The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Toyota's Strategic Planning

Agreeing and Disagreeing with Peers on the Impact of Fourth IR on Strategic Plans

My company is Toyota Motor Corp Last week, in your initial post, you considered the implications of the Fourth IR when developing a company’s strategic plans. Post your responses to posts written by at least two of your peers. Address the following in your responses: In what way(s) do you agree or disagree with their assessments of the impact of their chosen aspects of the Fourth IR on their strategic plans?

In what way(s) do you agree or disagree with their assessments of the impact of their chosen aspects of the Fourth IR on their companies?

How might other aspects of the Fourth IR impact their strategic plans, their companies, or both?

The company I chose was Toyota Motor Corp which is a global company headquartered in Aichi, Japan. Toyota Motor Corp offers a number of services which include maintenance, customer service, and financial services; and products to include vehicles and material handling equipment. As an automobile company, artificial intelligence can have a major impact on the company’s strategic planning. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used in conjunction with robotics in the building of vehicles as well as in the way vehicles are operated. I think AI can impact a company’s strategic planning in that it can help identify patterns and trends. I remember a few years ago when my car insurance agency sent a device to track my driving patterns in order to give a quote that was reflective of my safe driving. This is an example of how AI was used in their strategic planning as they wanted to offer more affordable rates to their consumers based on their driving patterns.

AI can specifically impact Toyota Motor Corp as they can utilize it with the GPS systems that are used in the vehicles. Additionally, autopilot, cameras, and various sensors on the vehicles utilize AI. AI can be used in strategic planning in the way that meetings are held, how vehicles are designed, and in overall workflow.

Within the company, one danger of the Fourth IR is the potential for electronic error. While the use of AI, robotics and other means can decrease the rates of human errors, it can lead to significant malfunctions on the occasion that they happen. A second danger of the Fourth IR within the Toyota Motor Corp is that AI can take away from privacy. There is a lot of data collected and often times, that data is obtained via cameras, microphones, and chips. The breach of privacy can become a danger because it can violate rights or even lead to leaks of confidential information and locations.

Agreeing and Disagreeing with Peers on the Impact of Fourth IR on Toyota

I chose Toyota Motor Corporation, headquarters in Aichi, Japan, as my Fortune 500 company. Toyotas main products are passenger vehicles, minivans, and commercial vehicles, but also dabble a little in financial services.

Artificial intelligence (AI) could impact the company in both positive and negative ways.

There are already AI cars that are equipped with a programs such as sleep assistance, lane assist, etc (Shanmugarajah et al., 2020). Adding AI programs to Toyotas vehicles could give them a one up on their competitors, but AI comes with a cost. Adding AI programs to cars is expensive, therefore not everyone is going to be able to afford it. It is important that Toyota still make the same cars without AI in order to attend to customers who do not want or have the money to buy into AI cars. Additionally, having AI be an additional package would be a good way to start cars out cheaper and allow the customer to add on the packages they want. A downside to this feature is if the customer is wanting the AI car ready to drive off the lot that day. There are definitely some things that will need to be figured out, such as how many and which programs to have available in the cars on the lot.

Some negative ways that AI could impact the company are technical difficulties and insurance issues. Toyota will need to make sure the AI technology is not in a Beta program as that would serve as a huge safety and legal concern. In order for customers to feel comfortable buying into AI cars, they will want to see solid proof that there are no bugs within the software/programs. Another issue that I could see rising is insurance issues. Say a sleep asssistance AI program is installed and they end up in an accident. The driver of the other car could claim that the driver was asleep at the wheel and therefore it must be their fault. This will be difficult for the AI car driver to defend. Is it their fault? Is it Toyota's sleep assistant fault? Or was it the other drivers fault? I could see potential lawsuits in these areas in the future.

Shanmugarajah, S., Tharmaseelan, J., & Sivagnanam, L. (2020). AI Approach In Monitoring The Physical And Psychological State Of Car Drivers And Remedial Action For Safe Driving. 2020 2nd International Conference on Advancements in Computing (ICAC).