2018 - an IPA Odyssey: A single case study of how an Intelligent Personal Assistant should be constructed to align with the value proposition of Lynk & Co

Abstract

No one can forecast how the world will look like in the future, but one can tell that it will be a completely different one from today. Companies are investing substantial amounts of money in new technology, with one of the latest innovation being robots and how humans want to interact with these. However, innovation does also repaint the competitive landscape, and it has become significantly more important for manufacturing firms to put the customer in the center rather than the product to stay competitive. While much research has been made within the customer-centric approach and human-robot interaction which are the two cornerstones of this thesis, there is a lack of literature where these two fields intersect. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to investigate how Lynk & Co, our single-case study manufacturing firm, should construct their Intelligent Personal Assistant in alignment with their value proposition. This is performed through a qualitative study consisting of case-study interviews with Lynk & Co managers and external HRI-experts. By first examining the two cornerstones separately and subsequently combining these findings it was possible to shed light on the thesis main research question. Findings showed that Lynk & Co adopt a customercentric approach. Furthermore, twelve salient factors, strengthened by both theory and empirical data, could be allocated in the Kano Model to assist Lynk & Co with the alignment between their value proposition and the construction of their Intelligent Personal Assistant.