Nuance Communications, Inc., provider of speech solutions, and IBM, a leader in speech technologies, announced that Nuance and IBM have established agreement to improve and expand innovative speech solutions. Nuance and IBM technologists will work together on incorporating IBM technology into Nuance’s speech solutions in order to deliver wider and easier customer access to speech innovation.

           The first integrated speech innovations combining Nuance and IBM technologies are expected to come out in the next two years. According to the agreement, Nuance will purchase speech-related patents from IBM.
           “IBM and Nuance share a vision to proliferate advanced speech capabilities across a broad range of devices and environments,” said Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president and director, IBM Research. “We recognize that Nuance is a leader in the speech marketplace and we believe this technology agreement will accelerate the delivery of speech innovations to the world’s consumers.”
          “We are enthusiastic about this strategic relationship with IBM, building on its rich history of speech research to accelerate the creation and adoption of next-generation speech solutions,” said Paul Ricci, chairman and CEO, Nuance. “Through this relationship, we expect to inspire a new level of technical advancement unprecedented in the speech industry from which the customers and partners of both companies will benefit.”