Breaking new digital ground
On July 3rd, when upwards of 100,000 people visit Vejle to join the festivities for the third stage of the 2022 Tour de France, many of them will most likely encounter Victoria – the municipality’s first digital human – centrally placed on a screen at the city’s tourist office.
Victoria was initially developed to add a special touch to Vejle’s huge Tour de France event as well as to meet the need for a digital hostess. Along with the rest of the tourist office team, she will be answering questions from visitors in the period leading up to the event – from where to find parking to giving directions for the fan zone and sharing information on the riders. And on the actual day, she will even be able to give live updates on the race and other current information.
But Victoria is also an important part of the municipality’s efforts to promote and increase digitalization and AI, explains Jens Jørn Josefsen, Project Manager at VisitVejle that owns the project, which also includes Jens P. Jensen, Technical Project Manager from Vejle Municipality. “Digitalization and AI are strategic focus areas for us, so the collaboration with NTT DATA Business Solutions was a great opportunity to showcase our progressive mindset while demonstrating to businesses in Vejle the many opportunities an avatar brings.”