C3.ai(AI.US)2026财年第一季度业绩电话会

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会议摘要

C3 AI experienced a 19% year-over-year revenue drop to $70.3 million in Q1 FY2026, with subscription revenue at $60.3 million. The company signed 28 new IPDs, bringing the total to 374, of which 266 remain active. Non-GAAP operating loss was $57.8 million, and the net loss per share was 37 cents. With $711.9 million in cash reserves, C3 AI announced new CEO Stephen Akan and executive chairman Tom Siebel, restructuring sales and services for future growth. The company forecasts Q2 revenue between $72 million and $80 million, with a non-GAAP loss from operations of $49.5 million to $57.5 million, aiming for profitability and market share expansion.

会议速览

C3 AI Company 2026 Fiscal Year First Quarter Financial Performance Report and Investor Communication

C3 AI company released its financial performance for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, including non-GAAP financial data, discussed future outlook and risk factors, and provided additional business performance indicators to enhance transparency. Investors can access detailed reports and supplemental materials through the official website.

C3 AI Quarterly Financial Report: Revenue Decline, Expansion of Strategic Customer Partnerships

Total revenue for this quarter was $70.3 million, a 19% decrease year-on-year, with subscription and professional services revenue accounting for 98% of the total. Despite a decrease in software license sales, the company deepened cooperation with several strategic clients to drive expansion of AI projects. Non-GAAP net loss was $49.8 million, with negative free cash flow of $34.3 million, and a cash reserve of $712 million.

Analysis of the company's declining performance and organizational restructuring.

The poor performance in the first quarter is mainly attributed to the increase in IPD costs, the decrease in non-GAAP gross profit margin, and poor sales execution. The company announced the appointment of a new CEO and the restructuring of the sales and service departments, aiming to enhance customer satisfaction and accelerate growth. In the future, the focus will be on improving sales efficiency and resource coordination, in order to achieve long-term goals.

C3 AI Platform Leads Industry Transformation: Success Cases and Market Opportunities

The dialogue emphasized the appointment of a new leadership team and organizational restructuring, as well as the excellent performance of the C3 AI platform in solving industry challenges, with successful cases spanning across multiple industries. There is a huge market opportunity, with strategic integrators being welcomed, and it is expected to become an important business growth point for the company.

C3 AI appoints new CEO, focusing on leadership in the enterprise AI software market.

The conversation involves a company announcing the appointment of its new CEO, emphasizing the company's market leadership in the field of enterprise AI software, reviewing the underperformance of the first quarter results, expressing expectations for the new leadership team, and discussing the company's future development direction in strategic partnerships, customer relationships, and product strategy. The company highlights its advantages in the enterprise AI software field, including mature products, advanced architecture, and vast market opportunities, and promises to accelerate growth and market penetration to achieve profitability and positive cash flow.

Enterprise AI Sales Transformation and Financial Outlook: Ensuring Smooth Transition and Future Profitability.

Discussed in the transition process of the enterprise AI sales team, how senior leadership will assist the new sales team in ensuring a smooth transition and enhancing global sales capabilities. At the same time, based on current sales activities and pipeline reviews, confidence in performance in the second quarter is expressed, and an open attitude is held towards forecasts for the third and fourth quarters, emphasizing the company's commitment to achieving non-GAAP profitability and free cash flow goals, as well as a long-term optimistic outlook.

Translation: Partner sales model and enterprise AI market opportunities

Discussed the development trends of partner sales models, emphasizing the importance of collaboration with platforms such as Azure, AWS, and GCP. It is expected that the percentage of partner sales will significantly increase in the future. At the same time, shared the motivation for joining C3, pointing out the enormous potential of the enterprise AI market, as well as the advantages of C3 in technology platforms and applications. Also expressed high recognition for the team and leadership.

Analyzing the reasons for the decline in performance: The impact of sales disruption and decreased engagement.

The reasons for poor performance were discussed, mainly attributed to sales interruption and decreased involvement of management, with sales interruption accounting for 70% and decreased management involvement accounting for 30%. Despite the poor performance this quarter, the team plans to adjust strategies and actively address the issues in order to get the business back on track in the future.

In the face of fluctuating performance and organizational changes, how to boost corporate confidence and performance.

Discussed the challenges faced by the company during periods of fluctuating performance and organizational adjustment, as well as the corresponding strategies used to address them. Mentioned historical cases of performance failures, such as Oracle, N, Amazon, and Salesforce, and emphasized the market's tendency to forget short-term fluctuations. Looking ahead to the future, expressed confidence in the company's ability to recover strong performance, believing that through effective management and teamwork, the company can overcome current challenges and achieve long-term stable development.

C3 AI company conference successfully concludes, looking ahead to future development direction.

The host of the meeting summarized the meeting, expressed gratitude to the participants, and announced the upcoming significant events at C3 AI company, encouraging everyone to stay tuned. Finally, the meeting was declared closed.

要点回答

Q：What was the non GAAP gross margin and non GAAP operating loss for the quarter?

A：The non GAAP gross margin for the quarter was $36.3 million with a margin of 52%, and the non GAAP operating loss for the quarter was $57.8 million.

Q：What are the key financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026?

A：The key financial results for the first quarter include total revenue of $70.3 million, a decrease of 19% year over year; subscription revenue of $60.3 million (86% of total revenue); software license revenue of $17.9 million; professional services revenue of $10 million; and combined subscription and license revenue of $69 million, accounting for 98% of total revenue.

Q：What strategic customer partnerships and wins were mentioned for the quarter?

A：Strategic customer partnerships and wins mentioned include Newco expanding its commitment to C 3 AI for an enterprise-wide AI program, Camerica launching its first enterprise-scale AI program after initial success in yield improvement, HII (Huntington Ingalls Industries) expanding its partnership to accelerate throughput at its shipyards, and the US Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office deploying a contested logistics application using C 3 AI's agentic AI platform.

Q：What was the non GAAP net loss and non GAAP net loss per share for the quarter?

A：The non GAAP net loss for the quarter was $49.8 million, and the non GAAP net loss per share was 37 cents.

Q：What is the expected non GAAP gross margin for the near term?

A：The non GAAP gross margin is expected to continue to be moderated in the near term due to a higher mix of IPD related costs, a lower mix of demonstration license revenue and professional services (PS) revenue, and lower economies of scale as compared to fiscal 2025.

Q：What is the revenue and non GAAP loss guidance for Q2 of fiscal year 2026, and what is the reason for withdrawing previous guidance?

A：The revenue guidance for Q2 of fiscal year 2026 is $72 million to $80 million, and the guidance for non GAAP loss from operations is $49.5 million to $57.5 million. The previous guidance is withdrawn due to the appointment of a new chief executive officer, the recent restructuring of the sales and services organizations, and the unanticipated health issues that impacted active involvement in the sales process.

Q：What changes have been made to the sales and service organizations?

A：The sales and service organizations have been completely restructured globally with new, highly experienced leadership appointed to drive growth and customer satisfaction. A new Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Hicken, has been brought in to coordinate and accelerate growth in these organizations. A Chief Commercial Officer has been appointed to oversee the combined organizations with a focus on delivering value to customers, and a new general manager of EMEA and a group Vice President for North American Operations have also been introduced.

Q：What is the purpose of the strategic integrator program introduced in Q2?

A：The strategic integrator program is a software OEM initiative where the C 3 Generative AI platform is licensed to others, enabling them to develop industry and domain-specific applications. This program is well-received by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), systems integrators, service providers, and defense, intelligence, and civilian government communities. It is expected to become a large and rapidly growing line of business for C 3 AI, allowing users to leverage their existing assets, such as machine learning models, without being vendor-locked in.

Q：What is the success rate for C 3 AI's projects and why?

A：The majority of C 3 AI's projects are successful, with the company claiming a high success rate across industries and use cases. This is attributed to the combination of generative AI and the C 3 Agentic AI platform, which addresses challenges such as data exfiltration, cybersecurity risk, hallucination, and issues with data access controls, integration, and omni-modal aspects. The platform's open architecture and flexibility contribute to a very high success rate associated with C 3 AI projects.

Q：What are the company's objectives and focus as a public company?

A：The company's objective is to establish and maintain a market leadership position globally in enterprise AI applications, not in infrastructure, semiconductors, machine learning models, or professional services implementation. It aims to achieve this with its C 3 AI platform and enterprise AI application footprint, drawing on its proven products, sophisticated architecture, and experienced leadership team.

Q：What is the vision for future growth and strategy for the company?

A：The company intends to grow its product footprint, increase market share, and expand market penetration, aiming to operate a rapidly growing cash positive and profitable business. Future strategies include continuing to leverage existing products, building on proven executive leadership, and focusing on strategic partner and customer relationships, as well as product strategy under the new leadership.

Q：What role will Tom fulfill moving forward and who is the new Chief Executive Officer?

A：In his new role as Executive Chairman, Tom will focus on strategic partner and customer relationships and oversee product strategy. The new Chief Executive Officer is Stephen Hicken, a leader with a proven track record of success in the AI field and experience in the public sector, having served as the acting administrator of the General Services Administration under President Trump.

Q：How does the company plan to ensure a smooth handoff from Tom to Stephen and the new sales leadership?

A：Tom plans to ensure a successful transition by continuing to be involved as necessary to monitor and assist the sales process. He will work with the new layer of senior leadership, who are experienced in selling enterprise AI globally, to ensure a smooth handoff and dramatically ramp up the sales and service capacity globally.

Q：What factors give confidence in the Q2 guide and what is the starting point for Q3 and Q4 outlook?

A：Confidence in the Q2 guide is based on sales activity in August and the review of the sales pipeline for the rest of the quarter with a new sales clearing shift. For Q3 and Q4, the starting point should consider most analysts' updated revenue forecasts for fiscal 26 ranging from $219 billion to $300 billion.

Q：What is the company's stance on achieving profitability and free cash flow?

A：The company acknowledges its performance in Q1 put it behind schedule, but remains committed to achieving non-GAAP profitability and free cash flow. Despite the challenges, the company is bullish about the business and anticipates reaching profitability and free cash flow with the right scale.

Q：How does the company expect the mix of partner-led deals versus direct sales to evolve?

A：The company expects the mix of partner-led deals to significantly increase. This quarter, 98% of the business was with partners, and investments in these partnerships will be substantial, with a hope to ramp up engagement with major cloud providers globally, increasing from hundreds to thousands of engagements.

Q：Why was C3 chosen for Stephen's position and what is the compelling opportunity for him?

A：Stephen chose C3 because of the enormous market opportunity for enterprise AI, the deployment of C3's technology across challenging environments, and the chance to work with industry pioneer Tom Siebel and an extraordinary team.

Q：What were the main factors contributing to the underperformance this quarter?

A：The underperformance this quarter was a combination of 70% due to sales disruption and 30% due to reduced involvement in the details by the speaker compared to previous quarters.

Q：How should execution steps be categorized and what were the challenges seen?

A：Execution steps include signing pilots and converting them into contracts. The challenges faced were due to a large number of new people and leadership involved, which led to a situation where various parts of the business were being managed simultaneously and inefficiently.

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