MWC 2026: SoundHound AI Launches Sales Assist Agent, Bringing Real-Time Agentic AI to the Retail Sales Floor
Rhea-AI Summary
SoundHound AI (Nasdaq: SOUN) launched Sales Assist, a real-time, voice-powered agent for retail that debuts at MWC Barcelona, March 2–5, 2026. The agent uses Polaris ASR and a multi-agent orchestration platform to surface upgrades, bundles, trade-ins, and compliance prompts directly to in-store staff.
SoundHound processed nearly 30 million AI customer interactions in 2025 and says its agentic platform is deployed by hundreds of large enterprise organizations.
Positive
- Processed nearly 30 million AI customer interactions in 2025
- Sales Assist demo at MWC Barcelona, March 2–5, 2026
- Agentic platform deployed by hundreds of large enterprise organizations
Negative
- None.
Key Figures
Market Reality Check
Peers on Argus
SOUN is up 0.13% while key software peers CCCS, CWAN, FROG, KC, and QTWO show declines between -0.77% and -8.73%, indicating stock-specific resilience rather than a sector-wide move.
Previous AI Reports
| Date | Event | Sentiment | Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 05 | Product launch AI | Positive | +3.8% | Unveiled Amelia 7 agentic AI and Vision AI for vehicles and TVs. |
| Dec 10 | Partnership AI | Positive | -0.8% | Announced OpenTable integration for in-vehicle voice reservations. |
| Dec 04 | Conference participation | Positive | +8.8% | Participation in Barclays Annual Global Technology Conference. |
| Nov 25 | Partnership AI | Positive | -0.1% | Expanded Parkopedia partnership for voice parking search and payments. |
| Oct 27 | Industry research AI | Positive | +1.9% | Released banking survey on expected impact of agentic AI. |
AI-related announcements often led to modest positive moves, but reactions have been mixed, with both gains and small declines following similar AI news.
Over recent months, SoundHound AI’s AI-focused news has centered on expanding its agentic and voice-commerce capabilities. Updates included in-vehicle commerce at CES 2026, an OpenTable integration, participation in a major technology conference, and a Parkopedia parking partnership, plus banking research on agentic AI adoption. Price reactions to these AI-tagged events ranged from small declines to gains near 8.83%, suggesting that while AI innovations can be catalysts, investor responses have not been uniformly positive.
Historical Comparison
AI-tagged news over the past 5 events averaged a 2.73% move; today’s 0.13% change appears comparatively muted versus those prior AI catalysts.
AI-tagged news shows progression from research on agentic AI to concrete deployments in vehicles, parking, and dining, highlighting broader commercialization of the company’s agentic and voice AI platforms.
Market Pulse Summary
This announcement highlights SoundHound AI’s push to extend agentic AI into retail sales floors, adding to prior deployments in vehicles, parking, and dining. The company reported quarterly revenue of $42.0 million and nine-month revenue of $113.9 million, but also a quarterly net loss of $109.3 million and prior equity raises. Investors may watch adoption of Sales Assist, overall AI interaction volumes, and upcoming earnings on February 26, 2026 to gauge operating leverage.
Key Terms
agentic ai technical
crm financial
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
- New real-time AI solution for in-store teams makes rapid recommendations for deals, add-ons, and savings for a more efficient customer experience
- SoundHound processed nearly 30 million AI customer interactions telecom and retail businesses globally in 2025; Debuts at MWC Barcelona as part of growing interest from European market
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and conversational AI, today announced the launch of Sales Assist, a new voice-powered AI agent for retail which will debut at Mobile World Congress 2026 (Hall 7, Booth 7E40). The revolutionary in-store agent builds on SoundHound’s existing AI offerings for enterprise businesses, including the company’s next-generation agentic AI platform.
Agentic AI on the Sales Floor
Designed for in-store teams, the Sales Assist agent provides real-time AI informational prompts to floor staff – for example, at telecoms retail locations. With consent, the AI supports in-store staff during live customer conversations, analyzing intent and context, and delivering instant, data-driven recommendations directly to a tablet or any device with a microphone and a screen – from upgrades and bundles to cross-sell opportunities and compliance disclosures.
Now, instead of having customers wait while associates log into multiple systems, search through pricing plans or manually calculate upgrade options, SoundHound’s Sales Assist agent surfaces the right offer instantly, within the natural flow of conversation. The result is a faster, more personalized experience without the friction that often slows in-store sales interactions.
Powered by SoundHound’s proprietary Polaris automatic speech recognition (ASR), the AI is purpose built for fast-paced, noisy retail environments with minimal latency. The Sales Assist agent works by orchestrating multiple specialized AI agents that securely access CRM, billing, promotions, product databases, and coverage tools.
For example, if a customer mentions a damaged phone the system can automatically:
- Check upgrade eligibility
- Retrieve account and billing data
- Surface relevant trade-in promotions
- Suggest complementary bundles or accessories
The Sales Assist agent helps retailers increase revenue per customer, shorten sales cycles, reduce training time for new employees, and ensure consistent, compliant sales practices across locations. For telecommunications providers, it simplifies complex tariff and upgrade logic while unlocking data-driven retention and cross-sell opportunities.
Expanding Agentic AI in Europe
At MWC 2026, SoundHound is showcasing its enterprise AI portfolio, including the SoundHound’s next generation agentic platform, a scalable multi-agent orchestration environment and optimized for MCP and A2A protocols.
The platform is deployed by hundreds of large-scale enterprise organisations to coordinate sophisticated AI agents across operational environments. Whether the agents are self-built, pre-configured or from a third party, the agentic platform enables them to work together to complete multi-step workflows across customer channels – including voice, SMS, webchat, email, smart devices, social, contact center, and in-vehicle.
“Voice assistants and chatbots have been around for years, but truly effective, enterprise grade voice interaction is only now becoming possible,” said Michael Anderson, EVP of Enterprise AI at SoundHound AI. “With AI maturing, voice is evolving into a central customer interface that doesn’t just respond but resolves. The Sales Assist agent demonstrates how agentic AI can transform retail environments in real time, and MWC is the perfect platform to bring this next generation of customer experience AI to Europe.”
Live at MWC Barcelona
Visitors to Hall 7, Booth 7E40, from March 2–5, 2026, can experience a live demonstration of the Sales Assist agent, as well as explore additional enterprise agentic AI use cases powered by the Amelia platform including:
- AI agents customer service, which showcases agentic support workflows designed to handle even very complex service interactions across telecom and retail
- SoundHound’s agentic voice commerce platform – making its European debut – which enables drivers and passengers to order food, make reservations, pay for parking, book tickets, travel, and more just by speaking thanks to in-vehicle voice AI agents.
- Visitors can also experience how AI agents can be configured on site in minutes through an interactive build environment that illustrates rapid deployment across industries.
SoundHound's presence at MWC 2026 in Barcelona underscores its accelerating momentum across Europe and globally. In 2025 alone, the company processed nearly 30 million AI-driven customer interactions for telecom and retail. Today, SoundHound powers millions of products and services worldwide, enabling billions of AI interactions each year for leading brands Learn more at www.soundhound.com
About SoundHound AI
SoundHound AI (Nasdaq: SOUN), a global leader in voice and conversational AI, delivers solutions that allow businesses to offer superior experiences to their customers. Built on proprietary technology, SoundHound’s voice AI delivers best-in-class speed and accuracy in numerous languages to product creators and service providers across retail, financial services, healthcare, automotive, smart devices, and restaurants. The company’s groundbreaking AI-driven products include Smart Answering, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Drive-Thru, and the Amelia Platform, which powers AI Agents for enterprise. In addition, SoundHound’s Agentic AI for Automotive and Autonomics, a category-leading operations platform that automates IT processes, have enabled SoundHound to power millions of products and services, and process billions of interactions each year for world-class businesses.
Media Contact
Fiona McEvoy
415-610-6590
PR@SoundHound.com
FAQ
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