Company: AMWL
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-019024
Chunk: 239

Company: American Well Corp
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 239
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 administrative expenses. 

61

Research and Development Expenses 

Research and development expenses include personnel and related expenses for software and hardware engineering, information technology infrastructure, security and compliance and product development (inclusive of stock-based compensation for our research and development employees). Research and development expenses also include the periodic outsourcing of similar functions to third party specialists. In recent years, we accelerated the expansion of our enterprise platform volume capacity and the development of additional functionality through new programs and modules. We have made an effort to optimize our resourcing structure with a mix of nearshore and offshore employees and contractors, resulting in a more efficient cost structure. While we have recognized an increase in the research and development expense throughout the prior years, the corresponding future revenue growth is expected to result in lower expenses as a percentage of revenue. We believe increased spending in prior years was a temporary investment to accelerate development of a more scalable and economically beneficial solution that will properly position the Company to benefit in the long term and have seen marked decline during 2024 as we return to normal levels of spend in future periods. 

We expect research and development expense to decrease over the next year and then to remain flat in future periods. Our research and development expenses may fluctuate as a percentage of our total revenue from period to period due to the seasonality of our total revenue and the timing and extent of our research and development expenses based on customer demand and emerging market trends.

Sales and Marketing Expenses 

Sales expenses consist primarily of employee-related expenses, including salaries, benefits, commissions, travel and stock-based compensation costs for our employees engaged in commercial activities. We will continue to invest appropriately in sales expenses as we look to grow with new prospects and expand the business of our existing clients. We will continue to elevate the skills and impact of our sales personnel and related account management teams as we look to provide a differentiated and enhanced client experience to our growing client base as well as identifying new strategic market opportunities.

Marketing costs consist primarily of personnel and related expenses (inclusive of stock-based compensation) for our marketing staff that primarily support the sales organization and client engagement. Marketing costs also include third-party independent research, digital marketing campaigns, participation in trade shows, brand messaging, public relations costs, and the costs of communication materials that are produced to generate awareness and utilization of our enterprise platform and software as a service among our clients and their users.

We expect sales and marketing expense to decrease over the next year and then to remain flat in future periods. Our sales and marketing expenses will fluctuate as a percentage of our total revenue from period to period