Appian Corp Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Keith Weiss - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC - Analyst : Hi. This is Keith Weiss actually filling in for Sanjit Singh this morning. Very nice quarter. A couple of questions for you guys, if you will. One for Matt, just in terms of the discussion of like process versus agents. Is it really process versus agents, or is agents sort of like a user interface and execution layer on top of process? So are you talking to us about an ability to create better agents? Or are you saying that just utilizing process could basically obviate the need to use agents, if you will?

Question: Keith Weiss - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC - Analyst : Got it. That's super clear. A couple of nice wins in federal. If we take -- if we abstract that up a little bit, and was federal overall -- was it a good federal quarter for you guys compared to prior year compared to kind of your expectations? Or was it just a couple of good wins in the quarter?

Question: Keith Weiss - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC - Analyst : Got it. And then just maybe one on the margin side of the equation. Really impressive results in EBITDA this quarter. Maybe you could talk a little bit to what enabled that upside in the quarter, like what went much better than expected to enable that EBITDA to drop down. And perhaps, dig in a little bit on where some of these efficiency savings are coming from. Investors could be and analysts could be a little bit skeptical about lowering costs without any trade-offs, if you will, not having to pay for sort of lower overall investment?

Question: Keith Weiss - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC - Analyst : Got it. Thank you, guys, for taking my questions.

Question: Derrick Wood - TD Cowen - Analyst : Great, thanks. I guess, Matt, touching back on Agentic AI. I mean, you and your competitors are rolling out new capabilities. What would you highlight are some of your key differentiators in tackling this market compared to other approaches?

Question: Derrick Wood - TD Cowen - Analyst : Got it. Thanks. And a question on pricing, actually, it's kind of a two-parter, I don't know if Matt or Mark. But you guys raised -- first of all, you guys raised pricing on some of your core tiers earlier in the year. How is this going in terms of customer adoption and any meaningful impact to revenue growth at this point? And second part, just pricing around consumption with your AI solutions. Give us an update on what that looks like and how that's been rolled out.

Question: Derrick Wood - TD Cowen - Analyst : Got it. And just if I could squeeze one more. Just on the nice bookings mix from the cloud. Mark, is there anything -- any new trend here? Or should we be expecting this to bounce around quarter to quarter? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2024 / 1:30PM, APPN.OQ - Q3 2024 Appian Corp Earnings Call

Question: Derrick Wood - TD Cowen - Analyst : Okay. Thank you.

Question: Raimo Lenschow - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Thank you. Congrats. That was a great performance this quarter. Matt, can I stay on that pricing? Like if you think about Agentic AI, there's consumption, but then it's also like a bigger debate about like outcome-based pricing. Like, will that be different for you because you're coming more from the process angle? Or is that something that we kind of should consider or the industry needs to consider?

Question: Raimo Lenschow - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Yeah. Okay. And then just double-clicking again on the strong cloud performance this quarter. Like obviously, you executed really well. Do you sense also like a change in the market in terms of how you're engaging with customers, how they are kind of understanding AI better and now finding the right vendors to engage, et cetera? Like what are you seeing like more from the bigger picture? And you might have addressed it earlier, and I might have missed it.

Question: Raimo Lenschow - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Okay, perfect. Thanks. And Mark, all the best. Thank you.

Question: Steve Enders - Citi Investment Research - Analyst : Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions. And Mark, great to have worked with you all these years. I guess just to start, I want to ask on just kind of what you're seeing out there on the macro landscape. And I think we've heard from others about a prospect of a Q4 budget flush and just would be great to kind of get your thoughts on what you're seeing out there and the prospect of that.

Question: Steve Enders - Citi Investment Research - Analyst : Okay. Great. That is helpful. And then just on the changes on the sales and go-to-market side. I guess, how are you kind of viewing about those changes that you made and with new head of sales coming in, what's kind of the focus? And what will they be focused on as they hit the ground here?

Question: Steve Enders - Citi Investment Research - Analyst : That's perfect. Thanks for taking my questions.

Question: Jake Roberge - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Yeah. Thanks for taking my questions. Could you just talk a little bit more about what you're seeing on the demand front for data fabric and some of the use cases that customers are pulling you into? And just from a competitive perspective, we've obviously heard a few other vendors launched their own kind of fabric termed solutions over the past few months. So can you kind of walk through the differentiation of your product and how you're doing things differently versus some of those other players?

Question: Jake Roberge - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Okay. That's really helpful. And then just on the monetization front, I think you've talked about monetization for fabric coming when customers start to connect you to multiple different data sources. I guess the question is what are you seeing from some of the early data fabric customers and users in just their propensity to connect you to more and more data sources within their organization? Like are you seeing that unlock start to happen? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 07, 2024 / 1:30PM, APPN.OQ - Q3 2024 Appian Corp Earnings Call

Question: Jake Roberge - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Great. Thanks for taking my questions.