The Future of the In-Car Experience, Shaped by Agentic AI and Content Discovery

The decisive factor in the in-car AI race will not be larger models or impressive demos. What will truly make the difference is the ability to operate reliably in production vehicles while understanding the vehicle, its occupants, and the context of each moment. Ivan Dimkovic, Co-Founder of Cinemo, says the in-car experience is shifting from app-centric interfaces to intent-driven experiences—and that the future will be led not by the biggest AI, but by the AI that understands best.

By Sang Min Han _ han@autoelectronics.co.kr
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The automotive industry is moving beyond the Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) era and into the age of AI agents. Much of the industry's attention is focused on larger models and increasingly capable agents. From Cinemo’s perspective, what is the true nature of competition in the AI agent era? What do you believe the industry is overlooking today? 
Dimkovic        Everyone is talking about bigger models and more capable agents. That is exciting, but for us it is not where the real competition lies. Almost anyone can build an impressive AI demo today. The challenge starts when that technology has to work flawlessly in a production vehicle. 
A car is not a smartphone. If you are driving on the highway and ask your AI assistant how to activate a vehicle function, you need the correct answer immediately. There is very little tolerance for mistakes. 
That is why quality and reliability will be the real differentiators. Automotive AI has to stay reliable across changing network conditions, avoid hallucinations, understand the vehicle correctly and deliver consistent results. If it works nine times out of ten, drivers will remember the one failure. In automotive, trust is built through consistency. 
The industry is also underestimating standardization. AI agents are only as capable as the data they can access. Without common interfaces and standardized vehicle data, even the best models cannot reach their full potential. 


   
AI agent capabilities are likely to become increasingly standardized over time. If that happens, what will ultimately make customers choose and trust a particular automotive brand? Among brand, experience, data, ecosystem, and other factors, which do you believe will become the most important competitive differentiator? 
Dimkovic        As AI becomes widely available, the technology itself will be less of a differentiator. The real question is how naturally that intelligence is integrated into the vehicle and the brand experience. 
For me, the next differentiator is hyper-personalization, not just remembering a playlist, but understanding the vehicle, the people inside it and the situation around them. 
A generic assistant can answer questions. A great in-car assistant connects to what the vehicle already knows and can do: seat settings, climate, driver assistance, occupant awareness and entertainment. If I am driving alone, reading work emails aloud may be fine. If an unknown passenger is next to me, the car should know not to share confidential information. If children are in the back, it should recommend age-appropriate content. 
The same applies to feature discovery. Modern cars are full of technology, and AI can help drivers discover useful functions they might otherwise miss. 
This should not be reserved for premium vehicles. With Cinemo Bring Your AI™, we can combine compute power from the vehicle, cloud and personal devices, allowing even entry-level cars to deliver premium digital experiences. 
The brands that stand out will not necessarily have the biggest AI model. They will be the ones whose AI understands the vehicle, the driver and the moment. 
 

AI agents, content platforms, Android Automotive OS (AAOS), and Apple CarPlay are all becoming part of the in-car experience. In this environment, which areas should OEMs retain direct control over, and where is collaboration with partners the better strategy? 
Dimkovic        I do not see this as an either-or question. Different customers expect different experiences. Some drivers plug in an iPhone, launch CarPlay and stay there. Others expect the vehicle itself to provide a fully integrated digital experience that feels like part of the brand. Both will continue to exist. 
OEMs should absolutely retain control over the data and intelligence that make their vehicles unique. That is the basis for AI experiences that are personalized, context-aware and safe. Data ownership also means responsibility, because customers expect their information to be handled securely and transparently. 
At the same time, not every layer of the software stack needs to be built in-house. A demo or prototype is easier than ever to assemble. A production-ready solution that runs reliably for years in millions of vehicles is a different challenge. 
That is where specialized partners create value. OEMs should focus on what differentiates their brand and rely on experts for proven technologies. That is how they accelerate innovation without compromising quality, safety or brand identity. 
 

Two systems may offer the same functionality, yet one remains merely a feature while the other makes the user feel that “this car understands me.” For example, when a passenger casually says, “I’m tired, play something for me,” there is a difference between delivering an accurate recommendation and delivering one that feels natural and meaningful. In your view, what creates that difference?  
Dimkovic        It’s personalization! We often describe it as the difference between an AI that simply responds and one that genuinely understands the situation. 
Generic AI can deliver correct answers, but truly intelligent automotive experiences require context. The more an AI system understands the driver's preferences, habits and environment, the more natural and valuable the interaction becomes. 
AI can learn preferred music, content choices, driving routines and other behaviors to provide recommendations that genuinely feel personal rather than generic. I've actually seen this while testing one of our AI prototypes. After giving it more context about my own preferences, I looked at one recommendation and thought: "Yes, that's exactly something I would watch today." 
When AI understands both the vehicle and the people inside it, it stops feeling like another feature and starts feeling like a genuinely intelligent assistant. 






   
Generative AI and agentic AI are changing the way people discover and consume content. How do you expect the in-car digital experience to evolve beyond today’s app-centric model? 
Dimkovic        I believe we're moving from app-centric interfaces to intent-driven experiences. 
Today's vehicles already offer hundreds of features, and even as someone working in automotive software, I sometimes discover capabilities I didn't know existed. Expecting drivers to navigate increasingly complex menus or dozens of apps simply isn't sustainable. 
Instead, AI will become the primary interface. Rather than searching through menus, drivers will simply describe what they want to do, and the AI understands the intent, accesses the right vehicle functions and orchestrates the necessary services in the background. 
What's exciting is that AI can also help users discover features they didn't know they had. The assistant might proactively suggest a useful vehicle function, explain a capability that's available in the current driving situation, or even recommend a new service that enhances the experience. 
The future isn't about adding more apps to the car - it's about making the technology disappear into the background. The best interface is one where drivers simply express what they want, and the vehicle takes care of the rest. 
 

As AI agents take on a greater role in decision-making inside the vehicle, how much automation do users actually want? How does Cinemo view the balance between user control and automation? 
Dimkovic        There isn't a single answer because people's expectations differ. Some users will happily delegate more tasks to AI, while others will want to stay firmly in control. It also varies between regions, customer groups and OEM brands. 
Take a simple example like planning a trip. An AI assistant could find a suitable hotel along your route, compare options and even prepare the booking. But should it confirm the reservation and charge your credit card without asking? For some users that would be convenient, while others would always want the final confirmation themselves. 
At Cinemo, we believe AI should empower users, not replace them. That's why our technology is designed to be highly configurable. OEMs can decide how much autonomy they want to give the AI and where a human should remain in the loop. 
Automation is ultimately about building trust. The best AI won't take control away from the driver, it will take care of routine tasks while leaving important decisions exactly where the user wants them. 
 

Cinemo has recently highlighted the convergence of Agentic AI and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). Is this a sign that the center of the in-car experience is shifting away from the vehicle itself and toward the user’s broader digital ecosystem? How does Cinemo view this transition? 
Dimkovic        I wouldn't say the center of the experience is shifting away from the vehicle. It's becoming broader. 
Consumer devices have become incredibly powerful. If you compare a brand-new tablet with the infotainment hardware in a five-year-old car, there's a good chance the tablet actually has more computing power. At the same time, cars stay on the road for many years, while smartphones and tablets are replaced much more frequently. 
That’s exactly where Cinemo Bring Your AI™ comes in: it allows manufacturers to leverage this additional compute power without sacrificing the integrated automotive experience. 
This is particularly valuable for entry-level vehicles, where embedded hardware may be more limited, but it also benefits premium vehicles by extending their capabilities over time. The goal isn't to replace the vehicle compute power with the smartphone. It's to make all of these devices work together seamlessly 
 

Chinese OEMs are reshaping the industry through rapid development cycles and new user experiences. What changes in the Chinese OEM approach stand out most to Cinemo? And what lessons, if any, should global OEMs learn from them? 
Dimkovic        One advantage many Chinese OEMs have had is that they started with a relatively clean slate. They weren't constrained by decades of legacy software platforms, which allowed them to adopt modern architectures and move very quickly. 
Established global OEMs face a different challenge. They need to support existing vehicle platforms while developing the next generation of software-defined and AI-defined vehicles. Balancing innovation with continuity isn't easy. 
From our perspective as a software company, the key lesson is architectural flexibility. We've always designed our technology to be cross-platform, enabling customers to adopt new hardware platforms and software architectures without starting from scratch. That kind of flexibility becomes even more important as AI capabilities evolve so rapidly. 
Success won't simply come from developing faster. It will come from building software platforms that can continuously evolve, allowing OEMs to deliver new capabilities throughout the vehicle's lifetime while remaining reliable and future-ready. 






   
Today’s OEMs must simultaneously address three challenges: faster development, greater cost efficiency, and differentiated user experiences. What are the biggest concerns your customers are facing today, and how does Cinemo help address them? 
Dimkovic        One of the biggest challenges our customers face today is the pace of technological change. The automotive industry works on development cycles that span several years. 
For example, many vehicles being designed today won't reach customers until 2028 or even 2029. By then, AI models and computing capabilities will have advanced significantly. That creates a difficult planning challenge for OEMs: do you over-provision the hardware today, increasing costs, or risk launching a vehicle that can‘t support the latest AI experiences just a few years later? 
At Cinemo, we believe the answer isn't simply adding more hardware. It's building software that remains flexible over the lifetime of the vehicle. Approaches like our Cinemo Bring Your AI™ allow manufacturers to deliver new capabilities over time without relying solely on the embedded hardware that was specified years earlier. 
Our goal is simple: help OEMs keep vehicles relevant throughout their entire lifecycle, not just on the day they leave the factory. 


Cinemo began as a media solutions company and has since expanded into AI, cloud services, multi-screen experiences, and content orchestration. Looking ahead, what kind of company does Cinemo aspire to become—and just as importantly, what kind of company does it not intend to become? 
Dimkovic        Cinemo has evolved alongside the industry. When we started, much of the conversation was about media playback; questions like,?"Do you support this codec?"?or?"Can you stream this format?"?Today, those questions are only one small part of a much bigger picture. 
Vehicles, smartphones, cloud services and smart homes are becoming increasingly connected, while AI adds another layer of intelligence across all of them. What excites us is bringing those worlds together and making them work so seamlessly that users never have to think about the technology behind them. Whether intelligence runs in the vehicle, on a personal device or in the cloud shouldn't matter. The experience should simply feel natural. 
As AI makes digital experiences more sophisticated, the complexity behind the scenes continues to grow. That’s where we believe Cinemo creates value. Our focus has always been on building scalable software platforms and intellectual property that solve industry-wide challenges, providing proven technologies that allow our customers to innovate faster and create outstanding user experiences more efficiently. 
 

Looking five years ahead, what do you believe will be the single biggest force shaping the future of the in-car experience? Among AI agents, content ecosystems, cloud services, BYOD, next-generation display technologies, and other emerging trends, which one would you choose, and why? 
Dimkovic        If I had to choose one, it would be artificial intelligence. Not just because AI models will become more capable, but because they'll finally connect all the systems that today still operate in silos. 
Five years is a long time in AI. If you look back to 2021, only a relatively small group of people believed large language models would become part of everyday life. Today they're everywhere. So, while it's impossible to predict exactly where we'll be in another five years, it's clear that AI will continue to evolve at an incredible pace. 
What excites me most is how AI can bring together the different parts of the digital ecosystem. Vehicles are becoming software-defined and increasingly connected, but they're still made up of many independent systems. As AI gains access to richer contextual information from the vehicle, personal devices and cloud services, it will be able to understand not only what users ask for, but also what they actually need in a particular situation. 
The goal is that drivers spend less time learning their vehicle and more time simply enjoying it. The car should understand your preferences, anticipate your needs and adapt naturally over time. Even when you move to a new vehicle, many of those personal preferences should follow you automatically. 
I still enjoy driving myself, I'm definitely a car enthusiast. But sitting in a traffic jam? If the car can take over while I focus on something else, I'll happily let it. 

AEM(오토모티브일렉트로닉스매거진)

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