Wilmington-based nCino held an earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, reporting revenue growth above expectations set in March. 

According to Sean Desmond, nCino's CEO and president, the company outperformed guidance across all key metrics, including subscription revenue growth and non-GAAP operating margin. 

The cloud banking software company reported total revenue of $159.4 million, an increase of 11% compared to last fiscal year’s first quarter. Subscription revenue was up $7.5 million from the previous quarter to $140 million, a 12% increase year-over-year. The reported gross profit was $100 million, with a gross margin of 63%. 

Desmond again affirmed customer engagement with nCino’s AI-forward strategy and emphasized AI's role in nCino’s evolution as a banking software company. 

The cloud banking software company was swept up in stock market volatility beginning in February, mirroring share price declines across the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry. Over the past six months, the price of the stock has declined by roughly 35%. 

At the time, Desmond addressed AI concerns directly, emphasizing that nCino’s position in the regulated banking industry offered leverage. 

“nCino is uniquely positioned to be an AI beneficiary and to lead the financial services industry into the world of AI-powered banking,” Desmond said during the earnings call on Wednesday. 

He cited the firm’s 15 years of operational banking data, spanning global, regional and community banks, credit unions and independent mortgage banks, embedded in nCino’s banking workflows.

“This combination of domain-specific intelligence, regulatory trust and workflow integration is not something that can easily be replicated by a general-purpose AI provider or easily assembled from scratch,” he added. 

nCino has historically monetized its platform with platform fees, but with the introduction of AI services – including the five role-based AI agents it introduced last year – it now monetizes AI token bundles, called intelligence units. Customers use the units to execute AI-driven tasks on nCino’s platform, Desmond said. 

Over 40% of nCino’s annual contract value (ACV) bookings have transitioned to a platform pricing model rather than seat-based pricing to accommodate the inclusion of AI services.

“Customer conversations continue to reinforce that every financial institution is thinking about how they can leverage AI to be more efficient,” Desmond said. “And they are recognizing that to make AI work for their organization, they need a trusted partner like nCino.” 

Officials also highlighted the traceability and auditability of every AI interaction on the nCino platform, saying they are governed by the same standards banks apply to their workforce and built to satisfy legal, risk and regulatory requirements.

In addition to public-facing AI tools, nCino has also embraced an internal AI-forward approach. 

“In the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, about 21% of our code was written with AI assistance,” Desmond said. “That percentage increased to approximately 57% as of the first quarter of fiscal 2027.” 

Desmond added that the goal is not to write code, but to accelerate the product life cycle. He estimates that writing code accounts for roughly 30% of the work required to ship a product. 

“As I have previously highlighted, we believe our progress with professional services is best measured by looking at the growth and professional services gross profit dollars, rather than professional services revenues, as we continue to apply and refine new implementation methodologies, leveraging AI to reduce project timelines,” said Greg Orenstein, chief financial officer, during the earnings call on Wednesday.

Orenstein attributed the growth in subscription revenue to record gross bookings performance in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, emphasizing that the first quarter is typically the largest free cash flow quarter of the year, following seasonally high bookings in the fourth quarter of the prior year. 

nCino also repurchased approximately 6.1 million shares of outstanding common stock under its December 2025 stock repurchase program and the March 2026 accelerated share repurchase program at an average price of $15.20 per share, totaling $93.1 million. 

Orenstein shared guidance for the second quarter of fiscal year 2027, with expected total revenue between $157 million and $159 million, including subscription revenue of $140 million to $142 million, representing increases of 7% and 8%, respectively. 

nCino’s stock, which trades under the ticker NCNO, was priced at $15.91 as of 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Over the past month, the stock price has declined by 8.6%.