Cerence Inc, AI for a world in motion, announced that as part of its ongoing transformation efforts, Chief Product Officer Nils Schanz has been appointed to an expanded leadership role. In addition to leading the company’s core product strategy, portfolio and global customer delivery as Chief Product Officer, Mr. Schanz will assume the responsibilities of Chief Technology Officer following the departure of Iqbal Arshad, effective July 5, 2024. In this expanded role, Mr. Schanz will now lead Cerence’s global technology, engineering, and product development organization, creating enhanced alignment across innovation, product, and customer delivery and further positioning Cerence to meet the current and future needs of its customers.
“As Chief Product Officer, Nils has been a driving force behind our continued innovation across our core products and new generative AI portfolio. He was instrumental to launching Cerence Chat Pro, our uniquely intelligent, automotive-grade ChatGPT integration that has quickly been adopted by Volkswagen, Audi, and others, as well as generative AI-powered Cerence Car Knowledge,” said Stefan Ortmanns, CEO, Cerence. “Our product and technology teams already work closely together to create immersive, AI-powered experiences for our customers and their drivers. We believe that further aligning these teams will help us build on the progress made to deliver on our generative AI roadmap and customer commitments, as well as the development of our next-generation AI platform.”
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Mr. Ortmanns added, “On behalf of the Board and management team, I thank Iqbal for his significant contributions and leadership and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
“It is a privilege to take on this additional responsibility at an important time for the company,” said Nils Schanz, Chief Product Officer, Cerence. “Bringing our product and technology teams together reflects how we’ve already been operating as a company to seamlessly deliver for our customers. We have a strong team in place, and I look forward to continuing to advance our strategy and execute on our generative AI roadmap.”
Mr. Schanz joined Cerence in October 2022 following a 15-year tenure at Mercedes-Benz AG and Daimler, where he developed the highly regarded MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience), the automaker’s intuitive, high-tech multimedia system, and launched other widely acclaimed innovations such as the award-winning MBUX Hyperscreen and the Voice Assistant “Hey Mercedes.” As Global Head of User Interaction & Voice Control, he led a cross-functional team with global responsibility for digital user interface and user experience. Mr. Schanz previously held a variety of positions at Daimler and Mercedes-Benz in R&D, Product Management, and Marketing.
SOURCE: GlobeNewswire