Nice CEO: “The AI ​​will not replace us. We will benefit from this”

Although it presented a relatively lukewarm forecast for 2026, the company’s stock is soaring, when investors see before their eyes the company’s expected growth in the cloud sector, which is expected to stand at 14-15% in the coming year, and its recurring revenue (ARR) in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) also jumped in the last quarter by 66% and amounted to 328 million dollars.

Russell, who is concluding his first year in the position, sounded optimistic after the company under his management overtook forecasts in the fourth quarter of 2025 and reported an adjusted profit of 3.24 per share on revenues of 786.5. The analysts expected a profit of $3.21 per share on revenues of $780 million. For the entire year, the company reports an adjusted profit of $12.3 per share on revenues of $2.95 billion. Even in this case the results are slightly above market expectations.

However, the forecast for the next quarter of Nice, the software company that provides technological solutions for customer relationship management and risk management, is not impressive and only meets expectations. Thus, Nice expects revenues of 755-765 million dollars, the middle of the range is slightly lower than the market analysts’ expectations. For the entire year NICE expects revenues in the range of 3.17-3.19 billion dollars, an increase of 8%, the same as last year, and in line with market analysts’ expectations.

Russell estimates that 2026 is still “still a transition year, in the context of the implementation of Cognigy (the company in the field of AI that NICE acquired for $955 million), the technical integration to our core and the unification of everything. We still have significant work to build the momentum but the order backlog has increased by 25% to record levels and that is gratifying. This should build confidence not only for our investors but also for customers.”

The fall in software stocks? “The disconnect between the fear in the market and what we see”

When asked how he sees the recent drop of tens of percent in software stocks and the fears in the market that AI will replace software companies, Russell tells Globes that “there is clearly a disconnect between the fears in the market and what we see in the business, you can see it in our results. There are a number of new artificial intelligence solutions, new players entering the market, but the customer experience artificial intelligence market is expanding rapidly. But you need experts in the field of customer experience. It is a complex business which requires an orchestra, data, expertise in the field, all the things Nice has done and provided for decades, combined with artificial intelligence, because customers want a unified experience.

“Businesses that adopt artificial intelligence and integrate it into their core platform, leverage their core strengths, and therefore software companies will be the winners. This is what Nice did, we are leading the way. We are not afraid of the change of artificial intelligence, but embrace it because it is a windfall for us. Software companies will find a way to pass (this wave). If they embrace AI, they will get great results.”

You made a huge purchase of Cognigy for 955 million dollars. Are there any other purchases on the agenda?
Russell indicates that currently not. “We’ve made some significant investments, both with the acquisition of Cognigy and in organic investments. We have the assets we need to succeed. We have a great core business and a great customer experience platform. While we have no debt, we have a credit line that gives us flexibility and we generate a lot of cash, but we’re always looking at the market and it’s moving fast. There’s a lot of innovation in AI, we’re following closely but we have the key assets we need to drive the The growth. And we are very sure of it as it is.”

Your profitability is decreasing, when will it change?
“The acquisition of Cognigy lowers profitability in the first stage. But that will change within 18 months. You will see that profitability will accelerate again not only in 2027, but already this year. Most of the investments will be in the first half of 2026 and then you will see our ability to give profitable growth back to our investors.”

Will you lay off employees?
Russell estimates that no, certainly not in Israel, on the contrary. “There is high confidence in Nice’s future, our employees are confident in the company’s direction and where we are going. In Israel specifically, we are going to continue to invest in expanding our capacity. Israel is a strategic asset, the engineering excellence, the artificial intelligence excellence in the market that we want to leverage. The employees are optimistic and feel part of a winning team.”

Is NICE missing out on the AI ​​revolution?

And back to the reports, the company’s forecast for growth in cloud revenues is expected to grow in 2026 -14%-15%, thanks to the huge purchase it made earlier this year of Cognigy in the field of AI. As you remember, there were serious concerns in the market that NICE is missing out on the AI ​​revolution and last July NICE entered into a huge deal worth 955 million dollars to acquire Cognigy, even though it is still loss-making. In the last year, NICE recorded a 14% increase in revenues from the giant’s operations to the amount of 608 million dollars.

Another strong point in the reports is Nice’s report that its recurring revenue (ARR) in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) jumped in the last quarter by 66% and amounted to 328 million dollars. Nice will of course be happy that this trend is implemented and you will see that the company did not miss the AI ​​train after all.

In addition, NICE updates on its own share purchase program (buy-back) in the amount of 600 million dollars.

Nice was until recently one of the largest companies on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, but in recent years it has been losing ground and recently even dropped out of the top 20. In the last year, the stock has lost 50% of its value and is now trading at a value of less than NIS 20 billion ($6 billion).

In addition, the stock experienced pressure in the last month with a 17% fall in value (before today’s jump), along with all the software stocks that fell due to concerns that the progress of AI tools will eventually lead to the replacement of software companies by AI tools.

In any case, Nice continues to be careful and point out that the year that ended and also 2026 are transition years and for it this is a temporary but necessary stage on the way back to growth. According to the company’s CEO Scott Russell, “Along with Cognigy, Nice is the only provider that offers a complete customer experience platform and a natural AI experience, which unites voice, digital and AI agents, on an enterprise scale. Artificial intelligence expands our market opportunity beyond the service center, and we are acting quickly and focused to leverage this leap and accelerate cloud growth in 2026 and beyond.”