SoundHound Sales Assist brings voice AI to retail associates

SoundHound Sales Assist retail is a new in-store voice AI tool that the company announced on February 24, 2026, ahead of a planned demonstration at Mobile World Congress Barcelona from March 2 to 5. The product is designed to supply store associates with real-time information during customer conversations, positioning AI as sales support rather than an autonomous substitute for floor staff, according to SoundHound.

SoundHound said Sales Assist listens to a live interaction with the customer’s consent, assesses the intent and context of the discussion, then sends relevant prompts to a tablet or another device with a microphone and screen. The company identified telecom stores as one intended setting, where staff may need to move between account, pricing and product systems while advising a customer.

Does SoundHound Sales Assist replace retail associates?

No such replacement function is established by the announcement. SoundHound describes Sales Assist as a tool for in-store teams: an associate remains in the customer conversation while the software supplies information and recommendations. The company has not identified a retail customer deployment of the product or published independently verified results on sales, staffing or service outcomes.

The system can draw on customer relationship management, billing, promotions, product and coverage tools through multiple specialised AI agents, SoundHound said. In its example of a shopper reporting a damaged phone, the tool could check upgrade eligibility, retrieve account and billing details, identify trade-in offers and suggest relevant bundles or accessories.

SoundHound said the prompts can also cover upgrades, cross-selling opportunities and compliance disclosures. Its claims that the product can raise revenue per customer, shorten sales cycles, reduce training time and make sales practices more consistent should be treated as company projections rather than demonstrated results.

How does the in-store tool work?

Sales Assist uses voice as an input during an existing staff-led exchange. SoundHound said its Polaris speech-recognition technology is intended for noisy store environments and that the system returns recommendations with minimal delay. The practical aim is to avoid having an associate interrupt a discussion to search separately through pricing plans, promotional terms or account records.

The launch sits within broader, survey-based evidence of retail experimentation with AI. A Zoom-hosted post by Metrigy analyst Beth Schultz said 78.6% of retailers participating in Metrigy’s 2025-26 global study were using AI in customer interactions, while 50% used voice agents. The excerpt did not provide the study’s sample size or methodology, so those figures are not an industry census.

Shopper-facing systems are also being tested online. PYMNTS reported that Japanese home-appliance retailer Yamada Denki ran a two-week campaign for a multilingual voice agent on its online store, developed by avatarin using OpenAI’s GPT-Realtime. About 30,000 people used the service and 92% of post-conversation survey responses were positive, according to the report. That case concerned e-commerce, however, and does not demonstrate adoption on physical sales floors.

SoundHound said it processed nearly 30 million AI-driven customer interactions for telecom and retail businesses during 2025. The figure refers to the company’s wider operations and does not measure Sales Assist, which was newly announced in February.

This story draws on original reporting from PYMNTS.