Appian Corp Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Sanjit Singh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : I wanted, Matt, to talk about, I think Serge mentioned that cloud ACV bookings this quarter was the strongest of the year. I was wondering where -- like where that strength was derived from, whether it was particular industry, whether it was a strong Fed quarter? Was it an enterprise? Just love to get some color on that. And then I have a follow-up. 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 06, 2025 / 1:30PM, APPN.OQ - Q3 2025 Appian Corp Earnings Call

Question: Sanjit Singh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Awesome. And then on the go-to-market side, right, we're seeing kind of sustained growth rates in cloud, the margins are headed higher. You've seen a multi-quarter improvement in sort of go-to-market efficiency. Where do you think we are like if we use the baseball analogy in terms of that

Question: Steve Enders - Citi - Analyst : I guess I want to start on just the Fed side, and I appreciate the call out for Q4. But I guess I want to understand a little bit better just the impact that maybe you were seeing from the efficiency focus from the government this year? And maybe how does that play out in the big budget flush quarter in 3Q versus maybe how you were originally thinking about it?

Question: Steve Enders - Citi - Analyst : Okay. That's good to hear. And then I want to ask on AI Studio and that release coming out in the next couple of weeks. I guess what has been the feedback so far from the early customer program? And how are you kind of envisioning the monetization for that product as that starts to get rolled out into general availability for customers?

Question: Raimo Lenschow - Barclays - Analyst : Congrats from me as well. I had two quick questions, one for Matt, one for Serge. Matt, if I think AI and AI adoption, we obviously are in a bit of a race. A lot of vendors are trying to do -- stake out their claim here and trying to be like the center of the universe. Can you think -- can you kind of discuss a little bit what kind of -- what do you think the determining factor will be for someone that can deliver versus someone that just has more marketing slides? And then I have one follow-up for Serge.

Question: Raimo Lenschow - Barclays - Analyst : Yes. Okay. Perfect. Makes sense. And then, Serge, for you, the -- obviously, there was timing in the profitability number this quarter, and that's why the guidance is for Q4. If you think about the overall profitability performance, though, that's kind of something that you guys will be measured on. Like where -- what -- how do you see if you kind of take away the timing differences? Where -- what path we are on there? And how do you think it from here now that you've been in the job for a little bit longer?

Question: Derrick Wood - TD Cowen - Analyst : Matt, we're seeing some software vendors move into forward deployed engineer models to help accelerate adoption. How are you thinking about the services model in the context of Appian and AI deployments and potentially kind of lean in around FTEs?

Question: Derrick Wood - TD Cowen - Analyst : Great. And Serge, can you help us understand just the bridge between your cloud net revenue retention rate at 111% and cloud growth at mid- upper teens over the last four quarters. Is the delta from migrations that aren't counted in the NRR? Or how should we think about the relationship between these two metrics?

Question: Jake Roberge - William Blair Capital Partners - Analyst : Just wanted to double-click into the expectation to grow sales headcount again next year. Can you talk about how you're expecting to balance those investments with just the continued margin expansion?

Question: Jake Roberge - William Blair Capital Partners - Analyst : Okay. That's helpful. And then we're hearing that this legacy app transformation opportunity is seeing a pretty meaningful uptick in interest right now. I know you've been building some new solutions in that area. Can you talk about how you're thinking about addressing that opportunity moving forward?