We don’t see them coming yet. I mentioned that in my remarks, but we certainly see the pipeline growing. The interest is there, but they’re not pulling the trigger quite yet, but they are pulling the trigger on the cost optimization [ph], which will only help them to spend more in the back half of the year.
Thanos Moschopoulos: Great. And can you expand on how you’re hearing with respect to the war on talent to build the AI capabilities? How much of that will be new hires versus training. Will that be mostly within the business unit level originally? Or will it be some stabilization of AI capability?
George Schindler: Yes, all of the above. It’s — as I mentioned, we’re rolling out training for everybody in the company. Of course, focusing different training for developers, different training for the business analysts and the different training again for the leaders and the business developers. Because everybody needs to be literate in AI. And of course, we’re a company where people run towards that. And so that’s been very positive for us. Having said that, of course, we need to bring in expertise. We actually developed, established a global AI enablement center of expertise and we do have in their PhDs and the like and steeped in AI to make sure that we have that. And then — and again, like I said, it’s all the above, that’s centralized, but then we have a network of AI experts spread throughout the business units, but then driven from a vision standpoint from that global enablement center of expertise.
Likewise, in each of our intellectual property business solutions, we’re introducing AI. And again, that’s our built-in R&D lab, if you will, because, again, with 22% of our revenue in IP and over 150 different solutions, we’re able to really test out use cases and work and collaborative with our clients as part of our investment. So it’s really all of the above, which is what I answered initially in that way.
Thanos Moschopoulos: Great. I’ll pass it on. Thanks.
George Schindler: Thanks.
Operator: Next question will be from Paul Treiber at RBC. Please go ahead.
Paul Treiber: Hi, thanks so much and good morning. Just a question on the U.S. federal space. You’ve seen good bookings momentum over the last year or so. But this year, it’s coming up to an election in the U.S. How should we think about bookings through this year? And then also how do you see revenue growth progressing through this year just given the upcoming election?
George Schindler: Yes. So it’s more than just the election, right, because we get that continuing resolution, the battles in Congress, both in the Senate and the House. So lots going on in Federal. Having said that, here’s what I would say, and it’s true not just in the U.S. federal, but it’s true in a bit in the U.K. and Canada as well, we see deals accelerating in advance of upcoming elections. So what happens is the bureaucracy, if you will, wants to keep things going during that election period. And so the deals tend to get a little bit accelerated, tend to be a little bit larger and tend to engage a little bit longer just to get some of that stability. So I think you’ll see a bit of a run up here in the next couple of quarters on the bookings, and that will drop off right during the election period.
And then we have the change introduced in the aftermath of the election. So regardless, even if it’s, even if the incumbent gets reelected, there’s typically new initiatives that occur after the election. So a little bit of a runoff on the bookings, then we’ll eat into some of that backlog for growth during a short period of time and then new opportunities arise. So that’s kind of the general cycle. And like I said, we’re seeing that not just in the U.S. but also a bit in the U.K. and Canada.
Paul Treiber: And then looking at your Asia Pacific business and then more broadly, just around the trend towards offshoring, Asia Pacific is slow. The growth there has slowed in the single-digit range, where it’s been in double digits for a number of quarters. Are you seeing that the trend towards offshoring in your business begin to slow down? Or is there some other factors that were mixed in there and you expect Asia Pacific growth to ramp back on?
George Schindler: Yes. Actually, believe it or not, the Asia Pacific was also impacted by some of the slowdown in SI&C, including in — particularly in banking. So — but the continued strength in demand on these managed service deals, they’re facing the same thing. Some of those deals take a little more time to transition to global delivery, but global delivery was a big part of those deals. So I think you’re going to see over time as SI&C stabilizes, and I think you’re going to see some of that growth coming back to Asia Pacific. Like I said, it has been a push it gives our clients optionality and gives them some of those cost optimization they’re looking for. So we’re actually seeing that grow, including in parts of Europe, even in France, we’re seeing more take-up on a global delivery offshore specifically, whereas they’ve been more near shore focused, we’re seeing more of that go offshore in France.
Paul Treiber: Okay, thanks for taking the questions.
George Schindler: Yes.
Operator: Next question will be from Richard Tse at National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Richard Tse: Hello thank you. Yes, given you have such great strength in government, certainly over the years, would it be kind of unreasonable to say, looking forward lean harder in that market with acquisitions? Or are you kind of looking to diversify the business a little bit away from that?
