Creating an in-car concierge service

Overview

NTT DATA is a leading Tokyo-based IT services provider that operates in over 50 countries. In July 2019, Star and NTT DATA entered into a partnership. Since then, clients throughout the world have benefited from NTT DATA’s broad IT know-how and Star’s strategy, design, and engineering services. 

Working together, Star and NTT DATA imagined an in-car AI digital assistant and a service concept that revolutionizes the way we perceive personal transportation.

Challenge

The goal was to create a concierge-like service, merging external service partners, car providers, and the in-car passenger experience into a pleasant whole.

Consumers currently sift through overwhelming amounts of content and services. Meanwhile, their travel routines are often time-consuming and boring. What if we could safely connect on-route consumers to services like travel agents and restaurants? 

We joined with NTT DATA to tackle questions like “How can consumers discover time-saving digital services?” and “How might a digital companion become a service platform for in-car experiences?“.

The Project

Our partners at NTT DATA already had insights gleaned from consumer and market research. Leveraging this, we helped develop a future mobility vision that focused on making AI a cornerstone for multiple stakeholders in the mobility industry. 

This included defining how AI could be experienced by the user, detailing its use cases and the service vision, and providing a visualization of the whole package. Building on this collaboration, we used extensive research, co-creation workshops, and our own background in mobility and Emotional AI to create a holistic design proposal. This showed the complete story, from user journey to UI and product design. 

By highlighting realistic future scenarios, we successfully developed the initial idea into two mature service design concepts. These clearly showcase how value can be created by connecting transportation experiences to services consumed on the road.

Result

The outcome was two concept video prototypes outlining the service, digital personality, and user interactions through a mobility journey (before, during, and after the driving experience). 

The digital assistant will allow consumers to effectively utilize time on the road by eliminating the burden of actively searching for services. In other words, it works as an in-car concierge. It uses consumer data to “know” users, their lifestyles, and their routines. It can connect them to providers via their smartphone or car dashboard screens. Services like travel agencies, stores, and restaurants will be able to directly connect to in-transit customers. More importantly, this experience will be enjoyable, helping consumers navigate complexities and igniting a sense of discovery in everyday life.