Dive Brief:
- Asana, which designs software for managing work projects, expects its shift toward consumption-based artificial intelligence pricing to contribute to a $1.2 million revenue headwind and pressure gross margins by 150 basis points in the second half of the year, CFO Aziz Megji said Thursday.
- Starting in mid-September, Asana will include a base level of AI tools such as AI Teammates and Dash in its Agentic Work Management tiers without changing tier pricing, Megji said on an earnings call. AWM is Asana’s approach to coordinating work across people, agents and systems on the same plan. The change will apply to both new and existing customers.
- “We're seeding that usage deliberately, investing to drive adoption first, with the expectation that stronger retention, seat expansion, increasing consumption follow over time,” Megji said.
Dive Insight:
The financial pressure comes as AI becomes a larger source of Asana’s growth. AI Studio and AI Teammates generated about 25% of net new annual recurring revenue in the company’s fiscal 2027 second quarter, up from 17% in the prior quarter, Asana CEO Dan Rogers said on the earnings call. More than 25% of customers spending at least $100,000 annually have purchased one of the AI products.
Asana also reported its largest AI expansion deal to date, a three-year, multimillion-dollar agreement with a Fortune 500 media company. AI products represented nearly half of the contract’s total value, according to Rogers.
“The customer is operating with a smaller workforce, which historically would have resulted in a seat contraction,” he said. “Instead, the investment in AI Studio and AI Teammates more than offset the smaller footprint, resulting in a modest overall expansion, with also the additional upside potential if consumption grows over time.”
Asana raised its full-year target for AI products to about 20% of net new annual recurring revenue, from about 15% previously.
The push to seed AI usage, however, comes with some near-term financial pressure.
Going forward, Asana will recognize revenue from new AI Teammates sales as customers consume their requests, rather than spreading the revenue evenly over the contract term. Asana’s transition to AWM also shifts some subscription value to AI consumption, meaning that revenue will be recognized as customers consume that capacity.
“As customers ramp consumption over time, this shifts a portion of revenue recognition into future periods,” Megji said in prepared earnings remarks.
