Austin Cole

Austin Cole inquired about the two or three big bucket items Freshworks sees as crucial for increasing Freddy AI penetration across its customer base.

Answer

Dennis Woodside, CEO and President, identified building out the agentic capabilities of the AI Agent Studio (initially for CX, then EX), scaling Copilot, and investing in proactive service delivery through AI Insights as key drivers. He noted that agentic AI scales with usage, and Copilot offers clear productivity improvements, both enhancing customer value and expansion.

Austin Cole asked Dennis Woodside about the key strategies or 'big bucket items' for increasing Freddy AI penetration within the customer base.

Answer

CEO Dennis Woodside emphasized building out the agentic capabilities of the AI Agent Studio, initially for CX and expanding to EX with prepackaged workflows in H1 2026. He highlighted the scaling usage and clear value proposition of agentic L1 AI and Copilot, noting that education for customers on data usage and benefits is a critical imperative for go-to-market teams to drive adoption.

Austin Cole asked about the upsell motion and opportunity for new HCM offerings like Reward and Recognition, and how the 100% quarter-over-quarter increase in AI assistant monthly usage should be viewed as a metric and a catalyst for upsell.

Answer

Steve Beauchamp, Executive Chairman, explained that broader product adoption, including new HCM offerings, drives incremental revenue growth beyond unit growth. He noted that the goal is to achieve 10-20% penetration for early products and then grow to 30-40%, with some products already at 70-80% adoption. He attributed the AI assistant usage increase to added features like policies and procedures and third-party content, anticipating continued investment to drive further utilization, save customer time, and facilitate upsell.

Austin Cole, on for Pat Walravens, asked about the single most important priority for Paylocity to get right as it looks ahead to fiscal '26.

Answer

President and CEO Toby Williams identified the key priority as continuing the company's strong go-to-market and operational execution, while amplifying that success by leaning more heavily into product momentum from both its AI initiatives and the integrated Airbase offering.

Austin Cole, on for Pat Walravens of Citizens JMP, asked for a high-level perspective on the recent Paychex-Paycor merger, including the strategic rationale and its potential impact on the market.

Answer

Executive Chairman Steven Beauchamp speculated the deal is driven by industry consolidation, potential cost synergies, and Paycor's upmarket focus relative to Paychex. He emphasized that Paylocity will continue its innovation-focused strategy and is well-positioned to benefit from any market disruption, having competed successfully against both entities in the past.

Austin Cole asked for more details on one of DocuSign's top 10 customers becoming its second-largest through Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM), inquiring about the drivers of this significant expansion and the role of Navigator.

Answer

Allan Thygesen (CEO, DocuSign) explained that the significant expansion was driven by Navigator Plus, powering pre-signature workflows and milestone agreement capabilities. He expressed bullishness on the opportunity for eSignature base expansion into IAM, with customers deploying it across a broad set of functions.

Austin Cole asked about the effectiveness of the go-to-market changes implemented at the beginning of the year, specifically how reps have adapted and if they are well-equipped and incentivized to sell IAM.

Answer

CEO Allan Thygesen expressed strong satisfaction with the reps' adaptation to the go-to-market changes, highlighting the direct sales team's strong Q2 performance and the success of new incentive systems and quotas. He indicated no plans for significant changes of that magnitude in the foreseeable future.

Austin Cole, on behalf of Pat Walravens at Citizens JMP, asked about the drivers behind the strong uptick in customers with over $300,000 in ACV and inquired about any potential competitive opportunity arising from Dropbox reportedly de-emphasizing its e-signature business.

Answer

CFO Blake Grayson attributed the large customer growth primarily to the core business, driven by higher usage and expansion with the installed base, particularly in North America. CEO Allan Thygesen commented that the competitive environment in eSign is 'pretty stable' and that he doesn't focus on individual competitors, expressing confidence in DocuSign's market-leading position.

Austin Cole, on for Patrick Walravens, asked about the specific use cases being seen with Docusign Navigator and what customer engagement signals give the company confidence in targeting larger customers with the IAM platform.

Answer

CEO Allan Thygesen explained that AI-powered data extraction is a natural and high-value use case. He gave the example of Navigator automatically extracting renewal dates and notice periods from agreements to create alerts and automated workflows for sales or procurement teams. He noted the value proposition is universally understood, which gives him confidence, but acknowledged the company is taking a measured approach by starting with departmental rollouts in the enterprise.

Austin Cole, on behalf of Pat Walravens at Citizens JMP, asked about the competitive threat from emerging 'AI SDR' tools and how they compare to ZoomInfo's Copilot offering.

Answer

CEO Henry Schuck positioned AI SDRs as a 'flash in the pan' with limited productivity and regulatory issues. He contrasted this with ZoomInfo's Copilot, which he described as a more robust tool used by a wider range of go-to-market professionals (AEs, AMs, CSMs) for strategic tasks beyond simple outbound prospecting.

Austin Cole, on for Pat Walravens at Citizens JMP, asked about the competitive threat from emerging 'AI SDR' companies and how they compare to ZoomInfo's Copilot.

Answer

CEO Henry Schuck dismissed AI SDRs as a 'flash in the pan,' citing low productivity and regulatory hurdles that cause many pilots to fail. He contrasted this with ZoomInfo's Copilot, which serves a broader range of users beyond SDRs—including AEs and CSMs—for deeper strategic work, offering greater expansion potential.

Austin Cole of Citizens JMP asked whether achieving the 'Rule of 30' goal by 2028 is contingent on market improvement and questioned the specific drivers behind the strong Q4 gross margin performance.

Answer

CEO Ron Yekutiel asserted that market improvement is not a prerequisite for reaching their goals, citing booking momentum already achieved. CFO John Doherty added that the business model is flexible to invest in growth while remaining profitable. Regarding gross margin, John Doherty attributed the strength to a higher mix of subscription and EE&T revenue, alongside internal initiatives to improve customer-level profitability. Ron Yekutiel noted Q4 also benefited from some short-term credits.

Austin Cole, on for Patrick Walravens, asked about the monetization strategy for the new Pega Agent Experience (AgentX) and inquired about the background of the U.K. Armed Forces recruiting deal.

Answer

CEO Alan Trefler stated that AgentX is baked into the existing Infinity pricing model, which is based on work volume, not per-seat licenses, making it well-suited for an AI-driven world. Regarding the U.K. deal, he explained Pega won a highly competitive, 18-month formal process to become the core technology for a consolidated recruiting platform for the Army and strategic command, building on existing success with the Navy and Air Force.

Austin Cole asked for the fundamental reasons behind the pressure on net dollar retention and whether it was driven more by pricing or by broader marketing budget cuts.

Answer

CFO Isabelle Winkles attributed the pressure to two main factors. First, on the upsell side, customers are buying closer to their immediate needs rather than for future growth. Second, on the churn side, some customers are rightsizing their contracts at renewal to align with actual usage after not growing into previously purchased entitlements.

Austin Cole, on behalf of Patrick Walravens, asked about the impact of the current interest rate environment, including recent cuts and rising yields, on Alkami's business and client attitudes.

Answer

CEO Alex Shootman stated that the overall demand for digital banking remains consistent regardless of interest rate fluctuations, as it represents a long-term market transformation. He clarified that the primary impact is on the mix of add-on products clients purchase, shifting between deposit-gathering tools in high-rate environments and loan-generation products in low-rate environments. He noted Alkami is well-positioned with products for either scenario.

Austin Cole, on for Pat Walravens of Citizens JMP, asked for more detail on the company's implementation challenges, specifically whether they are creating friction for CCaaS adoption and how they will be resolved.

Answer

Founder and Co-CEO Ragy Thomas explained that CCaaS implementation is a 'new muscle' for Sprinklr, involving complex global rollouts and migrations from legacy systems. He stated the company is actively developing this muscle by building internal expertise, creating playbooks, and enabling regional partners. For core products, the focus is on blueprinting implementations by industry to ensure customers achieve value commensurate with the premium platform.

Asked about the AI opportunity and customer interest in the technology.

Answer

The company is very focused on leveraging AI internally for efficiency and product enhancement. However, they noted that mid-market customers are not explicitly asking for AI but are consuming its benefits through product features, and they don't see this changing significantly even at the higher end of their market.