Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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hey we are also watching shares of z uh z scalar they're getting smacked down a bit today down about 13 percent hitting a 52-week low now down about 36 percent year to date stock is down more than 60 percent since november of 2021. investors selling shares after the security software company's second quarter results they beat estimates they weren't though strong seen as strong enough to reverse recent negative sentiment toward software companies it comes on top of a tough week
For company shares, stock tumbled 10% on Monday on the AI scare. Worries again, Carol, over the impact of AI on companies and industries. Shares, though, rallied back close to 17% in the next three days, thanks to a calming down a little bit in the trade.
Yeah, it's been a crazy week for Zscaler, no doubt about that. We should point out a bunch of analysts weighing in on the company's earnings and lowering their price target on the stock. But let's get into the business, the outlook, and more. Delighted to have back with us Jay Chowdhury, he's founder, chairman, and CEO of Zscaler, joining us from San Jose, California. Welcome back.
Also with us, someone who understands, follows this company very closely, our own Mandeep Singh. He is Bloomberg Intelligence Global Head of Technology Research here in studio. Jay, tell us a little about the quarter, and I think we all want to know how AI is impacting your business. Let's start there.
So AI is a massive opportunity because what AI is doing is bringing lots of AI agents in the enterprise. Agents are some alike people. Traditionally, users have been the weakest link for cybersecurity. Now, AI agents are becoming the weakest link. How do you secure them? Well, you need to make sure that you can do one-to-one connection.
That means an agent can only access certain applications and nothing more. That requires a global infrastructure that Z-Square has built in the form of zero-test exchange. That's why we're very bullish about our future. So go ahead, Mandeep.
Jay, I think the street obviously didn't like the Billings number in your print, and that was seen as moderating. Was that attributed primarily because of seed growth slowing down, and we keep hearing layoffs like the one that Square announced yesterday, or was there anything more to the Billings number last night?
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Chapter 2: What challenges did Zscaler face after their latest earnings report?
So billings is a secondary number for us. The number one area of focus for us is ARR growth and revenue growth. Our revenue grew 26% year over year. ARR, 25%. Free cash flow, 18%. Operating margin, 22%. They're all great numbers. Now, we have a Z-Flex program that gives some flexibility in billings.
So, billings can get impacted, but with Z-Flex, customers are doing multi-year, four- or five-year deals with us, committing to Z-scaler, which is a very strong sign. So, I don't think the billing should be viewed in a negative light. Overall business is very strong.
Jay, I want to go back to what you said about AI and protecting these AI agents and just how you're thinking about that, because I think a lot of people are trying not just to understand the impact of AI on cybersecurity, but the impact of AI on a company like yours when it comes to operations.
So from an operations perspective, with the context of what we saw from Block late yesterday, the company relying more on AI and less on actual human beings, how are you using AI at the company operationally? to increase your margins, to make your employees more productive.
Or get rid of employees.
Nobody's going to answer that.
Everyone should and need to use AI. We use AI to make sure we can deliver better customer support to our employees. The AI agents are helping us. We are increasing productivity of our engineering team by using all this stuff. But I think the numbers that block share, they seem way out of line that anyone else is saying out there. We are seeing some reduction in hiring. additional hiring.
But I do think that in some of these critical areas, you need people. I am hiring more developers for AI development, for example. And for us, many times customers think that as the number of employees may not grow, that means it impacts our user-based pricing. The user base may slow down from growth point of view, but we are actually securing all the agentic traffic, all the agents.
When we have millions of users, we'll have billions of agents to secure. That provides an opportunity for us to secure the enterprises and monetize it.
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Chapter 3: How is AI impacting Zscaler's business model?
What is it that is really making them go with Zscaler in terms of the efficacy aspect specifically?
So Zscaler is not a piece of code that you bundle where the hyperscaler goes out there. Zscaler is a globally distributed infrastructure sitting in 160 locations around the globe. So any traffic from an enterprise that may be from users, that may be from cloud workloads, that may be from AI agents,
It needs to access our application services, and we become the switchboard, the policy enforcement for that. That traffic will go to Microsoft, AWS, Google, Anthropic, doesn't matter. We are the policy enforcement point to make sure right people get access to the right application, right agents get access to the right applications. Imagine agents getting hacked and hijacked on your network.
That's a problem. That's what we secure.
You mentioned Anthropic, and fresh in our minds is what's happening between the U.S. government, the Department of Defense, and Anthropic right now. We're going to be covering that in our 4 o'clock hour today. But on the government, is the U.S. government actually buying more of your services right now? Are deals happening? Are they getting delayed? How would you characterize that?
So federal is a strong market segment for us. Last year, it went through some changes, but it is back on track. We have strong pipeline. We have strong business in the federal government. 13 of the 14 cabinet level agencies use Zscaler to secure themselves.
So just to recap, 30 seconds, AI not a threat to your business? I mean, software.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of AI agents becoming the weakest link in cybersecurity?
AI is an opportunity for our business.
Not a threat.
not a threat at all. And securing agentic technology is the number one thing CIOs want to make sure they can do it. That's holding them back from larger rollout, and we become enablers of it.
Well, we always appreciate getting time with you. Jay, thank you. Thank you so much on what was, I know, a busy week. Jay Chowdhury there, founder, chairman, and CEO of Zscaler. Have a good weekend, along with, of course, our own Mandeep Singh, Bloomberg Intelligence Global Head of Technology.
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Chapter 5: How does Zscaler ensure security for AI agents?
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Chapter 6: What is the significance of billings and revenue growth for Zscaler?
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