SoundHound AI, a maker of conversational AI voice technology, believes its in-vehicle voice commerce platform will resonate with automakers on economic grounds. Meanwhile, SoundHound stock has found support at a key level.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company introduced the new platform at the CES 2025 tech trade show earlier this month. At the show, SoundHound demonstrated its on-the-go food ordering service to potential customers.
SoundHound's voice commerce platform will allow drivers and passengers to order takeout for pickup directly from the car's infotainment system just by speaking.
SoundHound already provides voice-based artificial intelligence technology for automakers and for fast-food restaurant drive-thrus. The new hands-free offering combines the two business areas and is an example of agentic AI.
SoundHound Chief Executive Keyvan Mohajer told Investor's Business Daily that he expects to sign up a partner to launch the new service this year.
"SoundHound is in a very unique position because we are in restaurants and in cars," he said. "We've had the vision but finally we have the scale to go live with it."
The new service also will benefit automakers because SoundHound will pay them for generating leads, Mohajer said.
"Right now, they pay us and they love us," Mohajer said. "They pay us because we give them the best AI assistant for cars under their own brand. If they work with Big Tech, they lose the customization and they lose their brand."
He added, "Imagine how they'll feel when we say, 'We're going to pay you now.' And 'we're going to pay you while you make your users happy.'"
SoundHound Stock Bounces Higher
SoundHound is likely years ahead of potential rivals like Cerence for in-vehicle voice commerce, he said.
"The hard part was getting scale to be able to do this," Mohajer said. "We had to be in millions of cars and we had to be in national restaurant brands. And for the first time we have reached that scale."
SoundHound's conversational intelligence technology is in vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, Genesis and other brands. It also is used by restaurant chains such as Chipotle, Jersey Mike's, Applebee's, White Castle, Panda Express and Church's Texas Chicken.
On the stock market today, SoundHound stock surged more than 21% to 16.52.
In a positive sign, SoundHound stock bounced off its 50-day moving average line, a key support level, according to IBD MarketSurge charts.
Earlier Tuesday, SoundHound announced that it is working with Rekor Systems to transform emergency vehicle technology.
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