Author: Mr. Gopinath Jayaraj, Chief Information Officer, Tata Motors

Embracing the digital revolution in earnest, leading businesses across sectors today are decisively investing time and effort to enrich their offerings with innovative digital tools. The automotive sector has been no different, with OEMs actively pivoting toward adopting digitized and connected technology to deliver uniquely elevated customer experiences. The global automotive artificial intelligence (AI) market is expected to reach $8,887.6 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 45.0% from 2018 to 2025.¹

In a post-pandemic reality where the market is increasingly penetrated by a plethora of digital offerings, automakers must build on this momentum, striving to create a connected mobility universe - an ecosystem of digital offerings that not only helps facilitate functioning of enterprise systems but also generates favourable business outcomes and delightful customer experiences.

Evolutionary Digital Architecture for Futuristic Functioning

Unlike other businesses that are thriving in the digital market and have always begun their business in the digital medium, the automotive sector has had a fair amount of experience in the pre-digital era as well. Conventionally, we have always used technology within our core enterprises to maintain records of transactions and data relating to logistics, supply chains, spare availability and sales and services. Now however, we are trying to leverage digital tools to take business functioning to the next level. The challenge and opportunity here, is to marry the benefits of our traditional enterprise systems with more contemporary digital platforms.

The essential idea here is one: to gradually move towards building a connected digital universe that connects the native enterprise system with cloud systems effectively, allowing all existing data to be connected and judiciously shared to deliver better business outcomes. Remember that we want to evolve, absorbing the benefits of our existing systems while injecting them with newer tools. This would tie our digital platforms on the customer front with our enterprise systems in a seamless, responsive network, allowing us to bring together all stakeholders of the mobility universe, including customers, employees, distributors/dealers, fuel pumps/charging stations.

A Revolutionary System to Deliver on Customer Expectations

So, what does the existence of a shared, connected mobility universe mean, especially for customers? You know your vehicle and your vehicle knows you. Your vehicle will be customized to suit your needs and store all data to facilitate ease and safety. This means it will automatically draw data from the company system to determine whether, for instance, it is time for your car to undergo a maintenance check. If you need to refuel or recharge, your car itself can alert you about the nearest fuel or charging station.

A connected digital ecosystem can also substantially assist when unforeseen challenges arrive. In case there is any unfortunate accident, it can automatically intimate emergency services. If your car breaks down, it can instantly send an alert to your vehicle company, and the company can use its enterprise data to provide swift help. Tata Motors’ sophisticated connected digital ecosystem has helped it tend to breakdowns at a much faster rate, reducing vehicle off-road times for commercial vehicles by 75%.

The growing awareness of the contemporary customer and their affinity towards all things digital, testifies to the significance of building a seamless mobility ecosystem. Perfecting this system will take some time, and we must be cautious not to hastily replace our older systems with newer ones. It is important to carefully make use of our existing systems and migrate as holistically as possible to the digital arena of functioning. The present and the future indeed, is digital, and to succeed as automotive businesses, we must find a way to not only become part of, but also lead, this revolution. Ultimately, we must place, as we always have, the goal of delivering unmatched customer experiences at the centre of our pursuit.