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WireSift Research · AI Adoption Tracker · Q1 2026

ZBRAZebra Technologies Corporation

AI adoption · Q1 2026 earnings call

Information TechnologyPiloting
AI mentions
16
extracted from this call
Max specificity
3 / 5
operational, no hard numbers
AI revenue
Not disclosed
no breakout in this call
Zebra Technologies positioned AI as a strategic tailwind across both its customer-facing portfolio and internal operations, framing itself as the 'supplier of choice for AI for the frontline.' Management described a three-tier frontline AI suite (Enablers, Blueprints, Companions) and cited a logistics customer win for an on-device AI proof-of-delivery solution. Internally, AI is being deployed across software development, sales, marketing, supply chain forecasting, and customer service, with management asserting it supports ongoing margin expansion. Quantification of AI-specific revenue or financial impact was not provided.
Public Company AI Adoption Index
Adopter
See full leaderboard →
Composite
37/ 100
#205 overall · #67 in Information Technology
Depth · 40%
51
stage: piloting · max spec: 3
Disclosure · 40%
0
no quantified disclosure
Breadth · 20%
85
3 scopes
Adoption scopes:product_standaloneproduct_embeddedinternal_use
Every claim, sourced

16 AI mentions from this call.

Extracted verbatim from the ZBRA Q1 2026 earnings call transcript. Speaker, section, and specificity tier surfaced for each mention.

  • T3Q&A· CEO· Standalone AI product
    Analyst questionparaphrased· TD Cowen· Joseph Giordano
    When you think about AI deployment, how do you -- where do you see the sweet spot for you, whether it's developing your own AI tools or having a software partner deploy those tools on a Zebra device where you get just like the device sale.
    From a frontline AI suite, we've got on our mobile devices now specifically, we have enablers, blueprints and companions, all of which allow our customers to easily deploy AI on the front line of business, and we're at the very early stages of that. So we won a new opportunity in parcel proof of delivery with P&L provider. We're in multiple pilots with our customers around retail, transportation, logistics, other areas around the world.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    ProductsFrontline AI Suite, Enablers, Blueprints, Companions, parcel proof of delivery
  • T3Prepared remarks· CEO· Standalone AI product
    launching an entirely new line of enterprise mobile computers and wearables with embedded RFID and optimized AI processing capabilities and a global logistics customer has selected our new frontline AI picture proof of delivery capability. This on-device AI solution is driving faster delivery times while improving the consumer experience.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    Productsfrontline AI picture proof of delivery, enterprise mobile computers, wearables
  • T2Q&A· CEO· Internal use
    Analyst questionparaphrased· Citi· Piyush Avasthy
    Bill, I think you mentioned AI helping your customers improve efficiency. Are you deploying AI internally as well, like you mentioned productivity initiatives helping you this quarter.
    we do see AI driving internal productivity within our business. The areas you really would expect software development, right, and a lot of work being done using AI tools across our development process within research and development. Our sales and marketing teams leveraging AI across what they're doing around the globe, working with customers and then Marketing Cloud and others. Supply chain forecasting, we're seeing that our customer service teams as well we're using AI tools broadly across the entire organization. So we've encouraged clearly our employees to leverage the AI tools we have available to them, and we're seeing broad-based adoption across AI.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    ProductsMarketing Cloud
  • T2Q&A· CEO· Customer demand signal
    Analyst questionparaphrased· TD Cowen· Joseph Giordano
    When you think about AI deployment, how do you -- where do you see the sweet spot for you, whether it's developing your own AI tools or having a software partner deploy those tools on a Zebra device where you get just like the device sale.
    we're really uniquely positioned to be the supplier of choice for AI for the front line. And what I mean by that is that at the highest levels, the asset visibility and automation portfolio we have, printing scanning, machine vision, optical character recognition, parcel dimensioning, all that information is required on the front line to create data around the physical world to feed AI model. So we give assets a digital voice within our customers' environments that feed AI models that ultimately tell our customers how to be more effective and more efficient.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    Productsprinting, scanning, machine vision, optical character recognition, parcel dimensioning
  • T2Prepared remarks· CEO· Product-embedded AI
    Our growth prospects are supported by investments in RFID, machine vision and AI that enhance our differentiation and expand our relevance with customers. We are also driving efficiency initiatives in our business to enhance profitability, which include operating margin leverage through cost discipline, including our previously announced restructuring actions, accelerating software development velocity by deploying new AI tools and enhancing our go-to-market model to improve market coverage and efficiency.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
  • T2Q&A· CEO· Product-embedded AI
    Analyst questionparaphrased· Vertical Research· Robert Jamieson
    Bill, you've all have been very active on the ecosystem side, including the strategic investments like the Apera AI or CoreVision for factory automation as well as like the broad ISV network that you're building out for AI and mobile compute.
    our venture investments, again, we view as another lever ultimately to be able to stay close to new innovation. These are relatively small investments. From our perspective, it allows us to invest across the portfolio in interesting companies, technologies that we ultimately see as interesting to us longer term in this case, really around machine vision and physical AI in the most recent one.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    PartnersApera AI, CoreVision
  • T2Q&A· CEO· Standalone AI product
    Analyst questionparaphrased· TD Cowen· Joseph Giordano
    When you think about AI deployment, how do you -- where do you see the sweet spot for you, whether it's developing your own AI tools or having a software partner deploy those tools on a Zebra device where you get just like the device sale.
    They want to use our enablers on the device and leverage those to build their own AI agents. That's okay. If they want us to create that software for them, we've got an offering and generate revenue associated with that. And if they want us to build a full application for them, we'll do that as well. So we meet our customers wherever that in our journey
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    ProductsEnablers
  • T2Prepared remarks· CEO· Product-embedded AI
    We are also driving efficiency initiatives in our business to enhance profitability, which include operating margin leverage through cost discipline, including our previously announced restructuring actions, accelerating software development velocity by deploying new AI tools
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
  • T2Q&A· CEO· Product-embedded AI
    Analyst questionparaphrased· Vertical Research· Robert Jamieson
    Just curious like how central are these partnerships and investments to your AI strategy?
    our relationship with Qualcomm or Google or the memory suppliers in this case most recently, but also the software vendors, large and small, everyone from the biggest players to the smallest are part of our ecosystem of partners that we leverage to work with our customers.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    PartnersQualcomm, Google
  • T2Prepared remarks· CEO· Product-embedded AI
    We continue to invest in software assets around AI and deep learning, which allows that simplification of deployment in our customers' environment.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
  • T2Prepared remarks· CEO· Standalone AI product
    Our solutions include enterprise mobile computing, interactive displays, frontline software and AI agents.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
    ProductsAI agents
  • T1Q&A· CEO· Internal use
    Analyst questionparaphrased· Citi· Piyush Avasthy
    does AI kind of improve that 50 bps of year-on-year margin that's baked into -- the expansion that's baked into your long-term outlook?
    we do believe that ultimately, it drives efficiency and allows us to continue to increase our margins moving forward. So absolutely, we believe that AI will be a productivity tool inside Zebra, but we actually believe that the overall, the biggest opportunity is what we provide to our customers, but it's also important from a profitability perspective. So really both.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
  • T1Prepared remarks· CEO· Customer demand signal
    priorities like mobility, intelligent automation, asset visibility, cloud connectivity and physical AI are becoming increasingly central to how enterprises run their operations. We see these as durable long-term demand drivers that support Zebra's growth opportunity.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
  • T1Prepared remarks· CEO· Product-embedded AI
    Our embedded role in daily operations generates the insights that power smarter solutions and AI at scale.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
  • T1Q&A· CEO· Customer demand signal
    Analyst questionparaphrased· TD Cowen· Joseph Giordano
    One of like the more structural pushbacks people give on Zebra story is like a terminal value question about in the future, as we have more and more automation and more and more robotics and less people in the buildings that you currently serve
    things like physical AI being a net positive for us versus a detractor.
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
  • T1Prepared remarks· CEO· Product-embedded AI
    beginning to integrate AI into their operations
    William Burns, ZBRA earnings call
Q&A Dynamics

What management wouldn’t quantify.

Analyst questions where management declined to share a specific number. The pattern of refusals is often as informative as the disclosures.

  1. No quantification of AI-specific revenue, ARR, or bookings provided despite analyst questions on AI monetization and ROI.
  2. No disclosure of R&D spend specifically allocated to AI development.
  3. No user count or adoption metrics provided for the frontline AI suite (Enablers, Blueprints, Companions).
  4. Management described 'multiple pilots' with customers in retail, T&L, and other verticals but provided no count, scale, or conversion rate.
  5. Internal AI productivity benefits were described qualitatively; no headcount savings, cost reduction, or software development velocity metrics were quantified.
  6. Analyst (Citi/Piyush Avasthy) asked directly whether AI improves the long-term 50bps annual margin expansion target; management affirmed directionally but declined to quantify the AI-specific contribution.
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Sourced from primary documents · See the methodology for the extraction approach.