Dara Khosrowshahi
Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open
Yes, absolutely. So, I think as far as the cost structure goes, listen, we manage the cost structure dynamically based on the environment that we're seeing. And I think the results speak for themselves in terms of our bookings growth, [strip] [ph] acceleration on a quarter-on-quarter basis. And then you look at our EBITDA that we delivered well above street expectations, well above our guidance, and the forward EBITDA 800 million to 850 million that we guided to again even at the low-end above what street expectations were. So, we will be managing our cost structure to the opportunities ahead and also with a very strong, kind of dose of discipline. So, even in a market where we're gaining category position, we expect our headcount to be flat to down for the balance of the year, and that is going to be our starting point as we go into next year as well. So, I think you're going to see pretty extraordinary leverage in terms of the top line and bottom line. The incremental EBITDA that we delivered this last quarter was 12%, which is well above the 7% target that we talked about. And if you look at our guidance, the incremental EBITDA that we're talking about for Q2 was about 10%, which remains well above our targets. If the business slows down and we don't expect it to slow down materially, we will adjust and I think Nelson and myself, the rest of the team have a demonstrated the ability to deliver in good markets and bad markets. Remember, this is not a fair weather company. We've been through a lot of difficult things we came out of COVID. So, just the muscles, the P&L muscles were there. And hopefully you'll remember early last year before everyone else was raising alarms about the reality of today's capital markets and discipline needed, we raised the alarms internally and we took action early so that we didn't have to be reactive like a lot of other tech companies had been. So like, we're innovating, we're building, while a bunch of people are restructuring, and I think that's a good position to be in. As far as AI goes, we are looking full stack at AI. I think a lot of people obviously want to talk about the sexy, kind of new consumer applications. I would tell you that I think that the earliest and most significant effect that AI is going to have on our company is going to have to – is actually going to be as it relates to our developer productivity. Some of the tools that we're seeing in terms of co-pilot are going to allow our devs to, kind of be super-devs and to be able to innovate more, build more faster having co-pilot along with them. And that will essentially leverage and accelerate innovation across the platform. And this is where the platform that I think is innovating faster than anyone else. I think on the cost side, you can see chatbots powering a lot more experiences as opposed to let's say live agents. I think the quality of those chatbot experiences is going to increase with AI with a voice that can be more human, interactions that can be more complex, etcetera. And then we will look to surprise and delight. Pick me up at the airport. I'm arriving in American flight 260 on Tuesday. And we will know who you are, where your home is, what kind of cars you like, etcetera, and AI can power those kinds of experiences. So, it's going to go from productivity to cost to delight. And we're thrilled. It's like, it's a wonderful ploy that hopefully will return significantly going forward for the company.