Daniel Dines: And actually, automation offer a very good way to anonymize request to even a public gene service. For instance, if you want to — if you want to understand better document, we can use our on-prem services to OCR to digitize the document and then apply [PI] (ph) algorithm and then send an anonymized document to GenAI and answer questions about it and then translate it back to the user. I think there are different approaches to privacy and security. And we are really well positioned to leverage our platform to offer this enterprise-grade use of GenAI.
Fred Havemeyer: Thank you all very much.
Rob Enslin: Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Kirk Materne with Evercore ISI. Please state your question.
Chirag Ved: Hi. This is Chirag Ved on for Kirk. Congratulations on the strong quarter, and thanks for taking the question. Maybe just one for me. As you look into the deal trends through August and September, are you seeing more of a continuation of the same deal scrutiny that’s been prevalent through the year or conversations starting to get more constructive and do customers seem more willing to invest. Are there any changes in general that you’d flag? Thank you.
Ashim Gupta: No. Like from our standpoint, one, we don’t really — I don’t want to give in-quarter updates, Kirk, which I know everybody can respect. I think we’ve we feel — just the environment, I think Rob commented on it. I think we look at the environment relatively stable, is variable. And depending on the industry, I think conversations move up or down. That being said, Rob talked about it earlier. I think customer conversations are very constructive. They have been. And just having been a customer, I can tell you where there’s an ROI, it’s — the conversations are constructive. And I think that’s something that we’ve demonstrated across our customer base for a while now.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Ari Terjanian with Cleveland Research Company. Please state your question.
Rob Enslin: Hey, Ari, you are on mute.
Operator: Please unmute yourself. We can’t hear you.
Kelsey Turcotte: Why don’t we go to the next one, please?
Operator: Our next question comes from Michael Turits with KeyBanc. Please state your question.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, guys. This is Billy on for Michael. Thanks for taking the question. Can you just talk a bit about the trends you’re seeing in selling to IT and IT users versus maybe the line of business and business users, especially within the context of the opportunity for Generative AI to democratize that adoption of automation?
Rob Enslin: Yeah. What I would tell you is when we launched the platform, we always said we needed to get into C level, and we needed to be more relevant with the IT, the CIO. And that would also bring in ASIs. And we feel like that we’re now able to actually bring the two together, showcase why they need the platform, how the platform helps them consolidate software, allows them to focus on areas in discovery and automation, infused with AI. And then we’re able to take that using NorthStar into the boardroom and articulate the value that the CFO or the CEO or the head of HR can actually get from automation. So that’s more and more the conversations we’re having, all the NorthStar discussions we talk about is exactly that. I feel like the CIOs are really starting to understand the platform, the benefits they get and the value that they can get from it.
And that’s why they actually want to use more of the platform when they understand how you can connect document understanding, to communication mining, using test suite to drive that and bolt into automation. We see that as something that’s differentiating us versus the competition in a significant way, and the value equation is just — that’s really driving the issue into the boardroom as well. Super positive about it.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Scott Berg with Needham & Company. Please state your question.
Scott Berg: Hi, everyone. Congrats on the nice quarter. I guess one question I have is, one of the items that came up in our work in the quarter was all the kind of explosion and interest in GenAI was kind of an accelerator. It certainly enhanced customer interest in some of the automation solutions that are out there, specifically RPA. But at the same time, it almost made some deals a little bit maybe more complex and helped shift some deals around. Wanted to see how you thought about the balance of kind of that interest in making deals more complex versus maybe in generating larger deals versus maybe slowing some deals down in the quarter and thoughts on second half opportunities within that. Thank you.
Rob Enslin: Yeah. I mean what I would tell you is that our customers that we’ve been working with, the deals we spoke about around NorthStar, our customers have been focused on value and the value creation that we can create from them. Once they’ve gone through that and they see what’s the opportunity, they want to understand the technical environment, what the product does, how it goes. And that’s kind of secondary to many of them. There’s a view that we are one of the best engineering organizations in automation that we actually know where we’re going with GenAI, we know AI at an incredibly detailed level, and that’s why we feel like the whole movement that’s happened has given us an ability in a stage to actually showcase our differentiation in this market.
In other words, customers also are stunned. They don’t want to see announcements. They want to actually see real benefits that they can showcase and how it can showcase through automation. So we feel really good about that.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Turrin with Wells Fargo Securities. Please state your question.
Rob Enslin: Hey, Michael.
Michael Turrin: Hey, great. Thanks. Appreciate taking the question. The net retention rate metric looks to be stabilized in the 120s. You have a good cadence of AI-related product announcements that we’re all adjusting. The Q4 guide for ARR looks more muted than what we generally expect from a seasonally stronger period from the business. And so maybe, Ashim, you can just help frame how you’re incorporating some of the go-to-market changes, just some of the macro commentary and any visibility you have into just deal progression between now and end of the year and how it all stacks up into the rest of your guidance if that — if there’s any way to compare that at all to prior [indiscernible].
Ashim Gupta: I would actually just say the word, thanks, I would just say the word is consistency. We’ve been pretty consistent about guiding what’s in front of us, but also thinking about the factoring in the variability of the environment and the go-to-market transition. We’re pleased with the progress of it. We feel good about our guidance.
Operator: Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. I’ll hand the floor back to management for closing remarks.
Rob Enslin: Yeah. I’d just like to thank everybody for joining us for the questions. And I would look forward to seeing you all at Forward VI. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Have a good evening.
Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s call. All parties may disconnect. Have a good day.
