Connections

Veritone continued to make progress on its artificial intelligence (AI) and overall strategy in the third quarter (ended Sept. 30), according to Ryan Steelberg, the company’s CEO and president.

“Our value proposition is resonating with partners, and Veritone’s AI solutions continue to gain traction in the target market verticals we serve,” he said in an earnings release on Nov. 8.

“Exactly a year ago, Veritone announced my appointment as CEO and I introduced several strategic initiatives, including focused execution, operational excellence and fiscal responsibility, to accelerate our path to profitable growth and drive long-term shareholder value,” he told analysts on an earnings call.

“I continue to be impressed with our team’s progress against [that] framework,” he said, explaining: “Despite lingering uncertainty across financial and consumer markets, Veritone has made significant strides in streamlining operations and we look to the start of 2024 as an inflection point in our growth trajectory.”

The company, meanwhile, “intensified its focus on the verticals we serve, allocating our resources to established markets where we have demonstrated differentiation and strong product-market fit,” he noted.

“Even amidst the difficulties posed by the challenging macroeconomic environment, our customers are affirming the value of our services by choosing to extend their contracts,” he told analysts.

In addition to operational changes it’s made, “Veritone’s dedication to fiscal responsibility resulted in $24 million in annualized savings year-to-date, and we expect to realize more as we progress through the end of the year,” he noted.

He added: “As we approach the conclusion of 2023, I remain confident in our path forward, the strategic value of our products and services as well as the enduring growth potential of our business.

Citing Goldman Sachs research, he said companies “in the AI ecosystem can be classified into two distinct groups: Enablers who make cognitive and generative AI possible, or empowered entities that harness the power of cognitive and generative AI to grow stronger.  As enterprises increasingly seek to deploy AI solutions faster than ever before, they face unique challenges in integrating and productively managing the growing sea of disparate data, as well as the AI models they utilize.”

He explained: “By leveraging Veritone’s proprietary aiWARE platform, our integration capabilities and our established partnerships, we support AI-empowered companies in implementing cognitive and generative AI into their key business lines and work productivity tools. Veritone is an enabler, and we are committed to advancing human potential by blending human expertise with AI technology, helping organizations solve problems and achieve more than ever before.”

Shifting to Veritone’s media and entertainment business, he said the company “remains at the forefront of driving AI innovation in [that] sector. Our comprehensive range of services spans content and advertising analytics, asset management, licensing and bespoke cognitive and generative AI solutions…. Despite the turbulent environment impacting consumer behavior and the active SAG-AFTRA and recently settled WGA strikes, our customer retention and engagement metrics in media and entertainment remain resilient.”

In Q3, Veritone signed and renewed contracts with talent agency CAA, United States Tennis Association, NBC Universal, A&E Networks, HBO and Augusta National, he noted.

“Recently, on the heels of the Women’s World Cup, we renewed and extended our longstanding AI and monetization partnership with the U.S. Soccer Federation,” he added. “Together, we will continue our efforts to oversee licensing rights and optimize content management and monetization with U.S. Women’s and Men’s National Teams, Youth National Teams and Extended National Teams.”

In Q3, Veritone also renewed its “flagship partnership” with iHeartMedia, providing the media company with Veritone’s AI-based applications and solutions, to “enable them to continue to drive consumer engagement and ROI for their advertisers,” he said.

Veritone’s media and entertainment platform is “well-positioned to capture market share as blue-chip customers turn to Veritone to unlock the unrealized value from unstructured data sets and supercharge human outputs,” he added.

Also significant was that Veritone’s strategic acquisition of Broadbean last quarter “further solidified our positioning in the talent acquisition industry,” he noted. “In Q3, we made substantial progress integrating Broadbean with Veritone and expect to complete this integration in early 2024, and, subsequently, start realizing anticipated synergies in the first half of 2024.”

He added: “We have successfully integrated the sales and marketing organizations and have begun upselling Veritone programmatic solutions to the legacy Broadbean customer base. We remain committed to diversifying our customer and revenue base, and the notable increase in subscription-based customers this year has contributed to greater stability in revenues and earnings, reducing vulnerability to the actions of a single customer or market segment.

Veritone’s total new bookings grew 85% from Q2 this year to $15.5 million, the company said.