A Personal Update from Prateek – Moving on from CTO role @ Cerence

Few days ago, I made a decision to move on from my role as EVP & CTO Cerence AI , and start a new chapter in my career. What I will be doing next, I will cover in my next post. I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to everyone I have worked with during my tenure at Cerence.

Three and a half years ago, I saw the potential in a company with a long history of voice technologies, which was embarking on a new journey as an independent public company in the Automotive industry. The Automotive industry at same time was also beginning to go through a fundamental shift with macro trends like self-driving and electrification driving the disruption.

I decided to join Cerence AI , and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.

My first task under the leadership of Sanjay Dhawan was to incubate a culture of innovation and transform the company into a start-up culture. It was to prepare us for hypergrowth and engineering + product was at heart & center of it. I took on this challenge as I saw the amazing talent and technology Cerence had and together with the help of all, we figured out a way to extend & improve on the technology and created cloud enabled out-of-box AI based natural human like experiences that got Automotives across the world excited and interested in this technology.

Our vision and delivery were recognized by investors and analysts, and Cerence’s market cap as a public company grew to $5 billion, which was a great testament to path we started on. We worked diligently as a cohesive team through the challenging times of COVID, scarcity of electronic components and declining Automotive sales, as we overcame these obstacles.

I am very proud of the fact that during the time as a leader at Cerence, we moved into a culture of innovation, where we innovated fast, learned from our failures, and repeated. We introduced 10+ new products in less than two years, more than any other automotive technology company in this space has ever done before. We moved from a component supplier to a technology partner directly signing design wins and deals with OEMs instead of going through Tier 1s all the time.

Over the years at Cerence, I’ve worn many hats and done so many things passionately: ran professional services, R&D Engineering, Platform & technology engineering, led innovation team and product, hardware, OBD, digital twin & link team, co-created the new products, M&A strategic activities and worked closely with sales in closing a lot of new design wins and bookings across the globe for traditional & new EVs and OEMs. Also worked with sales on strategic deals in successful conversion and winning back of several automotive accounts from competition & big tech. I took on each challenge that came my way because it had a mission that benefited so many people’s lives around the world and put Cerence on the map as a Co-Pilot & Companion product in the Automotive industry.

I take great pride in all of our accomplishments, and I am grateful for the support and contributions of everyone around me, that have helped achieve the success and maintain our drive and enthusiasm. This journey has been stimulating, exciting and fulfilling, all at the same time.

The time is right for me and Cerence AI is now embarking on a new journey as a transitional FY’23 year.

I am thankful to all the people I’ve had the privilege to work with over the last few years - You have done so much to make this platform better over the years. You helped create amazing automotive AI technology that not only is being embraced by the traditional and new EV OEMs, but also is also helping re-define the future of Automotive.

It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of Cerence AI , and I’m excited for what’s next.

Thank You.