International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Arvind Krishna: Yes. Thanks, Jim. So Toni, I’ll comment quickly on the color on revenue from AI, both in software and consulting. So as I said, in consulting, we are expecting a number of projects to get signed. By the way, as Jim mentioned, some of that is getting baked in. And you’re seeing that in the strong signings that we have in consulting in the second quarter with the over 20% growth in signings, and a lot of that was indeed data and AI consulting projects. Ditto in software, I’d just note that we had double-digit growth in the data and AI subsegment of software, and no doubt that some of that is colored by clients doing more around AI with us than they have historically. So we expect to see it. But I do want us to be sort of all in, all in with 2023, including the AI color.

We see software at the high end of our model, and we see consulting as in the range that Jim just laid out. So while we are very excited about it and we see a lot of traction on AI, it is included in the estimates that we just gave.

Patricia Murphy: Thanks, Toni. Let’s go to the next question, please.

Operator: Thank you. Next question is from Shannon Cross with Credit Suisse. You may go ahead.

Shannon Cross: Thank you very much. Arvind, I’m wondering, can you talk — and I know you haven’t launched it globally, but I’m sure everybody is having conversations right now. What is the interest level and understanding of AI by geography? And how do you think that sort of plays out and rolls through? And then just as a follow-up to the commentary on Apptio. I wondered if you could talk a bit more about what were sort of the key drivers of that acquisition, what KPIs we should watch for. And then I’m also curious as to how the $450 billion of anonymized data that you’re gaining with that. How do you think you’ll leverage that within your foundational model? Thank you.

Arvind Krishna: Thanks. Shannon, great questions. So when I look at AI by geography, at one thought of simple level, I would tell you that over the last six months, the interest in AI spans across all markets, all industries. So it is a international phenomenon, not confined to the U.S. Now we’ve got to dig under it. Then if I look at the maturity of clients to actually have their enterprise ready to embrace AI to be able to interact with their clients, their employees, that does vary. I have to acknowledge it. The North American market is probably the most further ahead on this. I think Western Europe comes second, likely together with some of the more advanced and developed markets in South America. Following that then is Asia and all of what would we call the Global South.

Japan has a strong interest, but they tend to be cautious on adopting technology, not necessarily in experimenting. In experimenting, they’ll be pretty quick. And then it will go into South Asia, where always, I think technology adoption tends to lag by a year or two behind the West. So that gives you some sense of that. But that said, every government, every enterprise, every CEO, every CIO that I talk to wants to talk about AI, what it can do to their company, what should it be in their country. And all of the questions around sovereignty of models and data and privacy and not depending only on a few international players come into the conversation, and that’s why we talk a lot about private models and models that can be left behind with the client, because that is coming up more and more.

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