Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - In Q1 2026, total revenue reached $181.4 million, near the high end of guidance, reflecting strong execution across the business [33] - Service revenue was $176.3 million, above the high end of guidance, showing a 2% year-over-year improvement [33] - Gross margin was 67.8%, down year-over-year and sequentially, primarily due to a shift towards usage-based communication platform revenue [34] - Cash flow from operations exceeded $11 million for the quarter, with $82.2 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at quarter-end [36] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - Consumption-based revenue, primarily from CPaaS solutions, grew more than 30% year-over-year [14] - Usage-based revenue accounted for approximately 17% of total service revenue, up from 12% in Q1 2025 [33] - Revenue from customers using three or more products now accounts for about one-third of annual subscription revenue [22] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - Adoption of the intelligent customer assistant rose 75% year-over-year, with voice interactions growing more than 7x year-over-year [18] - 8x8 is recognized as a top five Operator Connect partner worldwide, enhancing visibility in the ecosystem [17] Company Strategy and Development Direction - The company is transitioning from SKU-based selling to outcome-based selling, focusing on solutions rather than features [19] - The product roadmap includes enhancements with AI-enabled tools and a modern intuitive interface to improve customer outcomes [25] - The company is expanding internationally, targeting industries like retail, healthcare, and government [25] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management noted that the headwinds from the Fuse upgrade are receding, with expectations of a 1.5% growth headwind for the next year [50][52] - Despite macro pressures, only 17% of enterprises plan to reduce customer engagement budgets, indicating a strong market for customer experience solutions [9] - The company remains confident in its long-term growth strategy and ability to execute against it, despite anticipated lower gross margins due to the growth of communications platform solutions [40] Other Important Information - The company made a $15 million term loan prepayment during Q1, reducing total debt by 40% since August 2022 [32] - Stock-based compensation as a percentage of revenue was 3.5%, reflecting a downward trend in this expense [36] Q&A Session Summary Question: What does the headwind from the Fuse migration look like? - The Fuse headwind to growth is about 3% in the last quarter, with expectations to retain roughly half of the remaining Fuse revenue as customers migrate to the 8x8 platform [49][50] Question: How do you see the margin profile evolving? - The usage-based margin profile is lower but growing faster, with expectations of a 1% to 2% increase in usage-based revenue per quarter [53][54] Question: How does the company weigh buying versus building in the AI space? - The company prefers building and partnering over buying, focusing on in-house AI development and partnerships with best-in-breed providers [58] Question: Are there any trends in legacy migrations? - The company is seeing a tailwind from legacy vendors facing challenges, which is beneficial for overall industry performance [63] Question: What is the growth outlook for the CPaaS business geographically? - The Asia business is growing rapidly, over 30% year-over-year, with traction also seen in the UK and the US [78]

As AI continues to transform industries, companies are faced with the critical challenge of effectively monetizing AI-driven products in a way that captures value, ensures customer adoption, and scales revenue sustainably. Unlike traditional SaaS models, AI-powered products have unique complexities - such as fluctuating usage patterns, variable compute costs, and evolving customer demands, making conventional pricing strategies unhelpful to the growth of an AI product-led startup. In this session, Alvaro Mo ...

[Music] Thanks for coming to my talk. I'm Shazage. Uh I'm one of the co-founders at Orb.Um and I'm going to be talking about how to think about pricing. Um maybe top level takeaway uh from this talk is that pricing is a is a deep complicated topic. We're going to cover some examples. We're going to cover some tactical advice.Um, but in general, the way you should think about pricing is pricing is a form of friction uh for your product and sometimes that friction can be applied for very good reason. Sometime ...