進而引起顧客的共鳴?

  • And then, I've got a follow-up.

    然後,我還有一個後續問題。

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Yes. First of all, SoundHound, with the acquisitions we've made, we are a combination of teams and companies with several decades of collective experience in customer service. We've been at this for a long time.

    是的。首先,SoundHound 透過我們進行的收購,匯集了多個團隊和公司,在客戶服務方面擁有數十年的集體經驗。我們已經為此努力了很久。

  • We have deep technology. We have data.

    我們擁有雄厚的技術實力。我們有數據。

  • We are also very deep in a lot of these industries like healthcare, insurance, banking, and so on. The reputation, the experience, the relationships all help us.

    我們在醫療保健、保險、銀行等許多行業也都有著非常深入的涉足。聲譽、經驗和人脈關係都對我們有幫助。

  • But if you zoom out -- and this might answer an earlier question that maybe I didn't quite answer from Scott -- if a customer chooses to work with a big tech, that's a very high-risk decision because when you choose a company like Google or OpenAI as your vendor -- and, by the way, these companies are not really deep into customer service; they provide tools for others like SoundHound.

    但如果你從更宏觀的角度來看——這或許可以回答斯科特之前提出的一個我可能沒有完全回答的問題——如果客戶選擇與大型科技公司合作,這是一個風險非常高的決定,因為當你選擇像谷歌或 OpenAI 這樣的公司作為供應商時——順便說一句,這些公司並不真正專注於客戶服務;它們為 SoundHound 等其他公司提供工具。

  • But if they just go deep with one big tech, they're going to miss out on innovation that might come out of other big tech. For example, you're betting on Google models and then, if OpenAI creates an ecosystem that benefits the world, you might miss out on it or vice versa.

    但如果他們只專注於一家大型科技公司,他們就會錯過其他大型科技公司可能帶來的創新。例如,你押注於Google的模型,那麼如果 OpenAI 創建了一個造福世界的生態系統,你可能會錯失良機,反之亦然。

  • But SoundHound provides -- our philosophy is we provide the best technology, the best model, to our customers, no matter where it comes from.

    但 SoundHound 秉持的理念是,無論技術源自何處,我們都為客戶提供最好的技術和最好的型號。

  • Most of the time, it comes from us because we have our own models that we've created over a long period of time with a lot of data. We compare it with the big tech models and we beat them in accuracy, speed, and cost.

    大多數情況下,這些模型都來自我們自己,因為我們擁有自己經過長時間累積大量資料而創建的模型。我們將其與大型科技公司的模型進行比較,在準確性、速度和成本方面都勝過它們。

  • But if, for some edge cases or use cases or scenarios, a big tech model is better, we bring it to our platform and we use it for our customers. By choosing SoundHound, they are more guaranteed to get the best, as soon as it becomes available, no matter where it comes from versus when they bid on a big tech, then it's a very expensive risk.

    但是,如果某些特殊情況、使用情況或場景下,大型科技公司的模式會更好,我們會將其引入我們的平台,並為我們的客戶使用。選擇 SoundHound,他們就能更有保障地獲得最好的產品,無論產品來自哪裡,一旦有貨就立即到貨;而競標大型科技公司則風險極大,成本也很高。

  • Beyond the big tech, there are some new players. Most of those are maybe two years old. Some are doing better than others.

    除了大型科技公司之外,還有一些新的參與者。其中大部分可能只有兩歲。有些學生表現得比其他人好。

  • But the way we think about them, they are LEGO players because of the nature of how old they are -- one or two years. They don't have their own tech. They are scrambling and building -- getting one API from -- for speech recognition from one source and then, for text-to-speech from another source from -- LLMs from another source.

    但從我們的角度來看,他們是樂高玩家,因為他們的年齡只有一、兩歲。他們沒有自己的技術。他們正在爭先恐後地建構——從一個來源取得一個用於語音辨識的 API,然後從另一個來源取得用於文字轉語音的 API,再從另一個來源取得 LLM。

  • They are basically putting it together like LEGOs. They're only at it for a couple of years.

    他們基本上是像搭樂高積木一樣把它組裝起來。他們只做了幾年而已。

  • That puts SoundHound at a much bigger advantage because we've been at this for, again, decades. We have our own models. We have proven success in enterprise.

    這使得 SoundHound 擁有更大的優勢,因為我們在這個領域已經耕耘了幾十年。我們有自己的模型。我們在企業領域已經取得了成功。

  • We are in seven of the top 10 banks. We process billions of queries.

    我們在排名前十的銀行中佔據了七席。我們處理數十億條查詢。

  • In terms of quality of service and the reputation, we are in a very good position.

    就服務品質和聲譽而言,我們處於非常有利的地位。

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • Maybe I can add one thing, Jim. I said this in the prepared remarks but it's salient to your question.

    吉姆,或許我還能補充一點。我在準備好的發言稿中提到過這一點,但這與你的問題密切相關。

  • I think fundamentally, legacy -- this goes back to the earlier question on, I think, for Brian on disruption in software -- models that were built, seat-based pricing; that value was on, let's get more users using our tool, and it wasn't as directly tied to customer outcomes, that is at risk because the tools are getting so good and we're building those.

    我認為從根本上講,傳統模式——這可以追溯到之前關於軟體顛覆性創新的問題,我認為布萊恩也談到了這個問題——是建立在基於席位的定價模式上的;這種模式的價值在於,讓我們讓更多用戶使用我們的工具,而與客戶成果並沒有直接聯繫,這種模式正面臨風險,因為工具變得越來越好,而我們正在不斷開發這些工具。

  • Our solutions are directly -- our economic model, our pricing model, is directly tied to customers achieving or seeing real value.

    我們的解決方案——我們的經濟模式、我們的定價模式——與客戶獲得或看到真正的價值直接相關。

  • Did a prescription get refilled? Did appointment get booked? Did food get ordered?

    處方是否已續開?預約成功了嗎?食物點好了嗎?

  • I, think, just architecturally, we're better, to Keyvan's point. I'd say, also, the economic incentive alignment is also an advantage for us.

    我認為,就建築風格而言,我們確實更勝一籌,正如 Keyvan 所言。我認為,經濟誘因機制的一致性對我們來說也是一個優勢。

  • James Fish - Analyst

    James Fish - Analyst

  • Got it. Very detailed answer, guys. Appreciate that.

    知道了。各位的回答非常詳細。謝謝。

  • Maybe, Nitesh, for you. I'm getting it asked here afterhours, just to hammer home a fine point: Is there much further M&A included in the annual guide? Obviously, you guys have a ton of opportunity. You guys have a strategic sense of doing acquisitions and folding them in. Just trying to understand if there's further M&A contemplated in the guide.

    或許,尼特什,是為了你。我下班後在這裡被問到這個問題,只是想強調一點:年度指南中是否包含更多併購資訊?顯然,你們有很多機會。你們在收購和整合方面很有策略眼光。我只是想了解指南中是否還考慮了進一步的併購。

  • Given the environment, there's a lot of sensitivity to stock-based comp. You guys are a bit of an outlier here. How are you handling your stock comp, going forward; and the dilution we've seen, historically?

    鑑於當前環境,人們對股票選擇權薪酬非常敏感。你們在這裡有點特立獨行。您未來將如何處理股票補償問題?以及我們過去看到的股票稀釋問題?

  • Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

    Nitesh Sharan - Chief Financial Officer

  • Sure. Thanks, Jim.

    當然。謝謝你,吉姆。

  • For the first part of that, to be very direct, no, our guidance does not contemplate M&A that we haven't done or that is not baked into the outlook.

    首先,直截了當地說,不,我們的指導意見並未考慮我們尚未完成或未納入展望的併購活動。

  • Our outlook reflects the base of business, the pipeline of deals we have in motion, the existing customer activity that's recurring and we're upselling and expanding. That's what's reflected in the outlook range.

    我們的前景反映了業務基礎、正在進行的交易管道、現有客戶的重複性活動以及我們正在進行的追加銷售和擴張。這正是展望範圍所反映的內容。

  • Now. as I mentioned in an earlier call, certainly, there are M&A ideas out there and conversations we have from time to time and inbounds we receive that, if they happen, we will -- if they're meaningful and material and we need to update an outlook, we will certainly do that, like we have in the past.

    正如我在先前的電話會議中提到的,當然,市場上存在一些併購想法,我們也會不時進行討論,並收到相關資訊。如果這些想法最終實現,並且具有重要意義,需要我們更新展望,我們肯定會這樣做,就像我們過去所做的那樣。

  • Your second question, on stock-based comp, yeah. I'll start with this general point at SoundHound, which. I think. a lot of us, internally, have a lot of pride around.

    關於股票選擇權激勵的第二個問題,是的。我先從 SoundHound 的這個整體觀點說起。我認為,我們很多人內心深處都很有自尊心。

  • I give all credit to Keyvan and the culture he's built.

    我將所有功勞都歸於凱文和他所建立的文化。

  • Like, this is a company where we want all employees to participate in the full contribution. And so we do distribute equity to our entire company. I don't think that's the same as every other company. We feel pride because everybody here is an owner.

    例如,我們公司希望所有員工都能充分參與並做出貢獻。因此,我們會將股權分配給公司全體員工。我認為這與其他公司並不相同。我們感到自豪,因為這裡每個人都是所有者。

  • We've also seen, historically, a lot of volatility that makes in -- some of the math on our P&L, especially with the acquisitions, you get mark-to-market activity; that, when you have a stock that's so volatile, you'll distribute a grant. By the time it gets valued for P&L purposes, it's at $20; and then, that amortizes over four years.

    從歷史上看,我們也看到了很多波動,這導致——我們損益表上的一些計算,特別是收購方面,會出現按市值計價的活動;當股票波動如此劇烈時,你會發放獎勵。到進行損益表估值時,其價值為 20 美元;然後,這筆費用將在四年內攤提。

  • That is something that's a little different because we're such a high-vol stock. But I take the general element of your question: We do think of the economic impact, certainly of dilution and certainly of where stock comp fits in our overall compensation profile.

    這有點特殊,因為我們的股票波動性非常大。但我同意你問題的整體思路:我們確實會考慮經濟影響,當然會考慮股權稀釋的影響,當然也會考慮股票補償在我們整體薪酬體系中的位置。

  • We want to be competitive. We want to attract all the right talent and make sure we have the right people.

    我們想要保持競爭力。我們希望吸引所有合適的人才,並確保我們擁有合適的人員。

  • To an earlier question, though, we are always vigilantly looking at our cost structure and can we do things more efficiently. We have historically taken cost actions, including to our people, when we needed to.

    不過,對於先前的問題,我們始終密切注意成本結構,並努力提高效率。歷史上,我們曾在必要時採取降低成本的措施,包括裁減員工。

  • But -- I'm mindful of the element of your question. I think we do try to be equitable in our distribution of stock comp. We are mindful of the dilution impact. We are mindful, to your point, on, it is probably a higher percent of revenue than you might see elsewhere.

    但是——我注意到了你問題中的這個因素。我認為我們在股票薪酬分配方面確實努力做到公平。我們意識到稀釋效應的影響。我們注意到,正如您所說,這部分收入佔比可能比其他地方要高。

  • I think, as we scale, you will see that normalize, certainly, as you will, with some of the other operating lines.

    我認為,隨著我們規模的擴大,你會看到這種情況逐漸正常化,就像其他一些營運線的情況一樣。

  • But, again, I'll close with what I started with, which is I think we generally do feel a sense of pride that we do distribute equity to all -- everybody, at this company. That makes us all combined owners in the outcome and success of what we build.

    但是,我還是要回到我一開始說的,那就是我認為我們普遍感到自豪的是,我們確實將股權分配給了公司裡的所有人——每一個人。這使得我們所有人都成為我們所創造的一切的成果和成功的共同所有者。

  • James Fish - Analyst

    James Fish - Analyst

  • Thanks, guys.

    謝謝各位。

  • Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

    Keyvan Mohajer - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

  • Thanks, Jim.

    謝謝你,吉姆。

  • Operator

    Operator

  • Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time.

    謝謝。我目前沒有其他問題要問。

  • Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program.

    感謝您參加今天的會議。節目到此結束。

  • You may now disconnect.

    您現在可以斷開連線了。