SOUN vs AI Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
SoundHound and C3.ai are both smaller AI software companies serving specific enterprise AI application markets, but with different product focuses. SoundHound specializes in voice AI for consumer-facing applications (restaurants, automotive); C3.ai provides enterprise operational AI applications for industries like energy and manufacturing. Both are pre-profitability, growing, and competing in the AI application layer where hyperscalers are also building capabilities.
SOUN vs AI is voice AI for consumer-facing business automation (SoundHound's restaurant and automotive deployments) versus enterprise operational AI applications for industrial and government customers (C3.ai's sector-specific AI suites) — both are high-risk, high-growth AI application layer bets in a market increasingly dominated by hyperscaler AI platforms.
SOUN holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. AI leads on both 1-year return (-41.84%) and forward P/E quality (-22.06x vs -45.97x for SOUN), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. SOUN leads on both revenue growth (45.00%) and operating margin (-75.93%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for SOUN (+87.53%) than for AI (-15.47%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- prefer a voice AI specialist with restaurant drive-through ordering and automotive voice AI as defensible domain-specific deployments
- value the automotive OEM partnership revenue visibility as multi-year embedded voice AI platform contracts
- want early exposure to voice AI adoption across QSR chains reducing labor costs through automation
- are comfortable with significant operating losses, integration risks from SYNQ3 and Amelia acquisitions, and competition from Alexa and Siri
- prefer enterprise AI applications built on 10+ years of domain-specific model development for energy, manufacturing, and defense
- value government and DoD contract wins as a revenue diversification vector with large stable contracts
- want exposure to enterprise AI adoption as companies apply predictive maintenance, demand forecasting, and supply chain AI at scale
- are comfortable with consumption-model revenue transition creating near-term reporting volatility and ongoing losses during scale-up
| Metric | SOUN | AI |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 22.9 | 22.4 |
| AI ranki | #3924 | #4154 |
| Latest closei | $5.93 | $10.48 |
| 1M returni | -17.18% | +0.96% |
| 6M returni | -9.47% | +23.73% |
| 1Y returni | -62.06% | -41.84% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | SOUN | AI |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $3.79K (-62.1%) started 2025-09-18 | $5.82K (-41.8%) started 2025-09-18 |
| 5Y ago | $7.91K (-20.9%) started 2022-04-28 | $2.23K (-77.7%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $7.91K (-20.9%) started 2022-04-28 | $1.13K (-88.7%) started 2020-12-09 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | SOUN | AI |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $3.01B | $1.69B |
| Trailing P/Ei | N/A | N/A |
| Forward P/Ei | -45.97 | -22.06 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 14.00 | 4.75 |
| Analyst targeti | $12.71 | $8.91 |
| Target upsidei | +87.53% | -15.47% |
| Metric | SOUN | AI |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 45.00% | -25.50% |
| Earnings growthi | N/A | N/A |
| EPS growthi | N/A | N/A |
| FCF margini | -22.39% | +6.84% |
| Operating margini | -75.93% | -186.29% |
| Profit margini | -67.45% | -192.10% |
| ROIC proxyi | -32.24% | -59.77% |
| Return on equityi | -32.24% | -59.77% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 2.83 | 2.09 |
| Debt/equityi | 1.11 | 8.56 |
| Current ratioi | 3.91 | 6.16 |
| Quick ratioi | 3.73 | 5.96 |
Over the past year, SOUN and AI have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.54), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | SOUN | AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -62.06% | -41.84% |
| CAGRi | -62.09% | -41.86% | |
| Volatilityi | 71.72% | 59.53% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -1.06 | -0.69 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -1.57 | -0.94 | |
| Max drawdowni | 73.36% | 60.53% | |
| Current drawdowni | 72.29% | 46.69% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 53.45% | 39.78% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 57.12% | 43.26% | |
| Max daily dropi | 11.57% | 18.53% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.68% | 23.41% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -20.93% | -77.73% |
| CAGRi | -5.21% | -25.97% | |
| Volatilityi | 132.75% | 77.63% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.54 | -0.07 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.97 | -0.10 | |
| Max drawdowni | 93.55% | 84.74% | |
| Current drawdowni | 75.53% | 79.39% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 67.24% | 55.02% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 69.70% | 58.03% | |
| Max daily dropi | 48.36% | 26.34% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 55.81% | 32.83% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | -20.93% | -88.67% |
| CAGRi | -5.21% | -31.42% | |
| Volatilityi | 132.75% | 80.76% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.54 | -0.13 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.97 | -0.20 | |
| Max drawdowni | 93.55% | 95.63% | |
| Current drawdowni | 75.53% | 94.09% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 67.24% | 82.50% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 69.70% | 83.88% | |
| Max daily dropi | 48.36% | 26.34% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 55.81% | 32.83% |
| Category | SOUN | AI |
|---|---|---|
| Company | SoundHound AI, Inc. | C3.ai, Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Infrastructure |
| Core business | SoundHound AI provides voice AI technology — conversational voice interfaces embedded in cars, restaurants, and enterprise applications. Its Houndify platform enables natural language voice commands for automotive infotainment, QSR ordering kiosks, and hotel/hospitality voice interactions. SoundHound has partnerships with automotive OEMs including Stellantis, Honda, and Hyundai, and restaurant chains using voice AI for drive-through ordering. Revenue has grown significantly from its acquisitions of SYNQ3 (restaurant voice AI) and Amelia (enterprise AI). | C3.ai provides enterprise AI applications for energy, manufacturing, financial services, defense, and government customers. Its AI application suite includes predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, energy demand management, fraud detection, and generative AI search. C3.ai changed its business model in 2023 from subscription licenses to usage-based consumption pricing to accelerate customer adoption by lowering upfront commitment. Government and defense contracts (US Air Force, DoD) are growing revenue contributors. |
| Investor focus | Investors track revenue growth (driven by restaurant and automotive voice AI deployments), cumulative customer count in restaurants and automotive, gross margin improvement, and the path to GAAP profitability. | Investors track revenue growth under the new consumption model, customer count expansion, government/defense contract wins, and the pace at which consumption pricing drives customer expansion that offsets initial contract value reduction. |
- Voice AI specifically for conversational natural language processing in domain-specific contexts (cars, restaurants) where general-purpose LLMs are less optimized
- Restaurant voice AI is a large TAM — thousands of QSR locations are adopting AI voice ordering to address labor costs and throughput
- Automotive partnerships with multiple OEMs provide multi-year revenue visibility from embedded voice AI in vehicle platforms
- Deep enterprise AI applications library across energy, manufacturing, and financial services developed over 10+ years
- Government and DoD AI contracts provide stable, large-contract revenue in a market with growing AI application demand
- Consumption model lowers enterprise adoption barriers — customers can pilot C3 AI applications at low initial commitment
- Not yet profitable — significant operating losses require continued investment while revenue scale grows
- Intense competition from Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant in automotive voice AI
- Amelia enterprise AI acquisition integrations must deliver expected revenue synergies while adding complexity
- Business model transition from subscription to consumption created short-term revenue and ARR reporting headwinds during transition period
- Not profitable and cash burn continues — requires sustained revenue growth to demonstrate path to breakeven
- Competition from AWS, Microsoft Azure AI, and Palantir in the enterprise AI application market is intense from much larger platforms
Want deeper AI forecasts?
This comparison page is public and free forever. Subscribers can unlock saved watchlists, full AI rankings, detailed forecasts, and interactive analysis tools.
Full valuation workup with AI Score, Monte Carlo forecast, and bull/bear case — free preview, premium data from $3.99.