Adobe Wants to Bring Digital Marketing to Your Car

Adobe Systems Inc. has helped companies tackle digital marketing on computers and smartphones. Now, it wants the next key device: your car.

New services unveiled Monday to help businesses analyze data from web-enabled autos thrust Adobe into competition with big rivals such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google, which provides software inside vehicles. Adobe will provide analytics, marketing features and help automate audio ads, enhanced by the company’s artificial intelligence feature called Sensei.

The move puts Adobe on the forefront of efforts to harvest the trove of information being generated by new on-board voice capabilities, infotainment applications and, eventually, self-driving autos. That kind of analysis is just getting under way with cars, as manufacturers such as Daimler AG and BMW AG enable autos to collect real-time data with networking that makes their vehicles more like a mobile phone, said Michael Ramsey, an analyst with Gartner.

“It's just in its very infancy—and not nearly in the way it's being done with the phone," Ramsey said. "But that is the plan."

Adobe is trying to reach beyond traditional gadgets with its marketing-services arm. After spending about $500 million on a video advertising startup, TubeMogul, the company announced analytics for Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa voice-activated assistant and similar services. Cars are the next big step and a fierce battleground.