Is SoundHound Ready to Challenge Big Tech in Automotive AI?

SoundHound AI SOUN is increasingly positioning itself as a real contender in the automotive AI space, traditionally dominated by tech giants. In the first quarter of 2025, the company reported revenue of $29.1 million, up 151% year over year, driven by rapid expansion in its restaurant and automotive voice AI solutions. Its proprietary Polaris platform is central to this growth, offering faster and more accurate voice recognition across multiple languages, which is key for noisy environments like car interiors.A key highlight is SoundHound's push into voice commerce. By enabling drivers to order food, book parking, or make reservations hands-free, SoundHound is expanding its in-car offerings beyond simple commands, and automakers are noticing. Several OEMs, including Tencent's mobility unit, are testing SoundHound's conversational AI as an alternative to big tech platforms.With over 13,000 restaurant locations already using its system and multiple large OEM pilots underway, SoundHound is building a large and scalable voice ecosystem. The launch of Amelia 7.0, a platform of agentic AI voice assistants, further enhances its edge by letting AI agents perform complex tasks autonomously and naturally.Despite a slight miss on revenue expectations and ongoing margin pressure due to recent acquisitions, the company reiterated its full-year guidance of $157–$177 million and aims for profitability by year-end. SoundHound's ability to innovate, execute, and scale across industries suggests it may be more than just a niche player—it could become a serious contender in automotive AI. The road ahead is competitive, but SoundHound is showing it knows how to drive forward.
In the race for automotive AI dominance, SoundHound faces stiff competition from well-funded rivals like Alphabet Inc. GOOGL and Aurora Innovation AUR. Google's Android Automotive OS powers infotainment systems in vehicles from Volvo, Ford, and others, offering built-in access to Google Assistant, a dominant player in voice AI with deep ecosystem integration. Its advantage lies in scale, cloud capabilities, and consumer familiarity, making it a formidable incumbent.Aurora Innovation, while more focused on autonomous driving, is also advancing human-machine interaction within self-driving systems. Its emphasis on real-time decision-making and safety-critical voice commands aligns closely with the kind of seamless, in-vehicle voice experiences SoundHound is pursuing.While both GOOGL and AUR have broader resources, SoundHound's strength lies in specialization. Its end-to-end conversational AI stack, freedom from hardware dependencies, and rapid deployment across OEMs give it a differentiated edge, especially as automakers increasingly look for alternatives to big tech.
SoundHound plunged 5% in the past three months, underperforming the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry's 3.3% rise.
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In terms of its forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, SOUN is trading at 20.29, higher than the industry's 19.26.
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Over the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SOUN's 2025 loss per share has remained unchanged at 16 cents per share. Nonetheless, the estimated figure reflects an improvement from the year-ago loss of $1.04 per share.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
SOUN stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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