Cerence has released a new tool that will help car manufacturers create their own custom voice assistants. The web-based development platform has been dubbed Cerence Studio.

The platform was built to help Cerence’s automotive partners deliver more distinctive in-car experiences. Conversational technology has become far more widespread in recent years, and automakers are hoping that unique branding will help them to stand out from the competition.

With that in mind, Cerence Studio will give those companies access to Cerence’s conversational dialog system and its natural language understanding (NLU) technology. Developers can then use those tools to build voice assistants that will offer natural (and grammatically correct) responses to simple conversational inputs. The platform offers support for more than 25 different languages.

“We offer OEMs the flexibility to build highly specialized, customizable domains for their brand – whether it’s creating chatbots, jokes and games, or even the car manual – that deliver the branded experience they are looking for to set them apart from their competition,” said Cerence Core Products EVP and GM Stefan Ortmanns.

“We find the tool to add incredible value through its ease of use from initial concept to production and through access to Cerence’s deep expertise building cutting-edge voice assistants,” added HARMAN SVP and GM Sandip Ranjhan.  

Cerence will provide Cerence Studio customers with tutorials and ongoing support to help them overcome any obstacles they encounter while developing their assistants. The platform will also give customers the ability to update their assistants to add new features in the future.

This is not the first time that Cerence has tried to make its technology more user friendly. In March, the company launched new UX Services to improve the quality of in-car interactions. Before that, Cerence released a Cognitive Arbiter to direct voice requests to the right assistant, as well as a localized AI Reference Kit for the Chinese market.