Fluent.ai
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersMontréal, Canada
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
Fluent.ai firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Fluent.ai
- Legal name
- Fluent.ai Inc.
- Website
- https://fluent.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Fluent.ai industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Speech Recognition Software
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Voice Assistants & Voice UI (VUI) (HDAAAFAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- On-Device Speech & Audio AI (wake word, ASR, enhancement) (HDAAAJAF), Wake Word & Keyword Spotting (HDAAAFAJ), Speech Enhancement & Noise Suppression (AEC/NR) (HDAAAFAG)
Keywords
Where Fluent.ai is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Montréal
- HQ country
- Canada
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Fluent.ai business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Software Licensing: Fluent.ai licenses its speech recognition software technology to consumer device OEMs and ODMs. The software is embedded into devices and sold as part of the device manufacturer's product. Revenue comes from licensing fees for the integration of Fluent.ai's speech-to-intent technology, Wakeword, and Air products into consumer devices.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Enterprise OEM Licensing |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Fluent.ai product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Fluent.ai develops and licenses embedded speech recognition software for consumer device OEMs and ODMs, centered on a patented speech-to-intent deep neural network technology that maps spoken utterances directly to user intent without speech-to-text transcription. Its commercial products, Fluent.ai Air (Automatic Intent Recognition) and Fluent.ai Wakeword, run fully offline on small, low-power edge devices, support any language or accent, and deliver noise-robust voice control for smart home appliances, wearables, hearables, and industrial IoT/robotics applications.
Product overview
Fluent.ai is a Montreal-based speech recognition software company offering two core embedded voice AI products: Fluent.ai Wakeword (keyword spotting for custom branded wake words) and Fluent.ai Air (Automatic Intent Recognition for speech-to-intent command understanding). These products share a patented speech-to-intent technology that processes speech directly to intent without speech-to-text transcription, running fully offline on edge devices in small footprint and low power configurations. The product portfolio includes reference designs with semiconductor partners (Knowles, DSP Concepts, Cadence) for True Wireless Stereo earbuds and white goods appliances, plus a cloud platform (Fluency-as-a-Service) for development team access. The company was founded in 2015 after nearly a decade of research, with products supporting any language, accent, and noise environment for consumer device OEMs in smart home, wearables, and IIoT/robotics verticals.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Fluent.ai Air: Automatic Intent Recognition - world's first direct speech-to-intent voice recognition system offering fully offline, multilingual speech recognition that performs more accurately in noisy environments and across accents than conventional technologies. Rebranded from Fluent.ai Core.
- Fluent.ai Wakeword
- Fluency-as-a-Service (FaaS)
Products and services
- Fluent.ai Air (Automatic Intent Recognition) Offline, robust and multilingual speech understanding engine for on-device voice control. Powered by Fluent.ai's patented speech-to-intent deep neural network technology, it directly maps spoken utterances to user intent without speech-to-text transcription and delivers high accuracy in noisy environments across any language or accent. Designed for consumer device OEMs embedding voice control into small-footprint, low-power devices.
- Fluent.ai Wakeword Custom, low-power keyword spotting solution delivering high-accuracy wake word recognition for any accent, language, and noise environment. Enables OEMs to deploy custom branded wake words for stronger brand identity. Small on-device footprint (~120 KB flash, ~60 KB RAM, 15 MHz CPU on Arm Cortex-M4 or higher).
- Fluency-as-a-Service (FaaS) Cloud-based platform allowing development teams, OEMs, system integrators, app developers, and end users to quickly integrate reliable and robust voice interface capabilities in any language or accent into their products or services.
Quantifiable outcome
- 96% accuracy maintained in third-party trials with accents and 5-20 dB background noise, vs. 72% for other industry players
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Fluent.ai
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Fluent.ai technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability4 records
Feature5 records
Fluent.ai partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and secondary.
- Cadence Tensilica HiFi 5 DSPcoreCollaboration to offer embedded voice recognition for Cadence Tensilica HiFi 5 DSP-based True Wireless Stereo products. Enables low-power, accurate voice command recognition in TWS earbuds.
- KnowlescorePartnership to unveil embedded voice recognition for white good appliances at embedded world 2022. Joint True Wireless Stereo (TWS) reference design using Knowles IA8201 DSP with Fluent.ai's small-footprint AI software for accurate voice command recognition without smartphone app or cloud connectivity.
- BSH Hausgeräte GmbHflagshipPartnership to voice automate BSH factory assembly lines. Fluent.ai developed voice control solution allowing factory operators to operate heavy machinery hands-free through headset-connected embedded voice recognition. BSH is Europe's leading connected home appliances manufacturer (Bosch Group company) with EUR 13.9 billion turnover and 60,000 employees.
- COMMAX Inc.secondaryPartnership unveiled at CES 2020 to integrate Fluent.ai voice technology into COMMAX smart home solutions including wallpads controlling lights, thermostats, and other home products.
- Ambiq MicrocorePartnership to expand voice interface use cases across a variety of smart devices. Integration of Fluent.ai's speech recognition with Ambiq's ultra-low-power microcontrollers (Apollo series) for battery-powered devices.
- CEVAcorePartnership to offer multilingual speech understanding solutions for intelligent edge devices. CEVA's DSPs combined with Fluent.ai's speech-to-intent technology for edge-based voice recognition.
- ArmcoreTechnology partnership for Arm Cortex-M MCUs. Fluent.ai's multilingual speech recognition runs efficiently on Arm Cortex-M4, M7, and A-series processors. Arm partner blog highlights Fluent.ai's efficient speech recognition solutions.
- DSP ConceptscoreJoint 2-Mic Reference Design combining DSP Concepts' TalkTo Audio Front-End with Fluent.ai's embedded voice commands for far-field voice control in white goods like kitchen range hoods and air conditioners.
- William Tunstall-PedoesecondaryAI entrepreneur and former Amazon voice tech executive (founder of Evi, acquired by Amazon in 2012; core technology formed basis for Amazon Alexa). Joined Fluent.ai's Advisory Board and invested in seed financing.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Fluent.ai competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- LumenVox: LumenVox provides speech recognition and voice biometrics technology licensed to enterprise and embedded customers. It overlaps with Fluent.ai's core automatic speech recognition engine and licensing-oriented OEM/IVR sales motion.
- Syntiant: Syntiant produces ultra-low-power neural decision processors for always-on audio at the edge, including on-device wake-word and command recognition. It is comparable to Fluent.ai on small footprint and battery-powered device focus, with semiconductor-style distribution.
- Picovoice: Picovoice builds on-device voice and speech-recognition AI (Leopard, Porcupine wake word, Rhino intent) targeting OEMs and developers. Its privacy-first, edge-computing positioning and per-device licensing model mirror Fluent.ai's core go-to-market.
- Sensory Inc. Sensory is a long-standing provider of embedded speech recognition (including wake word and on-device voice control) for consumer device OEMs. It competes head-to-head with Fluent.ai in small-footprint, low-power, on-device VUI for the same OEM customer base.
- Retune DSP: Retune DSP offers embedded voice AI and speech recognition algorithms for microcontrollers and IoT devices. It competes with Fluent.ai's Air product in on-device, multilingual, low-resource speech-to-intent for OEMs.
Broad incumbents
- SoundHound AI: SoundHound builds voice AI for automotive, IoT, and customer service, including on-device speech recognition. It is comparable as a broader voice-AI platform player that also pursues embedded OEM licensing, though at much larger scale.
- Cerence Inc. Cerence is a publicly listed incumbent specializing in AI-powered voice and assistant technology for automotive OEMs. While focused on the car, its on-device automotive speech stack competes for the same embedded multilingual/low-latency OEM design wins Fluent.ai targets in adjacent verticals.
- Nuance Communications (Microsoft): Nuance is a long-established speech recognition and conversational AI vendor (now owned by Microsoft) serving enterprise, healthcare, and embedded customers. Fluent.ai's founder previously worked at Nuance, and it represents the broad incumbent benchmark for ASR performance and enterprise reach.
- iFlytek: iFlytek is a leading Chinese speech and AI company with broad multilingual ASR and embedded voice offerings across consumer and enterprise markets. It is comparable as a large-scale, multilingual speech-recognition incumbent, particularly relevant to Fluent.ai's Asian OEM exposure.
Emerging players
- Mycroft AI: Mycroft is an open-source voice assistant with embedded and edge deployments for smart home and IoT. It is comparable as a smaller, edge-focused alternative pursuing the same privacy-by-design, on-device voice UX positioning Fluent.ai sells to OEMs.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Fluent.ai social profiles
Digital presenceFluent.ai financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Fluent.ai leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Fluent.ai funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors10 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Fluent.ai M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Fluent.ai
What does Fluent.ai do?
Fluent.ai develops and licenses embedded speech recognition software for consumer device OEMs and ODMs, centered on a patented speech-to-intent deep neural network technology that maps spoken utterances directly to user intent without speech-to-text transcription. Its commercial products, Fluent.ai Air (Automatic Intent Recognition) and Fluent.ai Wakeword, run fully offline on small, low-power edge devices, support any language or accent, and deliver noise-robust voice control for smart home appliances, wearables, hearables, and industrial IoT/robotics applications.
Is Fluent.ai a public or private company?
Fluent.ai is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Fluent.ai founded?
Fluent.ai was founded in 2015. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Fluent.ai based?
Fluent.ai is headquartered in Montréal, Canada, in the North America region.
How does Fluent.ai make money?
One revenue line is on record: software Licensing.
Who are Fluent.ai's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are LumenVox, Syntiant, Picovoice, Sensory Inc. and Retune DSP. Broad incumbents are SoundHound AI, Cerence Inc., Nuance Communications (Microsoft) and iFlytek. Mycroft AI is listed as an emerging player.
Does Fluent.ai have an API?
No public API is recorded for Fluent.ai.
What industry is Fluent.ai in?
Fluent.ai's product category is Speech Recognition Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAFAD, Voice Assistants & Voice UI (VUI), with a secondary code of HDAAAJAF, On-Device Speech & Audio AI (wake word, ASR, enhancement). Its SIC code is 7372.