Nils Lenke

Vice President & GM of Applications, Cerence

Search every verified Nils Lenke interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Nils Lenke, Vice President and General Manager of the Applications Business Unit at Cerence, discussed the company's role in automotive AI on the AI in Action podcast in September 2021. He stated that Cerence's speech and other technologies have been integrated into more than 300 million cars historically, and that roughly 50 million cars shipped in the prior year contained Cerence technology, representing one out of two cars shipped. Lenke described a shift from purely embedded systems to hybrid cloud-based architectures, enabled by car connectivity, which he identified as a major trend. He noted that this connectivity allows for telematics services, over-the-air updates, and the collection of interaction logs in compliance with GDPR. Lenke emphasized that the company focuses on solving specific problems with data science rather than starting with a data science solution and searching for a problem. He cited in-car commerce features such as ordering restaurants in advance and contactless fuel payment as growing applications. Lenke also remarked that conversational interaction with machines, including cars, has become normal and no longer exotic. He addressed the organizational impact of replacing business systems with data-driven systems, stating that it may cost some jobs, create new ones, and make existing jobs more interesting, requiring consideration of the entire picture including processes and organizational impact.