Conference Transcript - CINT 2026-05-28

Operator

All right, great. We're going to kick off here with CINT. CINT is a digital engineering provider with almost 8,000 global professionals offering technology, strategy, customer experience, custom software development, cloud services, and data and AI services, so all the things that are topical today. The company has approximately 87% of its workforce base in Brazil, from which it serves enterprise clients across the U.S., Brazil, and Europe. And with us from CINT is Bruno Piccardi, co-founder and president of U.S. and EMEA. So, Bruno, thank you for being here, as always. Appreciate it.

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

Brian, nice to you guys for to have us here today. Appreciate it.

Operator

Very good. Before we get into AI and demand and all that, I think it probably makes sense from an intro standpoint, just for the audience less familiar with CINT, just talk about a brief overview and really the key areas of differentiation for the company relative to some of the large GSIs as well as some of the other digital engineering peers.

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

so we consider ourselves the most agile company out there like I think the and we see ourselves the mission that we have that kind of we have agreed among the founders and the leadership team is to serve as a trusted advisor for our clients in terms of tech transformation we've been doing this for 30 years and we did this for many different waves of transformation so we helped our clients since we started know to adopt the internet and then adopt you know the the mobile and then adopt cloud and then adopt the first generation of AI and that's what we're doing again we are trailblazers we go ahead we kind of scan the market what's actually going to transform the business of our clients try to get there first try to master that and then help our clients to navigate those waves of transformation and take advantage of those of those technology so that's what we do and that's what we're doing right now we've Jenny I and again I think the our differentiator has always been we're ahead we're ahead of the curve this reflects on our growth rates and everything we start with Jenny I specifically we start almost four years ago oh and full force so at this point we have you know 100% of our staff not only verse but mastering that technology and and kind of just showing a better performance than everybody everybody else in the street so this that's clear

Operator

I guess as it relates at it you're growing double digits a lot of the peers are flat to modestly up some players and services are down is it really you think it's that internal of that recognition early on very very

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

clearly good everybody that's a fact budget IT buds are not growing right IT buds are flat how we're growing we're growing because of stealing market share we're stealing wallet share because our performance is just superior like we're we are at in overall like 2 to 3x more performance in terms of speed and cost to our clients than we were 18 months ago. So if we're 2 to 3x on average better and their engagements were actually 5 to 10x better than we were ourselves 18 months ago, guess what happens? Clients just give you more work. And now there's a new revenue stream that's starting in 2026 as you know clients are off kind of out of the POC mode we're actually talking about real large-scale transformation when they recognize in us again you are the ones actually doing this yourself so you're the you're my trust advisor to join in join me in this in this in this journey of transformation because I recognize you actually you did it yourself and you you know how to do it other than the other players with just a nice deck of

Operator

slides okay when we get into flow to talk about what CINT flow is and how you're enabling clients to adopt gen AI through that so floor our initial vision

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

for us an AI management system that could create stability and security and compliance for us to go and do the things that we wanted to do right just like a create a foundational place where we could guarantee that we would kind of give our teams tools there were secure and compliant data segregation everything that our clients need because it's an enterprise AI right it's not not it's not a kind of ad hoc tactical things like it needs to be really enterprise level and that is that was flow provided for our teams to actually start building agents on top of flow that we could guarantee to our clients that were at that level of enterprise already right so then it is a it's a container for agents right then uh now we have like over 5,000 agents there that were built for specific purposes sometimes specific client specific agents that were built to solve specific problems for our clients and it's a platform to actually just create and share agents across sometimes teams sometimes to the overall CIT depending on how proprietary they were but that's that's it so so everybody can benefit on knowing the productivity gains and the efficiency that this new way Gentec world provides. Okay, you mentioned some

Operator

pretty notable productivity in the intro relative to traditional delivery. Can you maybe provide an example of an engagement to kind of bring some of that

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

to life? So we have like one of the biggest life sciences companies in the world as a client, and this is a client where we're doing 10x consistently since you know Q3 last year 10x right 10x and now they're kind of looking at because they kind of open the ER so this is well this is amazing it's possible guess what now they're thinking of and asking us we can replace some SAS providers internally that is was a trend that we discussed here last year that could be you know a tailwind for for services kind of replacing the bill versus buy think right you know because people are now are seen and believing it now those opportunities started to show and I pay hmm if I can do this 10x maybe I don't need to pay those tens of millions of dollars in the SaaS work here but what about we talk about this replacing this part of this part and so those are things

Operator

that are happening right now are there particular functions or work streams

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

where that's being yeah there are but i'm not gonna think any anybody's uh sticker down

Operator

try it okay um for those clients that are not moving forward with this that aren't leaning in

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

what is what's the barrier there uh our clients are pretty optimistic i guess the what i see in the industry in other or new clients when we come in that are skeptical about it what i what we see is a pattern, a pattern of incremental gains, and incremental gains are very dangerous, and that's why it's important that I mention the two to three to five to 10x, because that's a scenario where you have no doubts that this thing is actually valuable, because you see what happens in most clients, it's like, ah, we've got a 25% increase, and then 25% is a very tight math, because then what about the cost of tokens, And and then the cost of tokens is it worth 25% and by the way We don't trust a lot that 25% because we're measuring knowledge work and it's very hard to measure Right, and then the cost is very, you know, it's a real hard thing But the the return on investment here is a little soft and fluffy, right? Then they got stuck, right? Like I'm not sure and then they move slow and then they don't scale from POC to production Why that's why because the gains are very timid, right? they're in the they're in the brisk of the return on investment then and then they get stuck in kind of a let's rethink and then reanalyze it but in our case we're seeing like it's when it's two to three X when it's five X there's absolutely no question that there's value there doesn't matter okay it's a couple hundred bucks a month and tokens for per person doesn't matter because though that person is delivering five to ten X more so it's no question there's You don't need to do the math, right? But again, if the gains that you're getting is that in the incremental, then they're going to be back on the spreadsheets. But then you get stuck, right? But I think the mistake there is actually trying to go very organic and just kind of trusting that the current strategy, which is just access and enablement, will get you to 3x, will not get you to 3x. No, that's that we're gonna get is a 20 30 percent X the 30 percent, right? So that's what it gonna gonna get you the just give people the tools and and let them do it and Think that this we're gonna get you to anywhere It will not that you really have to rethink and re re-examine The value stream the real process to reinvent the process to actually get the three to five to ten X Okay, all right So and that's what we're doing and we start doing, you know Because we started three years ago, because we got the 2x, the 25% and 30% years ago when we were unsatisfied. And then we kind of, you know, many iterations of this process improvement. That's where we are now.

Operator

As far as the clients that are leaning in most aggressively, is there any common theme? Is it certain industries or is it, you know, the nature of just how old a company may be?

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

I think it's more product of how the competition is in their industries. Than anything else like the people that are we need a game like you're like anywhere else in the world They're not to bother to try new things like they're winning their the winner games in their industries. They're happy But people that are pressured people that have competition Financial services is a very sensitive one relic their new players I think we're very fortunate to be actually originated in Brazil and Compete in the financial service in Brazil, which is kind of very very competitive very dynamic kind of exposes us to some really cool things there because the the banks there move way faster than in the developed world so yeah but but again like it's more I think a product of their their current status of competition than anything else okay what about the areas of like new

Operator

activities new addressable markets that's that this is potentially creating for you you talk about what types of service activities that may be new as a result of flow and then just gen AI adoption yeah I think I think in overall

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

I think we'll kind of take us to to be more like a mix of a consultancy and an implementation partner for our clients then then new markets I think we'll still be focused on where we are today which is kind of more consumer facing markets that's where we see more potential I like the industry that we cover today are very consumer facing like banking insurance retail CPG auto health and life sciences right so they're very date our clients have millions tens of millions of clients of clients and consumers we think this is important because as the expectations of consumers change because of that technology their interactions the way they interact and the way they kind of entertain discover sell serve those clients will completely change and there will be a lot of opportunity there so but but for us I think we have to kind of a to be like a more of an advisor plus uh someone that implements because i think those those things two things will converge in the future right there will be no space for hiring someone to do a strategy for six months and then an implementation for another 12 18 months there will be those all those things will collapse in uh you know another in a couple weeks type of work you see so uh even the strategy work will i think will uh will change dramatically and uh We're looking to actually to be that type of player for our clients someone that can advise with a specific domain expertise and actually do do it because there'll be no time to actually think about it and do it because At this point, I think people even didn't realize it. Yeah, right Because we're looking at only the doing part right the doing part is being compressed and let's say 20x We're just things that were done in a year now can be done in a week, right? okay but does it make sense to take nine months to decide nothing that I can do in a week right so then you have to kind of completely reinvent the upstream process of decision-making right so to maybe something that is more a how many ideas do you have you don't need to be competing here on the board meetings on what's the best idea it makes sense today or even five years ago because no So, yes, to do something means a lot of resources and a lot of time. But if it doesn't, why are we doing this?

Operator

So you're talking about more or less like a vertically integrated service provider, but from the starting point all the way through to delivery and management. How do you think about the talent that you have to go acquire to enable that type of a model?

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

I think we have more of the business acumen people that we have to kind of acquire and train. We do have the chops on the tech stack part that that's that's that's given I think it was more like building up to that kind of business acumen and kind of domain specific That's where that's where I have to acquire anything the McKinsey's of the world and the base will be will be doing exactly opposite Yeah, exactly building building the the tech chop, but I don't think there will be space for it to be fragmented to be split I think, you know, we'll converge to one type of player someone that can do end-to-end And I think it will be a race to who actually gets there first and better.

Operator

It's interesting because a lot of the vendor consolidation commentary in the industry is more so just perceived to be in the IT services layer, right? Versus that whole vertical that you're referring to here. So I guess it could be both.

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

I can be wrong. But my thesis is that the time frames will compress dramatically. And there's no space to fragment in that compressed space. Like you have to be an end-to-end because end-to-end will take a couple weeks. So there's no way to to create different types of Engagement during that that that space. Okay

Operator

Clearly you obviously you're growing well ahead of peers You're winning share as a result of flow because you were early in general adoption internally but as Competitors kind of catch up and they have build their own solutions and platforms and IP. How do you sustain competitive advantage?

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

I think just we've continued to kind of keep up with the with the with our own in satisfaction and kind of in all of yeah they will we're pretty sure that uh you know they will catch up at two to three X very soon but we already seen engagement at five to ten X right so when they they are to the three X we're five to ten when they forget to fiber to 20 like in and I think we have to kind of create in this when everything stabilizes if ever stabilizes I think the game will be about you know who actually understands more of certain domains right and we actually can create value because I think we're gonna move to a place where there will never be so easy to do things so we didn't cheap but will never be so hard to do things that actually move the needle because doing will be a commodity will be an incredible space that will live right like doing things will be commodity so how actually you create impact how actually gain market share for our kind of thinking of our client like how they actually do things that actually move the needle for them if the doing is anyone can do right so I think that that level of expertise and integration and speed and ability to create optionality and try a lot of new things and ability to do experimentation of scale, we actually create the value for our clients there.

Operator

Okay, any concerns on just the magnitude of this productivity and this, you know, the sector pricing dynamics that come from that? So you're talking about

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

deflationary, like if everything can do 20 times faster, would the market shrink by 20 times, right? Yes, and yes, the work that exists today will shrink by 20x. easy right but let's look at the bigger picture the bigger picture is are the work that is being done today will be the same in three or four years right I think again like I think no one will be crazy to actually run the way they run today which is okay what's our best idea and do our best idea I think they will go for a space right if we can do this let me do ten ideas right volume the Volume of things that we will try because again will be hard will be a wave unfortunately be a way more way a way more unpredictable world that we'll be living in will be hard to kind of this is my strategy no it's gonna gonna do and this will work you won't know so we will have to create only optionality is the only meaningful tool to fight unpredictability right so only doing a lot of things and do an experimentation at scale so I think we'll be creating more and more and more things and until we actually see what actually moves the needle so even if individual projects will go down by 20x I think it will be doing 10x more projects right and I think the other other services and other industries and other possibilities will open when you can do things way cheaper other things that were not possibly economically feasible open up I don't I don't can I can't imagine a world with less software than we have today And I think particularly for services. I think there are also some tailwinds as I mentioned I think there will be a lot of replacement from from build to buy, you know Replacements of software, you know players that have been there for years that you know Come companies are looking at why am I paying this like why I'm paying this this bill if I can just I can build this and wait and just go with whatever I need, right? So I think this will kind of increase also the the the market for us in the end Yes, maybe a concern for you guys like what was the temp the temp goes down by two, you know Guess half of what it is. I'm not concerned. I'm gonna be a winner in that new market Yes, I'm gonna be a winner in that new market I don't care if it goes down, you know, if it's 50% what it is today It's still a very fragmented market right like it used to be like know the winner of the previous market But had two percent of the biggest player had two percent. It's a very fragmented market. Yeah, I could care less

Operator

I'm gonna win in that new market. Okay. Are you seeing any new kind of any new crop of competition?

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

Not really I think I'm very curious to see what the the new deployment companies from the the guys It's kind of a how they how they do I think would be great It's like I think for 14 says great validation You know that someone needs to do this last mile because of the deployment and that translation and kind of those things don't don't kind of happen You know exponentially Not concerned with the competition leader like they're very they'll be very small and and again They will join this market. They'll be point something percent in a market. That's very fragmented I think it's just a great validation for the whole market that uh for investors I guess that are still very concerned that uh what happens to services That serves actually much needed and it would continue to be much needed for for for the foreseeable future

Operator

Okay, how's all this activity translating to kind of the contracting and the financial profile? So how is this being done differently as you think about the terms and conditions in these new engagements?

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

Yeah, I think I think as you kind of move forward However, if you're creating, again, back to my incremental gains versus exponential gains, if you're showing exponential gains, and we've seen this in many clients, we're seeing two to three to five X exponential gains, very easy to negotiate any type of engagement, like to charge for the tokens they're using, to change the model to outcome base, to output base. But again, everything after the evidence that this actually has something, no there's something for me in there for the client okay I see the benefits in this and you're talking to me about paying for your token cost if I'm only seeing the 25% gain the conversation will be tough right but if they're seeing like doing five times five times faster okay that's that's easy easy conversation right okay bring bring me the token cost let's talk about different

Operator

model that's okay that's a component of a contract though is I mean as you think about the traditional TNM, now it's an, like, can you talk about the components of that new model?

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

We're trying many, and we, in all frankness, we don't know what will be the winning or defining model in the future. It will all be a factor of how other players are doing it. It's very unpredictable. What we're trying to do is, again, optionality. We're trying to have options for our clients and be flexible but they vary from you know tm tm tnm plus token costs to fixed price to output base you know like we created a metric of a software productivity that's we kind of made open source uh some clients adopted other people are adopting as well so we actually can measure output of the work and charge per output outcome base a lot of models on outcome base So a variety of models there and let's see what actually

Operator

Will be the winning one. Okay, and then on that cost side as we think about model cost over there, you know, there's a big Discussion right now about the economics around tokens and model selection things like that How do you how do you help clients with that as you think about like the open models versus? Donational starting points. How do you manage that through flow? Yeah, the flow we have that intelligence there

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

we build that intelligence we know what the what type of uh work work streams and questions are actually way better uh conditioned to certain models right so we don't kind of waste you know asking a very sophisticated and expensive model a simple question so flow helps with that right so with uh which kind of minimize the cost we our cost our cost of tokens compared to what we kind of kind of a see clients mention is just it's like an order of magnitude and cheaper just because of that because of that optimization of that level right so that understanding that our people kind of got to and the intelligence that we embed into flow that can can drive you know the right the right work to the right model right depending on the depending on actually the the prompt on

Operator

the question that you're asking okay is are you seeing a change in client conversations at all in the last couple of weeks just as it relates to this

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

topic not and I think because again because they're seeing this 3 to 5x thing I think that's that's the that's the core of the question there because if you're too if you're too narrow then the cost of tokens become a big thing yeah but if you're doing 3x that's the eye okay I'm paying a couple hundred bucks per person per month why should I care if this person is actually being To 3x more productive, but if it that person if I still in doubt how much of that person is productive Yeah, then that 300 bucks. I'm going to talk about okay. Okay. Okay. What about IP?

Operator

So some companies are leaning into IP and they're talking about a blurring of kind of services and software models and You know, you mentioned some of your contract structures are sharing some cases though fixed price outcome base that doesn't necessarily You know why IP is there but are you thinking about IP as part of the model too? Yes, we are

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

We are, but again, we're not trying to go all the way to a SaaS model trying to own that because I think that's dangerous. We're looking at IP more like what are the agents and the piece of software that we can build that will accelerate a certain domain knowledge expertise or a type of solution that we can kind of build in blocks that we can own that we again can bring to an engagement as a value add, as something that will kind of make it even better for the client. that kind of brings some business value or accelerates deployment, right, so.

Operator

Not necessarily being charged in isolation, though.

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

Yeah, no, again, we would love to, and we have some models where we're charging for those components on a consumption basis, right? Agent consumption units, ACUs. But again, that's part of the, building this fast-paced end-to-end integrated kind of services there will be IP there we imagine we're investing a ton that today and I think we'll change I think a lot of the profile of again that this the the the leaders the winners of this new market will look way way less black and white than it is

Operator

today okay okay maybe we take it back up now to broader demand dynamics kind of what are you seeing out there you're obviously growing well this year but maybe talk about what clients are you know requiring the pace of client decision making that you've experienced in the pipeline

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

i think i think we're starting to see in 2026 some like uh conversations you know out of the pilot phase like really how we actually scale this transformation bigger projects and I think we're starting to see some signs of something I think we discussed last year, which also will be a big tailwind for the sector, which is consumer pressure in those clients. So if you remember, I made a prediction here as a full prophet to saying, this will change when consumers start pressuring our clients to say, hey, how come you don't have this experience? Because their experience with the ChatDBTs, the the codes of the life will raise their expectations or what their interactions with their brands and clients and companies are right and this will put pressure on them to actually start doing things that are more consumer facing instead of just what they're doing today which is kind of more internal things more employee facing trying to get efficient operational efficiency and I think we're starting to see a bit of that in 2026 not massive but we're starting to see more a willingness to actually kind of let's put this in front of actually experiences from the customers and consumers. Let's do this.

Operator

So that could pressure some of the laggards that weren't leaning in. Yes, exactly.

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

And that I think that's the biggest demand that will be. Once that starts to unlock, that will be a massive demand, I think, for the sector.

Operator

Okay, last one for you. I understand you don't have Middle East direct exposure, but is that conflict cropping up in any client conversations indirectly? Is it causing any change?

Bruno Guicardi, Analyst — Other

No, not really. Not really. Our clients, they are global companies. They have presence there, but not enough, I guess, to change directions of their strategy in terms of technology. Not enough.

Operator

All right, very good. Well, Bruno, we're out of time, but I appreciate the conversation. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.