印度科技服务巨头Infosys（印孚瑟斯）在人工智能方面传来喜忧参半的消息。在上周晚些时候发布的最新季度业绩中，该公司披露，其AI收入实现了29%的环比增长，目前贡献了Infosys 10.5%的现金流入。这些数字远比Infosys第二财季报告的1.5%同比收入增长要好看得多。“增长低于我们的预期。业务量较为疲软，在竞争激烈的环境下，涨价幅度低于预期，”首席财务官Jayesh Sanghrajka对投资者表示。
Indian tech services giant Infosys has mixed news about AI. In its most recent quarterly results late last week, the company revealed that it’s racked up 29 percent sequential growth in AI revenue, which now delivers 10.5 percent of Infosys’ incoming cash. Those are far nicer numbers than the 1.5 percent year-on-year revenue growth Infosys reported for its second quarter. “Growth was below our expectations. Volume was softer, and price increases were lower than anticipated amid high competitive intensity,” chief financial officer Jayesh Sanghrajka told investors.
涨价幅度较低的一个原因是，客户期望Infosys在使用AI时收费更低，而这些成本节约如今已“内嵌”进其多年期交易中。首席执行官兼董事总经理Salil Parekh也指出，AI是服务成本下降的原因之一。“我认为我们今天看到的情况是，确实有一些同行在定价方面投入了更为激烈的努力，”他说，“但这也是全行业普遍存在的现象，源于宏观环境以及关于AI生产力的讨论。如果你今天与客户就大型项目进行洽谈，那是着眼于三年或五年的前景。”
One reason for lower price increases was that customers expect Infosys to charge less when it uses AI, and those cost savings are now “baked in” to its multi-year deals. CEO and managing director Salil Parekh also pointed to AI as one reason the cost of services is falling. “I think what we see today is there is definitely some of our peers who are putting, I would say, more intense effort into the pricing pressure,” he said, “but it is also across the board because of the environment and also the discussion on AI productivity. If you are talking with clients today on large programs, it is a three or five-year outlook.”
这使得Infosys不得不依赖AI带来的新业务来提振收入增长，而AI同时也让其难以在现有客户身上继续增加收入。Sanghrajka表示，Infosys不会通过低价竞标来赢单，并打算将利润率维持在21%左右。他引用“一个我们放弃了、或未予追求的大单，因为它不符合我们的回报预期”来佐证这一点。为维护利润率，公司正在实施“Project Maximus”（最大化项目），以在自身运营中挖掘效率提升空间。
That leaves Infosys dependent on new work from AI to boost revenue growth, while AI also makes it hard to keep growing revenue from existing customers. Infosys won’t go low to win deals and intends to hold its margins at around 21 percent, Sanghrajka said. He sought to prove that point by citing “a large deal that we walked out of, or we did not pursue because it did not meet our return expectations.”To help preserve margins, the company is conducting “Project Maximus” to find efficiencies within its own operations.
利用AI工具赢取更多销售也在计划之中。公司预见未来几个月将面临困难。Sanghrajka表示，零售和高科技行业已放缓服务支出，并承认Infosys财年的下半年通常是淡季。
AI-powered tools to win more sales are also in the mix. The company sees difficult months ahead. Sanghrajka said the retail and high-tech industries have slowed their services spending and acknowledged that the second half of Infosys’s financial year is usually its slow period.
该公司试图让投资者放心，指出在其财年上半年赢得了88亿美元的新交易——其中68%来自净新增客户——作为英孚康（Infosys）基本面稳健的迹象。但该公司对未来也给出了不太乐观的指引。在第一季度财报中，英孚康预测全年营收增长1.5%至3.0%。到了第二季度，它将该预测下调至1.0%至2.0%。英孚康股价在该消息公布后并未暴跌，但过去十二个月已下跌逾25%。彭博社报道称，投资分析师已下调该公司评级，表明他们看衰其前景。®
The company tried to convince investors that they have little to worry about, pointing to $8.8 billion of new deals won in the first half of its financial year – 68 percent of which were net new customers – as a sign that Infosys’ fundamentals are sound. But the company also offered less optimistic guidance about its future. In its Q1 results, Infosys predicted full-year revenue growth of 1.5 to 3.0 percent. In Q2, it revised that prediction to 1.0 to 2.0 percent. Infosys’s share price didn’t dive after that news but is already down over 25 percent in the last twelve months. And Bloomberg reports that investment analysts have downgraded the company, suggesting they feel its prospects are poor. ®