Will Power

Will Power inquired about Axon's confidence and visibility in sustaining growth rates through 2027 and 2028, seeking insights on contributions from existing versus new products, with any particular standouts. He also asked for an update on AI bookings strength, pipeline, and product roadmap, specifically if AI bookings could double this year.

Answer

CEO Rick Smith noted that Axon is still growing into new offerings like the AI Era Plan and new OSP versions, with Dedrone highlighted as a potential exciting contributor, especially in federal and international markets. COO and CFO Brittany Bagley affirmed that the 2028 targets do not require forecasting major changes, expecting product lines and markets to continue their current growth trajectory. Josh Isner described AI adoption as being in the 'very early innings,' with significant pipeline and opportunities to deploy more AI products annually.

Will Power inquired about Axon's confidence and visibility in sustaining similar growth rates for 2027 and 2028, asking about the contribution from existing versus new products. He also sought an update on AI bookings strength, pipeline, and product roadmap, specifically if AI bookings could double this year.

Answer

CEO Rick Smith indicated that Axon is still growing into new offerings like the AI Era Plan, with more products and buying signals supporting future growth across four strong markets. COO and CFO Brittany Bagley added that the future growth trajectory doesn't require forecasting major changes, as all product lines and markets show continued traction. Rick Smith described AI adoption as being in the 'very early innings,' with significant pipeline and opportunities to deploy more AI products annually, increasing value and customer attraction.

Will Power asked for growth expectations for Guardicore Segmentation and API Security in 2026, given their continued strength and API security topping $100 million run rate. He also asked Tom Leighton for his perspective on potential AI risks across Akamai's security portfolio, competitive dynamics from AI entrants, and how the business remains resilient.

Answer

Ed McGowan (CFO) expressed satisfaction with Guardicore and API security, noting strong Q4 bookings and a good mix of new/existing customers, with Guardicore primarily driven by new customers. He highlighted low penetration for API security (less than 10% of existing customers) and broad vertical adoption, expecting similar growth drivers in 2026. Other product lines like bot management and WAF are growing slower, while Prolexic might be flattish. Tom Leighton (CEO) stated that Akamai is not seeing risk from AI-induced SaaS/DIY solutions because security services require a large distributed platform to handle traffic volume and apply defenses at scale. He believes AI-induced risk, if it materializes, would be a tailwind for Akamai's compute side as enterprises need to run models close to employees, making Inference Cloud a perfect application.

Will Power asked for growth expectations for Guardicore Segmentation and API Security in 2026, and sought CEO Tom Leighton's perspective on potential AI-related risks across the security portfolio and the competitive landscape from new AI entrants.

Answer

CFO Ed McGowan expressed satisfaction with Guardicore and API Security's strong Q4 bookings, noting a healthy mix of new and existing customers and significant runway for API Security. He expects these products to drive the majority of security growth in 2026. CEO Tom Leighton stated that Akamai is not seeing risk from AI-induced SaaS/DIY, as security services require a large distributed platform to handle traffic volume, and views AI-induced risk as a potential tailwind for Akamai's compute side.

Will Power asked for additional details on the drivers of Q4 gross profit improvements beyond the 2026 guidance factors. He also inquired about trends with Conversation Relay and Conversational Intelligence within the software add-on bucket, given the voice strength.

Answer

Aidan Viggiano, Chief Financial Officer, explained that Q4 gross margin was down 200 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to carrier fees and messaging mix. Thomas Wyatt, Chief Revenue Officer, stated that voice strength comes from three components: strong voice infrastructure connectivity, rapidly growing software applications on top (AI orchestration, conversational insights, conferencing, recording, transcribing), including Conversation Relay. He reiterated that this is the beginning of voice acceleration.

Will Power asked for additional details on the drivers of Q4 2025 gross profit improvements beyond the previously mentioned factors, and inquired about the trends with Conversation Relay and Conversational Intelligence within the voice software add-on bucket.

Answer

Aidan Viggiano, Chief Financial Officer, reiterated that Q4 2025 gross margin was impacted by A2P fees (80 basis point headwind) and messaging mix, as messaging revenue grew faster than average. She emphasized that Twilio evaluates business based on unit economics. Thomas Wyatt, Chief Revenue Officer, explained that voice strength comes from three components: infrastructure connectivity, and fast-growing software applications on top, including AI orchestration, conversational insights, conferencing, recording, and transcribing, with Conversation Relay being an example.

Will Power (Baird) sought insight into the net new ARR trends, consumption, and opportunities in logs and AI, asking for an analysis of factors that could drive ARR acceleration into fiscal 2027.

Answer

Jim Benson, CFO, reiterated the focus on continuing momentum, noting three consecutive quarters of double-digit net new ARR growth and stabilizing ARR at 16%. He expressed optimism about go-to-market traction and large-scale end-to-end observability deals, with an objective to accelerate top-line growth.

Will Power asked about the factors that could contribute to ARR acceleration into fiscal 2027, specifically considering net new ARR trends, the logs opportunity, and the broader AI opportunity.

Answer

Jim Benson, CFO of Dynatrace, stated the objective is to show ARR acceleration, building on three consecutive quarters of double-digit net new ARR growth and stabilizing ARR at 16%. He cited continued go-to-market momentum, large-scale end-to-end observability deals, and traction with partners as positive indicators.

Will Power of Baird asked for more color on the core drivers behind the strong growth in the Global Voice Plan (GVP) segment, questioning the contribution from channel partners versus underlying trends in UCaaS and CCaaS.

Answer

CEO David Morken attributed the 7% growth primarily to new AI voice use cases within UCaaS and CCaaS. CPO John Bell added that growth is also fueled by new AI-native companies becoming customers and by continued global expansion. CFO Daryl Raiford noted this performance aligns with their full-year plan to significantly increase the voice growth rate over the prior year.