NICE (NICE) UBS’s 2025 Global Technology and AI Conference summary

Leadership and strategic priorities

• New CEO Scott Russell, formerly of SAP, brings expertise in cloud transformation and is focused on accelerating the shift from on-premise to cloud and leveraging AI capabilities.

• Strategic priorities include capitalizing on cloud migration and embedding AI in core offerings, amplified by the acquisition of Cognigy.

Growth, investments, and financial outlook

• Achieved consistent 12% cloud growth and 15% year-over-year cloud backlog growth, including Cognigy.

• Planning $160 million incremental investment in 2026 across CX/AI/cloud delivery, go-to-market, and product roadmap, mostly unrelated to Cognigy.

• Investments target sovereign cloud expansion, R&D for large enterprise features, and strengthening strategic partnerships.

• Maintains strong financials: ~$3B revenue, ~70% gross margins, 30%+ operating margins.

Competitive landscape and differentiation

• Faces competition from AI-native firms but differentiates with a fully integrated omnichannel platform and proprietary CX data models.

• Strategic partnerships with AWS, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Snowflake broaden go-to-market reach; 73% of new bookings are partner-led.

• Longstanding partnership with RingCentral targets large enterprise, complementing RingCentral’s SMB focus.