Thank you for standing by. The conference will begin momentarily. Until such time, you will hear music. Thank you and please continue to stand by. Welcome to T-TECH's 3rd Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I would like to remind all parties that you will be in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session. This call is being recorded at the request of T-TECH. I would now like to turn the call over to Bob Belknapp, T-TECH's Group Vice President, Corporate Finance. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. T-TECH is hosting this call to discuss its third quarter 2026 results for the period ended September 30, 2026. Participating on today's call are Ken Tuchman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of T-TECH, and Kenny Wagers, Chief Financial Officer of T-TECH. Yesterday, T-TECH issued a press release announcing its financial results. While this call will reflect items discussed in that document, for complete information about our financial performance, we also encourage you to read our Form 10-Q for the period ended on September 30, 2026 and the latest Form 10-K. Before we begin, I want to remind you that matters discussed on today's call may include forward-looking statements related to our operating performance, financial goals, and business outlook, which are based on management's current beliefs and assumptions. Please note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinions as of the date of this call. and we undertake no obligation to update this information as a result of new developments that may occur. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expected and described today. For a more detailed description of our risk factors, please review our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K. A replay of this conference call will be available on our website under the Investor Relations section. I will now turn the call over to Ken.

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. Our third quarter results reflect disciplined execution across our global teams and demonstrate steady progress against the plan we laid out earlier this year. A central driver of this progress is how we're working alongside our clients to evolve our capabilities and innovate new market opportunities. We are thoughtfully integrating AI into CX Deploying automation for speed and scale while empowering our people with tools and insight when judgment and empathy matter most. By executing on the fundamentals today and preparing clients for what's next, we're building lasting partnerships and strengthening our business for the long term. Now let's turn to our key metrics for the third quarter. Revenue was $492 million. EBITDA was $51 million, or 10.5% of revenue. Free cash flow was $28 million, and net debt decreased $23 million. Across both T-TECH Engage and T-TECH Digital, we executed directly against the commitments we laid out earlier this year. Before a review of the segments, I'd like to share key takeaways from our recent Client Advisory Board meeting. Twice a year, we meet with a group of our largest and most strategic clients. Last month's conversation pointed to a broader trend across the CX market. While clients see real promise in AI, they're also clear that getting its full value will take time and discipline. The groundwork required is significant. Redesigning workflows, retraining frontline teams, connecting legacy systems, and cleaning up data. On top of that, companies are working through open questions about model accuracy, governance, and compute cost. They're currently hard to predict. Recent research from MIT Sloan, Wharton, Stanford, and others points in the same direction. These factors can slow near-term returns, which is why a deliberate, well-planned approach is essential. Around the table, everyone agreed on one point. AI in CX succeeds or fails on customer trust. Brands need to meet customers where they are with interactions that are reliable, and that add value rather than destroy it. The winning model will pair automation for simple tasks with real human care when a customer needs it most. While full CX transformation won't happen overnight, we're working closely with our clients to deliver tangible results on the front lines today. We are empowering our associates with predictable, proven tools that elevate performance and augment their human skills, specifically These AI-enabled solutions are already driving efficiencies across recruiting, onboarding, training, quality assurance, language translation, workforce management, and engagement. In a market moving this fast, our clients made it clear they need a trusted partner with the agility and expertise to turn complexity into sustained customer loyalty and operational excellence. This is the intersection where we thrive. The market isn't looking for standalone tech or commoditized delivery. It's looking for integrated outcomes. This dynamic validates our strategy, plays to our deepest strengths, and positions us for enduring profitable growth. Now to an update on TTECH Engage and TTECH Digital. Last quarter, I laid out four specific focus areas for each of the business segments. Today, we're demonstrating measurable progress on each. Beginning with TTECH Engage, First, we're improving pipeline quality and sales execution. Year over year, we're seeing larger deal sizes across our embedded base as clients consolidate spend with proven partners who are providing top-tier performance. We're also winning engagements across multiple lines of business with new enterprise clients that have increasingly complex needs. We have already surpassed new client signings year over year and are on track to well exceed last year's total. And our digital-first CX technology and services portfolio is driving overall pipeline growth with clients seeking high-value outcomes from an end-to-end solution. Second, we're optimizing program economics. We're working directly with clients to restructure underperforming programs through automation, operating model redesign, and right shore delivery. As previously communicated, this discipline is driving a deliberate shift in our delivery footprint. Near shore and offshore delivery expanded from 36% of revenue in 2025 to 42% year-to-date in 2026, accelerated by our scaled presence in India, Egypt, and continental Europe. Third, as I mentioned earlier, We're creating tangible impact by putting proven purpose-built AI tools directly into the hands of our frontline teams to augment their day-to-day activities. Our progress is driving better performance and improved retention for our associates, reliable outcomes for our clients, and effortless personalized experiences for their customers. For example, our AI quality platform is delivering actionable insights that go well beyond frontline coaching, equipping clients with real-time intelligence on customer trends, product improvements, and opportunities for service innovation. T-TECH Perform, our AI-enabled performance management platform, is reducing new associate ramp time by as much as half through data-driven learning programs. And we're seeing strong growing demand for T-TECH Addy, our first-to-market AI language translation platform that enables associates to support customers in their preferred language in real time. Covering 40 languages and dialects, we've deployed Addy across multiple clients and our pipeline is growing rapidly. And fourth, our ongoing focus on optimizing operations is driving meaningful margin expansion. This quarter, our Engage EBITDA margin grew 9.8% versus 7.4% for the same period last year. Taken together, these actions are building on our strong operational foundation and position us to sustain momentum Through Q4 and into 2027. Now moving to T-TECH Digital, where we continue to shift our CX technology and services mix towards the areas of highest client demand. Designing, building, and operating CX solutions grounded in data, AI, and security. We're scaling this shift across our four strategic T-TECH Digital priorities. First, we're deepening our relationships with high-growth CX technology partners. Powered by our elite CX consulting, analytics, and engineering talent, our professional services revenue in the high growth practices grew 28% compared with the third quarter of last year. That same technical excellence continues to deliver recognition with key partners. Most recently, we earned a spot in Microsoft's inner circle for the 11th consecutive year. We achieved ServiceNow's elite status. and were recognized as a nice star partner, distinctions reserved for top-tier partners that demonstrate both world-class execution and market-leading sales results. Second, we're expanding strategically in EMEA and APAC. Revenue across these regions increased 24% year-over-year, propelled by deeper alignments across all three major hyperscalers and capped by several seven-figure wins with Premier Enterprise Brands in EMEA. Third, we're increasing sales coverage to capture more high-margin demand. This quarter, we added 24 significant new clients, a 20% increase over Q3 of 2025. In addition, our pipeline shift is taking hold. Hyperscaler partners and high-growth practices now account for 73% of our total pipeline, up from 62% a year ago. And fourth, We're optimizing performance to enhance utilization and a delivery model that puts the right work in the right shore. With new technology centers of excellence in North America, Colombia, India, and Poland, we are scaling specialized engineering talent across every major AI and CX technology platform. Before I close, I'd like to provide a brief update on corporate initiatives. As we announced last quarter, we're exploring strategic alternatives for T-TECH Digital, with our investment bank PJT Partners serving as our financial advisor. The process is progressing, and we've had a high level of interest and constructive conversations thus far. We will share an update when we have something definitive to report. Additionally, we're pleased with the progress that we've made on the extension of our credit facility to Q4 2028, which gives us additional financial flexibility to execute on our plan. Kenny will share in more detail. Last quarter, I said judge us by our results, not our words. This quarter we delivered. We promised to focus, perform, and strengthen our core, and these numbers show we did. As we look ahead, we recognize that there's more work to do to return our business to its historical margins and growth rate. The progress is measurable and improving. With an expanding pipeline, clear line of sight into new bookings, and a healthy backlog, we're well positioned to finish 2026 with momentum and carry it into 2027. Thank you again to our board for their stewardship. Our team members for their dedication and our clients and partners for their trust. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kenny.

Thank you, Ken, and good morning. I will start with a review of our third quarter 2026 financial results before discussing our reiterated full year 2026 financial outlook. In my discussion of third quarter financial results, reference to revenue is on a gap basis, while EBITDA operating income and earnings per share are on a non-gap adjusted basis. A full reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP results is included in the tables attached to our earnings press release. Turning to our results, on a consolidated basis for the third quarter of 2026 compared to the prior year period, revenue was $492 million compared to $519 million, a decrease of 5.2%. Adjusted EBITDA was $51 million or 10.5% of revenue, an increase of 18.7% or 210 basis points compared to $43 million or 8.4%. Operating income was $37 million or 7.6% of revenue, an increase of 29.2% or 200 basis points compared to $29 million or 5.6%. And EPS was $0.22, an increase of 84% compared to $0.12. Foreign Exchange had a $2.1 million negative impact on revenue and a $1.5 million positive impact on operating income compared to the prior year period, primarily in our engaged segment. Turning to our third quarter 2026 segment results. In our engaged segment, third quarter revenue decreased 6.8% over the prior year period to $370 million. Operating income was $25 million, or 6.7% of revenue. Reflecting an increase of 43.5% or 230 basis points over the prior year of $17 million or 4.3% of revenue. As outlined in our previous 2026 quarterly earnings commentary, our engaged priorities are primarily focused on key drivers to improve profitability, which we delivered upon in our third quarter results. We are executing on a more optimal onshore-offshore delivery mix. Rationalizing and improving client programs that are below target margins, improving operational efficiencies through the balance of AI tools and human agents, and other corporate cost optimization initiatives. We expect these actions to continue to be reflected in our performance with Engage margins further improving in the fourth quarter. The Engage backlog is $1.52 billion, or 99% of our full-year 2026 revenue guidance at the midpoint of the range, down from 102% for the same period of 2025. The engaged last 12-month revenue retention rate is 92%, an improvement from 89% for the same period last year. In our digital segment, third quarter revenue was $122 million, relatively unchanged over the prior year. Operating income was $13 million, or 10.3% of revenue, compared to $12 million, or 9.5% of revenue, for the same period last year, reflecting growth of 7.9% or 80 basis points.

We continue to strengthen our relationships with our hyperscaler partners, demonstrated by the strong year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter growth in these practices.

We are driving momentum through expanded sales coverage, strategic growth in the EMEA and APAC regions, and optimizing our delivery footprint. The top-line growth in these practices is over 28% in the third quarter compared to the prior year, and the operating income is even more impactful at 46% growth. Our digital pipeline remains strong and continues to shift to our hyperscaler partners and higher growth practices. We are executing on the market remix we have discussed throughout this year and are excited about the momentum we are carrying into the fourth quarter and 2027. Our digital backlog is $424 million, or 99% of our 2026 revenue guidance at the midpoint of the range, up from 95% for the same period last year. Before I discuss our other third quarter financial metrics, I want to address our credit facility maturity date extension to November 2028. Our profitability improvement and strong year-to-date free cash flow of $88 million and net debt reduction of $81 million were important factors in building lender support across the bank's syndicate. T-TECH's executive leadership team and board of directors value the support and collaboration from our longstanding banking partners.

I will now share other third quarter 2026 metrics before discussing our reiterated outlook.

Free cash flow was $28 million in the third quarter of 2026 compared to a negative $10 million in the prior year. The year-over-year increase is due to $37 million of higher cash flow from operations and a $5 million decrease in capital expenditures. Cash flow from operations benefited from a $13 million positive change in working capital as we continue to focus on cash management. In the third quarter of 2026, capital expenditures were $9 million or 1.8% of revenue compared to $14 million or 2.7% in the prior year. Approximately 68% of the current quarter spend relates to growth in product development, real estate expansion, and client technology investments. As of September 30, 2026, cash was $91 million with $835 million of debt, primarily representing borrowings under our credit facility. The net debt position of $744 million represents a year-over-year decrease of $69 million, reflecting our ongoing commitment to cash flow generation and debt reduction. We ended the third quarter of 2026 with a net leverage ratio as defined under the credit facility of 3.63 times. Our normalized tax rate was 46.5% in the third quarter of 2026 compared to 53.7% in the prior year. The lower tax rate is largely driven by higher overall pre-tax income, resulting in each dollar of tax expense having a lesser impact on the rate versus the prior year. The tax rate is primarily due to the jurisdictional mix of pre-tax income where foreign taxable income cannot be offset by U.S. tax losses. The impact of the U.S. valuation allowance recorded against the U.S. pre-tax losses will continue to impact the normalized tax rate in future quarters. Turning to our 2026 Outlook, I will now provide some context with regards to our reiterated full-year financial guidance. In our Engage segment, we continue to see a growing pipeline and a diversified number of new enterprise clients that are looking to solve multifaceted needs through the right combination of AI-enabled technology and human interactions. This is providing larger initial deal sizes with our 2026 year-to-date average new logo signings growing 56% over the prior year. We are also seeing larger deal sizes across our embedded base as clients are consolidating business with partners that have proven CX technology and service capabilities, an expansive global delivery footprint, and demonstrated value-added outcomes. This is starting to reflect in our top line as the engaged revenue decline is leveling off from the first half of 2026 with the trend expected to continue throughout the second half of the year. We also remain extremely focused on our strategic initiatives to improve profitability and continue the positive trend reflected in our third quarter results. Together, these factors are expected to deliver fourth quarter profitability growth compared to strong fourth quarter 2025 results and establish a solid foundation for both top and bottom line improvement in 2027. As a result, we are reiterating our full year 2026 guidance with respect to engage, However, we are forecasting adjusted EBITDA and operating income to come in between the low and mid range of guidance. In our digital segment, we continue to execute on the market remix through our expanded partnership network, focusing on CX platform transformations through data, AI, observability, and security. Our pipeline continues to shift and grow in these new and expanding market opportunities, and we are now reaching meaningful scale in several of our growth practices. We will continue to strategically invest in sales resources while also managing profitability through the right shoring of delivery resources and optimizing utilization. The digital segment has remained on track with our initial 2026 guidance, and we are confident we will deliver full year results in line with expectations. Please reference our commentary in the Business Outlook section of our third quarter 2026 earnings press release to obtain our expectations for our reiterated 2026 full year guidance at the consolidated and segment level. In closing, our priorities to drive profitable growth, cash flow improvement, and debt reduction are unwavering, and our third quarter results demonstrate we are delivering. These objectives are at the forefront of every decision we make. We are confident we are on the path to return to historical top-line growth and margins, and remain grateful to our employees, clients, business partners, and other stakeholders for their support. I will now turn the call back to Bob.

Thanks, Kenny. As we open the call, we ask that you limit your questions to one or two at a time. Operator, you may open the line.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question over the phone, please press star followed by the number one. Please unmute your phone and record your name clearly when prompted. Your name is required to introduce your question. And to withdraw your request, you may press star two. One moment, please, for the first question. Our first question is from Georgia Sutton with Craig Hallam. Your line is now open.

Thank you, and nice results. I don't think I've said that for a while, so nice to say. Ken, you talked about the integrated outcome that your clients are looking for and they're looking for you to bring to them. I wondered if we could look at that in the context of the larger deal sizes, up 56%. That's a significant number. Just can you walk through what's driving that larger deal size, and is it that integrated outcome they're looking for?

Good morning, George. I think it's a combination of things. I think, number one, we definitely feel like the market is consolidating right now. That unto itself is creating opportunity for us. And number two, virtually every single client is trying to find their magnetic north with the right mix of technology. and because we have so much experience and are doing so many AI projects, etc., it's really giving us a lot of at-bats to be able to demonstrate to these large clients the art of the possible. Many of our large clients are getting frustrated with their own internal IT departments and how long it's taking them to basically just modernize some of their capabilities. And so we're winning... pilot programs where we're doing bits and pieces of the larger client's technology, and that's then giving us credibility because of the speed at which we're able to do it and opening up more doors for more overall business. So I think it's a combination of clients don't want to be left flat-footed. They want to feel like they have a modern digital door, so to speak, to the customer. And they also like the fact that we, because we are more or less Switzerland and we represent so many of these technologies, we're really able to consult them on what's the best fit for them and what in fact is frankly in the hype cycle and isn't capable of doing what they're trying to achieve. So I think it's really just a combination of, like I say, the marketplace is consolidating, and I think we're viewed as a boutique firm that has a tremendous amount of agility and that is executing from an operation level in the top tier and that's what clients are looking for right now. There is no lack of business out there right now. There's a fair amount of opportunity that's out there to be had.

Great, thanks for that. One other thing on the pipeline, it's obviously made up increasingly of hyperscalers and I think what you define as the faster growing companies. Can you just sort of walk through how the pipeline has progressed and migrated towards these hyperscalers and just give us a sense of what kind of opportunities you're looking at with them?

Yeah, so when you say hyperscalers, you're more or less speaking about our digital segment. And as you know, George, The business has pivoted dramatically from being a company that was well-known, best in class for basically being the largest representative of CCAS technologies to now we've pivoted dramatically to data analytics and to AI. And to get those capabilities at the best possible, not only capability but cost, We're finding that working directly with the Amazons of the world, the Googles of the world, the Microsofts of the world, which are obviously the three key hyperscalers, that that's where the largest opportunities are. That's where the largest enterprise opportunities are, the largest government opportunities are. And so we're right in there co-selling with them as all these large organizations are looking to to modernize their capability and take advantage of what a lot of this new technology is capable of doing. So that's really where the focus is and where we're putting gas on the fire on the digital side of the business. It goes without saying we still have a tremendous amount of legacy CCAS business. We're still modernizing a ton of companies with hundreds of projects with their CCAS and introducing everything from... your basic voice bots, chat bots, building out analytical reporting platforms, et cetera, to doing some really cool things with their CRM, their desktops, et cetera. And so we're going to continue to keep focusing in that area. We've also increased the overall partnerships just with many, many different technology companies We've gone into data security and now have a deep partnership with the likes of the Splunks of the world, etc., because we believe that one of the single biggest opportunities futuristically is going to be cybersecurity as it relates to this age of AI. And so every single one of our clients, one of their hesitations of how deep they go with AI is, is how can you help us with security? How can you help us with observability and actually understanding what these AI agents are doing so that you don't create or they don't create a potential problem? So I hope I'm answering your question. I'm sorry for waxing on.

No, that was great. I appreciate the thoughts.

Thanks, George.

Thank you. Once again to ask a question over the phone you may press star followed by the number 1. To withdraw your request you may press star 2.

Thank you.

Our next question is from Vincent Colicchio with Barrington Research. Your line is now open.

Yeah, Ken, can you talk about what portion of your current AI-related opportunity at Engage involves selling additional services versus replacing existing contact center services?

I'd say it's actually, in many ways, it's actually quite small. We are not seeing clients. If I'm understanding your question, Vincent, if you're asking me what percentage of the work that we're doing in the AI area is designed to eliminate a human agent in its entirety, I would say that it's relatively small. Another way of putting it, though, which sounds maybe a bit like a contradiction, is we are ripping down a lot of IVRs and we're replacing them with conversational voice bots and that is absolutely having an impact on what I'll call the very low priority and easier interactions that frankly we as T-TECH have not been focused on from a human standpoint and have been happy to help our clients with because we don't think that those interactions add any trust, add any value, create opportunities for upsells, cross-sells, building loyalty, et cetera. So that aspect of it is a significant portion, but the reality is full-blown agentic agents that are taking command and control of the entire interaction Our clients, just from our last CAB meeting, etc., not only are they not asking us to do that, their companies aren't allowing them to do it and are just saying that they don't feel that they feel comfortable just due to the obvious things that you read about in the press, whether it be hallucinations, etc. I'm not suggesting that over time that This stuff isn't going to get better and better because I think it will, but I think that there's still a very big question with some of the legislation that's coming down of being able to, one, forcing one to disclose that you are speaking to AI and not to a human, and two, having the right to immediately be able to punch through and speak to a human being and I'm sure you're aware the state of California is now passed a law which goes into effect January 1. There's probably four other states that now have very similar legislation and I believe that with what just took place politically that this is going to become a national or federal thing. On top of that, the EU has already rigorous proposals for the same thing. So this is my way of saying to you that as much as we are huge supporters of AI, we believe that AI right now in this current stage is primarily best used for supporting our associates, making them better, making them faster, making them more efficient, getting them up to proficiency, and that's exactly where we're investing our dollars versus trying to take the human voice away from and, of course, if our clients want us to do that, we're happy to do it and it's very profitable for us to do. We're just not seeing clients that are ready to do that at this point in time.

All that color was helpful. Thank you. Follow-up, you used to talk about high potential new logos. It sounds like your pipeline at Engage is quite robust. Do you still break it out that way and do you have that data?

You know, what I would tell you is that we're seeing real opportunity in the healthcare sector, the travel sector, and the retail sector. And retail has been an area that we have not been as traditionally focused on. And so maybe that's more our doing than anything else. But we're pretty excited about the opportunities that we're seeing in those areas. And then it goes without saying, we're obviously very focused on all the other traditional ones, whether it be public sector, whether it be financial services, etc. We're trying to de-emphasize what I would call the commodity sectors.

Makes sense. Congrats. It's nice to see the progress.

Thank you. Appreciate it, Vincent.

At this time, there are no more questions in queue. Thank you. This concludes DTECH's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. You may disconnect at this time.