Tom Conrad steers Sonos out of app crisis and unveils Sonos 27 platform

After serving on Sonos’s board during the 2024 app redesign debacle, Tom Conrad assumed interim leadership in January 2025 and was confirmed as permanent CEO about six months later. He diagnosed the company’s hardware-first mindset, restructured it into a functional organization, and reduced headcount to roughly 1,500 employees. The turnaround includes the launch of Sonos 27, a software platform dubbed Sonos Fabric that provides a unified audio system, AI-driven voice assistance, and MCP connectivity for third-party agents such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

Sonos also unveiled new products - the Beam Ultra 7.1.2 soundbar and Ace Ultra headphones - that can switch seamlessly between speaker and personal listening modes. Partnerships with Amazon’s Alexa Plus and ongoing talks with Google aim to broaden voice-assistant options, while custom agents let users create personalized AI personalities on the system. Early-access features will roll out to customers for feedback as the company moves toward its next growth chapter.