Latest news with #voiceAI
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Is SoundHound AI a Buy?
Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks soared over the past two years as investors got excited about this potentially game-changing technology. And SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN), a company specializing in voice AI, saw its share price take off as part of this new gold rush. Over 2023 and 2024, SoundHound stock surged 1,000%, outperforming AI market superstar Nvidia, which climbed 800% during that period. But AI stocks lost some of their luster earlier this year amid concerns about economic growth and potential spending on this newish technology. President Trump set out plans for tariffs on imports, and investors worried that these duties would increase prices on a wide range of products, paving the way to a weak economy and even a recession. As a result, investors fled high-growth companies that could be among the first to suffer in such an environment. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » And that resulted in declines in AI stocks, including SoundHound. The voice AI player has lost about 50% since the start of the year. Yet the company continues to deliver explosive growth, reporting a revenue increase of 151% in the recent quarter. Meanwhile, Trump's initial tariff deal with China has offered investors optimism that tariffs may not be as tough on the economy as expected -- and that's helped indexes rebound. Is SoundHound AI a buy now? Let's find out. Why SoundHound stands out So, first, a bit of background on SoundHound, a company that stands out from rivals in the voice AI space thanks to its innovation. Most voice AI systems translate speech to text and then to meaning, but SoundHound translates speech directly into meaning. While this might seem like a detail, it actually makes a huge difference, resulting in speed and accuracy. This technology is protected by more than 200 patents, and this, along with strong barriers to entry, offer SoundHound a competitive advantage. All of this has helped SoundHound grow in a wide range of industries, from restaurants to automotive, healthcare, finance, and more. For example, the company recently expanded its phone answering and AI services contract with a major U.S. pizza chain. And in healthcare, it expanded or renewed contracts with three customers, including a major medical billing company. In the quarter, as mentioned, revenue soared in the triple digits. And importantly, revenue from each individual customer came in at 10% or less of total revenue, showing that SoundHound doesn't rely heavily on just one or two contracts but instead is well diversified. The fact that SoundHound's revenue totaled just under $30 million in the quarter suggests this company has plenty of room for expansion. The total addressable market for SoundHound's services is about $140 billion. SoundHound's strengths in AI agents This company also is taking big steps in an area that could represent the next AI growth driver, and that's agentic AI. This involves software that applies AI to real world problems by studying complex situations, finding solutions, and applying them. SoundHound recently launched its Amelia 7.0 platform, one that customers across industries can use to carry out a range of key tasks. SoundHound offered an example during its earnings call, saying Amelia could handle your reordering of a hard-to-pronounce prescription, the payment of a recent medical visit, and the making of a new appointment. It's also positive to note that SoundHound has a cash position of $246 million and doesn't have debt. So this AI player is in great shape to deliver more growth, especially considering that the AI market is expected to reach beyond $2 trillion by the early 2030s. This market isn't all voice AI, of course, but this enormous size shows demand for AI in general is high -- and SoundHound could be well positioned to benefit. A steep valuation All of this is great, but it's important to keep in mind that, even considering recent declines, SoundHound stock still looks pricey at current levels, trading at 38 times sales. So investors who are more value-oriented may find investments more adapted to their style elsewhere. It's also important to remember that in a market where uncertainty remains, investors may hesitate to invest in smaller, younger AI companies like SoundHound and may opt for giants like Nvidia or more diversified businesses like Amazon. This could weigh on SoundHound's performance in the near term. So, is SoundHound a buy? This depends on your comfort with risk and your investment style. As mentioned, SoundHound isn't a buy for value investors, and cautious investors should look to other stocks too. But for patient growth investors who plan on holding on for the long term, SoundHound makes a solid buy on the dip today. Should you invest $1,000 in SoundHound AI right now? Before you buy stock in SoundHound AI, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and SoundHound AI wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,389!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $830,492!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is982% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to171%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adria Cimino has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Tripleseat Announces Partnership and Integration with Voice AI Service, AddSalt Capturing Event Leads 24/7
Tripleseat and AddSalt announce a new integration to harness the power of AddSalt's voice AI host, meaning venues never miss an event lead. 'Our partnership with AddSalt represents a powerful combination of AI-driven insights and industry-leading event management.'— Nikki Perry, VP Product Tripleseat LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, May 27, 2025 / / -- Tripleseat, the leading event management software for hospitality venues in over 30 countries, proudly announced it has partnered with AddSalt, the trusted voice AI host for restaurants, to deliver an innovative integration that will help venue operators capture event leads 24/7. This seamless integration allows Tripleseat and AddSalt users to see their event leads captured 24/7 by AddSalt's voice AI host. AddSalt's built-for-hospitality voice AI host picks up event enquiries with care, context and precision and flows this directly into Tripleseat, meaning there's never a missed revenue opportunity. Venues must be Tripleseat and AddSalt customers to take advantage of this integration. Over 18,000 hospitality venues in over 30 countries use Tripleseat to automate, centralise, and streamline the event management process. Leading operators, including Hawksmoor, Gaucho, Nobu, and more, have seen, on average, a 30% increase in event revenue through Tripleseat. AddSalt AI is the trusted voice AI host for restaurants built by hospitality professionals for hospitality professionals. From neighbourhood gems to fine dining destinations, AddSalt ensures every call is answered with care, context, and precision. 'Our partnership with AddSalt represents a powerful combination of AI-driven insights and industry-leading event management.' Said Nikki Perry, VP Product at Tripleseat. This integration will help our customers work smarter, deliver personalised experiences, and drive meaningful growth. We're excited to partner with AddSalt as we continue to set the standard for innovation in the hospitality industry.' 'This partnership represents the future of hospitality technology—frictionless, human-like automation that enhances every touchpoint.' 'We've built AddSalt to sound and feel like your best host, but one that never sleeps. Combining our voice and chat AI with Tripleseat's powerful event platform is a game-changer for high-volume operators.' Said Chris Curran, Co-Founder and CEO of AddSalt. To learn more about this integration, visit the Tripleseat Partner Marketplace About Tripleseat Tripleseat is a sales and event management platform used by more than 18,000 venues globally, enabling event managers to streamline the planning process and increase sales. To date, the Tripleseat platform has helped venues book over 10 million events and capture £13.5 billion in event leads. To learn more, please visit John Karemy Tripleseat [email protected] Visit us on social media: LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Globe and Mail
15-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Why SoundHound's Growth and Zero Debt Are a Bullish Signal
[content-module:CompanyOverview|NASDAQ:SOUN] SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) is a buy in 2025 because of the value opportunity it presents. Although the company faces headwinds and criticisms, it is building leverage with its advanced voice-centric agentic AI services. Critical details include the acquisition of Amelia and expansion into new verticals. Amelia is a platform enabling developers to create business and industry-specific agentic-AI applications, expanding Soundhound's capabilities and opportunities for cross-sells and upsells. Regarding new verticals, the Q1 results include numerous updates on new and expanded business with critical advances in automotive, hospitality, healthcare, and retail. Soundhound AI Accelerates Hypergrowth in Q1 2205 Soundhound AI is still a small business with revenue of less than $30 million in FQ1, slightly short of consensus, but it is growing at a hyper pace and accelerating. The Q1 revenue is up more than 150% compared to the prior year, accelerating from just over 100% in Q4 2025 and about 80% in Q3, driven by client wins and improving diversification. The company now boasts no client representing more than 10% of revenue, and the figure is likely to fall in the coming quarters. Client wins in 2024 and early 2025 include a nationwide pizza chain which, along with ongoing business with names like Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) and Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY), provides validation, exposure, and increasing consumer recognition. The company's guidance is favorable and aligns with the outlook for accelerated hypergrowth. Soundhound reaffirmed its previous forecast, estimating $167 million in revenue at the mid-point range, about 100% YOY growth compared to F2024, and outperformance is likely. Margin is the only area of concern for this tech stock, but it is a factor that is improving with time. The company's adjusted losses are narrowing, and profits are expected within the next two to three years. As it is, the company is sufficiently capitalized to continue for about 10 quarters at the Q1 burn rate and may not need to raise additional capital. Soundhound's No-Debt Balance Sheet Comes at a Price Soundhound's balance sheet is in good shape—but it came at a price. The company maintained its no-debt position and cash balance via dilutive actions that increased the share count by 45% over the past year. However, the lack of debt mitigates the dilution, leaving cash flow unencumbered, increasing the potential for future capital returns, including share repurchases. Assuming the company can reach profitability within the prescribed time frame, it could begin repurchasing shares before the end of the decade and rebuilding shareholder leverage. Investors should be aware of short interest. The lack of profits and dilutive actions led short sellers to pile into this name, driving their interest to over 40% at the peak. The shorts have been covering since January 2025, but interest was still elevated at 33% in late April, likely in play following the Q1 report. The report was not robust, but the 20% price increase suggests short-covering is a factor in the action. Analysts Bring Soundhound Price Targets Back to Reality [content-module:Forecast|NASDAQ:SOUN] Following the guidance update, HC Wainwright and Wedbush analysts cut lofty price targets for Soundhound. The cuts present a headwind for the market and a carrot, with the pairs' low predicting a 50% upside for this market and their average a gain of 65%. The question is how long it will take for the market to establish an uptrend, and it may not be long. This market is amid a technical reversal and poised to move higher before the end of the quarter. The risk is that the reversal won't get far; the critical resistance target is near $11.90 and potentially strong due to factors such as the price gap preceding it. Soundhound stock could remain rangebound at current levels in that scenario until a stronger catalyst emerges. Where Should You Invest $1,000 Right Now? Before you make your next trade, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. Our team has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and none of the big name stocks were on the list. They believe these five stocks are the five best companies for investors to buy now...
Globe and Mail
15-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Where Will SoundHound AI Stock Be in 3 Years?
SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) stock has been hammered on the market in 2025, down 44% as of this writing. Factors leading to this decline include Nvidia exiting its stake in the voice artificial intelligence (AI) solutions provider earlier this year, the broader correction in technology stocks thanks to the tariff-related turmoil, and most recently, the company's first-quarter earnings report. SoundHound released its Q1 results on May 8. Though the company reported a big increase in its revenue during the quarter and reduced its adjusted loss, it slightly missed Wall Street's top-line estimates. This led investors to press the panic button. However, it may be a good idea to start accumulating SoundHound AI stock, as the fast-growing demand for conversational AI solutions could help the company regain its mojo and head higher over the next three years. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Let's look at the reasons why. SoundHound AI's growth is sustainable thanks to a fast-growing and lucrative addressable market The conversational AI market is currently in its early phases of growth. Grand View Research estimates that this market was worth $11 billion last year, but it is forecast to clock a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 24% through the end of the decade. The market's growth is expected to be driven by the adoption of voice AI solutions in customer support services and consumer applications across multiple industries. What's worth noting is that SoundHound AI is growing at a faster pace than the conversational AI market. Its revenue in the first quarter of 2025 increased a whopping 151% from the year-ago period to $29.1 million. That was slightly lower than the $30.4 million consensus estimate. However, SoundHound management points out that a transition taking place by one of its customers reduced its quarterly revenue by $2 million. It now expects to recognize that revenue later in the year. So, investors shouldn't read too much into the company's revenue miss last quarter, especially considering that it has reaffirmed its full-year guidance. SoundHound's revenue could nearly double in 2025 at the midpoint of its guidance range of $157 million to $177 million, suggesting that the company is confident about outpacing the broader market's growth. Importantly, SoundHound is likely to sustain its strong revenue growth for the next couple of years as well, given the healthy growth in the company's customer base and its focus on pushing the envelope on the product development front in the voice AI market. The company is not only bringing new customers on board, but it is also seeing an expansion in the adoption of its offerings in various verticals such as restaurants, healthcare, automotive, telecom, and others. Moreover, it is tapping emerging niches such as voice commerce and AI agents within the conversational AI market. That's a smart thing to do, as according to one estimate, the voice commerce market could almost triple in size over the next five years. SoundHound says that multiple restaurants and automakers have either integrated or are testing the company's voice commerce solutions. This could open another solid growth opportunity for SoundHound as it points out that "consumers are showing a strong appetite for this new convenient modality." Meanwhile, SoundHound is also looking to cut its teeth in the fast-growing agentic AI market. It recently released a new platform that enables customers to build and deploy voice-enabled AI agents "capable of understanding, reasoning, and acting with an intimate knowledge of their enterprise across a variety of channels." SoundHound management claims that its voice AI agent platform can tackle complex customer queries without human intervention, helping clients improve the efficiency of customer service operations. This, again, should give SoundHound AI's growth a big long-term boost since the size of the voice AI agent market could grow from just $2.4 billion last year to more than $47 billion in 2034. All of this indicates that there is a strong probability of SoundHound sustaining its healthy growth levels for the next three years. How much upside can this AI stock deliver in the next three years? SoundHound's 2025 guidance suggests that it could end the year with $167 million in revenue as the midpoint of its guidance range. That would be a potential jump of 97% from 2024 levels when its top line increased by 85%. Assuming SoundHound's growth slows down and its top line grows by 50% in both 2026 and 2027, its annual revenue could hit $375 million after three years. The stock is currently trading at an expensive 40 times sales, though that seems justified considering its accelerating growth and the fast-growing end-market that it serves. But even if SoundHound trades at half of its current sales multiple after three years, its market cap could hit $7.5 billion (based on the $375 million revenue estimated above). That represents a potential upside of 70% over the next three years from its current market cap. However, don't be surprised to see SoundHound growing at a faster pace than that since its growth is unlikely to slow down, and its top line could be much larger than what's projected in this article, considering its potential revenue pipeline. That may result in a stronger upside, as the market could continue rewarding it with a premium valuation in the long run, which is why growth investors can consider accumulating this AI stock following its big slide in 2025. Should you invest $1,000 in SoundHound AI right now? Before you buy stock in SoundHound AI, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and SoundHound AI wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $613,951!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $796,353!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is948% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to170%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 12, 2025
Globe and Mail
13-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Kardome and LG Electronics Partner to Transform Voice User Interfaces with Spatial Hearing AI
Tel Aviv, Israel--(Newsfile Corp. - May 13, 2025) - Kardome, a voice AI market leader, announced today a strategic collaboration with LG Electronics to integrate Kardome's Spatial Hearing AI into LG's next-generation smart devices. Kardome's Spatial Hearing AI technology enables smart devices to hear like humans do, delivering natural, seamless, and highly accurate voice user interfaces (voice UIs)-even in noisy or complex environments. The technology will first be integrated into LG's line of smart TVs, with expansion planned across additional categories including smart appliances, audio products, and vehicles. LG Electronics will integrate Kardome's Spatial Hearing AI into LG's next-generation smart devices To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: As demand rises for intuitive voice UIs across the smart home and consumer electronics markets, Kardome's Spatial Hearing AI offers a critical differentiator: spatial awareness and voice isolation that enable devices to understand and respond to users in real-time, regardless of background noise or the number of speakers. LG Electronics, known for its commitment to innovation and quality, sees this as an opportunity to enhance its product offerings further. "Kardome's technology is a game-changer for smart devices," said Jungho Kwak, head of MS Service Platform Development Division at LG Electronics. "By integrating this next-generation Spatial Hearing AI technology, we deliver a more intelligent and responsive user experience that redefines what's possible in voice-enabled products." Kardome's proprietary Spatial Hearing AI technology isolates and identifies individual voices in real-world settings. This ability allows devices to understand commands faster and more accurately, enhancing user satisfaction and performance. "Our partnership with LG represents a major milestone for Kardome," said Dani Cherkassky, CEO of Kardome. "Together, we're bringing voice AI to the forefront of product innovation. Our Spatial Hearing AI sets a new voice UI standard in consumer electronics." This collaboration showcases how Spatial Hearing AI can transform human-machine interaction across LG's ecosystem of connected devices, offering manufacturers a powerful solution to meet today's voice-first user expectations. For more information about Kardome's Spatial Hearing AI technology, visit About Kardome Kardome is a pioneer in voice AI for consumer and automotive products. Its Spatial Hearing AI technology delivers accurate, context-aware voice interaction in real-world environments. The company's patented technology enables smarter, more human communication between users and their smart devices. Learn more at To view the source version of this press release, please visit
