Paychex reported slower sales growth in its latest quarter and pointed to momentum with its artificial-intelligence-driven offerings.

The stock fell 8.7% to $104.53 in premarket trading.

The payroll and human-resources provider on Wednesday posted a fiscal first-quarter profit of $429.7 million, or $1.21 a share, compared with $383.8 million, or $1.06 a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings per share were $1.34, compared with analyst estimates of $1.32, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 6% to $1.63 billion, in line with analyst estimates, marking a slowdown from 12% year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter.

Management-solutions revenue, which makes up most of the company's top line, increased 4% to $1.21 billion, driven by higher revenue per client. Professional-employer-organization and insurance-solutions revenue increased 12%.

Chief Executive John Gibson said the results reflect the company's investments in its go-to-market strategy, as well as the value its customers place on its offerings to navigate an increasingly complex workforce, regulatory and benefits environment.

Gibson also highlighted strong early-adopter results with Paychex's AI offerings, which he sees improving the company's competitive position.

"By extending AI-enabled automation and insights across Paychex HCM platforms and into Microsoft business applications where clients already work, we are making these capabilities easier to access and adopt," Gibson said.

For the full year, Paychex continues to expect total revenue to increase by 5% to 6%, and it still anticipates adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 7% to 9%.

Separately on Wednesday the company announced a new recruiting offering that aims to use AI agents for digital candidate sourcing, recruiting and hiring coaching.