CI&T Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

CI&T (NYSE:CINT) reported record first-quarter 2026 revenue and raised its full-year outlook, citing broad demand for artificial intelligence-related services and early traction from new pricing models designed to capture more of the value created by AI-driven productivity gains.

Founder and CEO Cesar Gon said the quarter marked the company’s sixth consecutive period of double-digit organic growth. “Clients are moving beyond experimentation and beginning to rebuild their technology foundations, operating models, and business processes around AI,” Gon said on the earnings call.

The company reported net revenue of BRL 136.6 million for the first quarter, up 23.2% year over year on an organic basis. On a constant-currency basis, revenue grew 15.5%, according to CFO Stanley Rodrigues, who said results exceeded the company’s guidance and current analyst estimates.

AI Deployment Drives Broad-Based Growth

Management framed CI&T’s strategy around two AI-related growth vectors: “AI deployment,” which expands revenue through IP-based solutions and AI adoption engagements, and “AI monetization,” which aims to expand margins through new pricing models.

Gon said 2025 was a strong year for AI deployment and that the trend strengthened in 2026. He added that AI monetization is becoming more tangible, with 20% of new sales in the first quarter based on new pricing models. Those models include output-based, consumption-based and outcome-based structures, he said during the Q&A session.

“We expect these models to contribute to gross margin expansion over the coming quarters as adoption continues to accelerate,” Gon said.

Rodrigues said growth was broad across geographies and industries. Latin America revenue increased 33%, North America grew 16%, and new markets increased 11% year over year. CI&T also expanded revenue from its top 10 accounts by 18.9%, while management said nearly all industry verticals grew at double-digit rates, with consumer goods remaining stable.

Profitability Pressured by FX and Payroll Taxes

Adjusted EBITDA was BRL 20.8 million in the quarter, up 6.3% from a year earlier, representing a 15.2% margin. Rodrigues said the margin reflected unfavorable foreign exchange comparisons and increased Brazilian payroll taxes.

Excluding the FX impact, Rodrigues said adjusted EBITDA would have been BRL 22.2 million, equivalent to a 17.4% margin and 13.2% year-over-year growth. He said the foreign exchange impact was more pronounced in the first quarter due to the year-over-year comparison between the Brazilian real and U.S. dollar and is expected to lessen over coming quarters.

Adjusted profit reached BRL 10.2 million, up 6.2% year over year, with an adjusted net income margin of 7.5%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were BRL 0.08, an 11.8% increase from the first quarter of 2025.

During the Q&A session, Rodrigues said the company is maintaining its adjusted EBITDA margin guidance of 17% to 19% for the year. He cited normal seasonality, operating leverage and expected benefits from AI monetization as factors supporting margins later in the year.

New Pricing Models Remain a Key Focus

Analysts pressed management on the structure and potential margin impact of CI&T’s evolving contract models. Gon said the company expects the transition toward new pricing models to play out over roughly 18 months as existing long-term engagements renew and new sales become a larger share of revenue.

Gon said the new models are tied closely to the company’s IP-based offerings and AI delivery capabilities. “As more IP is on the table in a deal, more feasible is to introduce new commercial models,” he said.

When asked about the potential margin impact, Gon said the new pricing models could increase contribution margin by “three or four” percentage points to “10 or 15” percentage points, depending on the engagement. Rodrigues added that as CI&T captures more value through AI monetization, the company expects to reinvest part of those gains into sales to support growth.

Management also said the company continues to see a rational pricing environment, including for traditional time-and-materials contracts, and that clients are open to discussions about new commercial structures when CI&T can demonstrate the impact of AI deployment.

Talent Strategy Centers on ‘AI Builders’

Bruno Guicardi, founder and President for North America and Europe, said CI&T ended the quarter with more than 8,000 professionals, including an average of 6,600 “AI builders.” Headcount increased 13.3% year over year, below the company’s 15.5% constant-currency revenue growth.

Guicardi said that gap has begun to lift revenue per professional and that the company expects the trend to widen as AI monetization scales. He said CI&T’s talent is shifting from traditional code development toward curating AI, using CI&T FLOW and the company’s agentic software development life cycle model to shorten delivery timelines.

Management said voluntary attrition was 10.3%, described by Guicardi as the lowest level in the company’s recent history. He also noted CI&T’s 4.1 Glassdoor score and its recognition by Great Place to Work for 19 consecutive years.

Asked whether AI adoption could lead to headcount reductions, Guicardi said the company does not anticipate that outcome. He said CI&T aims to be a leader in the emerging market for AI builders and expects to continue growing both revenue and headcount if it succeeds.

Guidance Raised After Strong First Quarter

For the second quarter of 2026, CI&T expects revenue of at least $140 million, representing 19.5% year-over-year growth, or 13.9% growth at constant currency, according to Gon.

The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $556 million to $575 million. Gon said that implies organic growth of 13.5% to 17.5%, with a midpoint of 15.5%. The revised outlook includes an estimated positive foreign exchange impact of about 350 basis points, 50 basis points higher than the company’s prior guidance.

Gon said 100 basis points of the 150-basis-point increase in revenue guidance was driven by “pure organic momentum and improved pipeline conversion,” while the remainder came from foreign exchange.

Management said the company’s pipeline remains healthy, with Gon noting during the Q&A session that the value of deals in the pipeline is 30% higher than the same period last year and “100% relate to AI deployment.”

Asked about geopolitical uncertainty, management said it has not seen a meaningful impact on client decision-making. The company said its growth outlook is based on expansion within large, stable clients and its ability to win more wallet share through AI-driven value creation.

About CI&T (NYSE:CINT)

CI&T Inc (NYSE:CINT) is a global digital solutions and technology services provider specializing in end-to-end digital transformation. The company partners with clients across industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare and technology to deliver tailored software products, agile development practices and customer-centric design. Its core offerings include digital strategy consulting, user experience and interface design, cloud-native application development, data engineering and full-cycle product lifecycle management.

Leveraging a proprietary agile framework, CI&T helps organizations accelerate time-to-market and improve operational efficiency through continuous delivery and DevOps automation.