C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE:AI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Pat Walravens: Right. That seems reasonable. So you had 27 deals in Q3 at $1.9 million. So that’s $51 million in bookings. And you had 20 deals in basically a year ago, right, at $5.6 million each, $112 million. So booking has been cut by more than half. Is that a fair assessment of what’s really going on?

Tom Siebel: Let’s also put this in — I’ll let Juho answer this, but I understand a year ago, the deals were $10 million, $20 million, $30 million, $40 million, $50 million deals. This quarter, as a result to consumption-based pricing, the $0.5 million trials. So then this gets into, as Juho explained. So you all take it from there, okay? But so in a completely different kind of deal, and in the quarters going forward, you’ll see we’re closing a lot more of them. But we’re not closing our old model used to be $10 million, $20 million, $50 million, $20 million, $30 million, $40 million, $50 million. We don’t do those anymore. We’re doing $0.5 million deals. Juho?

Juho Parkkinen: Yes. Thanks, Tom. Yes, Pat, I think Tom summarized it perfectly. This is totally expected, and this is a direct result of the consumption-based pricing shift two quarters ago.

Pat Walravens: Right? So I mean it’s great transparency, right? Most companies don’t give us their total bookings. So as long as you guys keep getting these slides, we’re going to be able to keep doing the math. When do you think we start seeing that go up?

Juho Parkkinen: So if you now — since you have that chart open, I’m glad to hear it, go to Slide 18, and on Slide 18, what you see is the same chart that we provided to the last three quarters that shows the kind of the expected consumption revenue model ramp-up versus subscription ramp-up. So this is an indicative of what we would expect to see. And as I’ve outlined, we believe we are in our model that we’ve outlined to you guys, so we can kind of figure out from here when we should start seeing the ramp up.

Pat Walravens: Yes, seven quarters through? And where are we now?

Juho Parkkinen: So we would have started two quarters ago. So based on this, we are at — for the first quarter, second, we’re on quarter three.

Operator: Thank you and one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Arsenije Matovic with Wolfe Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Arsenije Matovic: This is Arsenije on for Gal. It seems like this is now two quarters of coming in above expectations that were initially communicated for progress in the pilot initiative. Should we think about these pilots coming in faster than your initial communication suggested, given the more positive macro outlook you’re seeing relative to the first quarter? And then I had one brief follow-up.

Juho Parkkinen: I think, Arsenije, like I said, the original assumptions that we provided are still valid. We’re seeing great results. We’re very excited with the traction with our partners and the number of deals that we’re tracking, but we’re quite confident with our model at this time.

Arsenije Matovic: Got it. That’s helpful. And then what caused the large services contribution from Baker Hughes in the quarter? It looks like it was $8.6 million. Did this contribute to the above 90% services gross margin? And can you remind us how COGS associated with Baker Huge service revenue is accounted for?

Juho Parkkinen: Perfect. So I think you missed the initial call or initial question for Mike who asked this, and I explained the gross margin impact. But just as a quick recap for you, we have various types of professional services, and we have highly skilled workforce, and we’re able to command good premium on those services. And Baker Hughes is one of customers, many customers whom we — which provide professional services.

Reuben Gallegos: Operator, we’ll just take one last quick call again.

Operator: And our last question is a follow-up question from the line of Michael Turits with KeyBanc. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

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