Plenty of companies are slapping “AI” onto their products, their press releases, and their investor pitches these days. But only a handful went all-in and baked artificial intelligence right into their company names.
Today I’m comparing two of these deeply committed AI experts: SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) and C3.ai (NYSE: AI). They jumped on the AI bandwagon before it was cool, though. One of them has owned the ticker symbol “AI” since December 2020, and the other added “AI” to its name in April 2022. As you know, the ongoing generative AI boom didn’t start until November 2022, as OpenAI released ChatGPT to a curious world.
So, SoundHound AI and C3.ai are veterans of the AI trade, but which one deserves a spot in your portfolio?
Round 1: AI expertise
These two companies have a lot of qualities in common.
* They entered the public stock market in recent years, but were founded way back in 2009 (C3.ai) and 2005 (SoundHound AI).
* After all these years, the founders are still closely involved in running the companies. Thomas Siebel recently stepped down from the CEO role but remains C3.ai’s executive chairman. The three co-founders of SoundHound AI serve as CEO, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Science Officer today, and two of them also have seats on the board of directors.
* They started developing AI-based services right away. SoundHound AI’s song-identification tool applied machine learning to hummable sound patterns; C3.ai focused its predictive data analytics on energy management at first. The lessons learned and AI systems that were developed around their early operations are still at each company’s core in 2025.
However, I would argue that SoundHound AI has been more focused on a single topic over time. What started as a way to identify songs with your smartphone’s microphone has evolved into a voice-driven system for drive-through windows, phone menus, vehicle infotainment systems, and more. C3.ai has changed names several times, attempting to find a stronghold in the Energy, Internet of Things, and AI industries.
Granted, I’m comparing two inveterate AI experts here, but SoundHound AI’s single-minded focus gives it the edge in this round. C3.ai’s AI portfolio may be broader, but SoundHound AI has a deeper understanding of one crucial technology — AI-driven voice controls.
