The intelligent systems built around AI are capable of:

• Managing online chat sessions
• Fielding customer questions about the dealership
• Fielding customer questions about the vehicles it sells
• Helping answer questions about model preferences
• Compares models
• Availability of models for sale (or similar models)
• Warranty
• Getting finance approvals
• Making sales and service appointments

Ben Cooper

A key feature is that, in each response to each customer, the conversation is customised based on the knowledge or the “picture” the AI system has been able to draw on from the customer relations database or the dealer’s management system. 

It seamlessly pulls directly all the information that the dealership has inputted into its system as well as trusted third party databases on which the company draws (OEM websites for example).

AI is not about losing people. 

It is about freeing up the humans on dealership staff to do a better job at what they are good at and be more productive.  It is about a consistent message across the business and reducing the impact of staff turnover. AI does not leave for another job nor does it take all kinds of personal leave.

And it is infinitely scalable. Conversations with the 40 per cent of online leads that never get followed up for lack of time or not enough people can be addressed in seconds by AI systems.

According to Ben Cooper, the managing director international of AI specialist, Impel, who gave a presentation at this year’s AADA Convention, the giant US-based Penske Automotive group reported that in the fourth quarter of 2022, 37,000 of its online service appointments in the US were created using AI and total online business development centre appointments increased by 520,000 or 10 per cent.

Another US dealership group using Impel systems reported that the return on investment on AI systems was $200 for each dollar spent.  It said that in a short time the group generated more than 1500 appointments and had taken its abandoned customer rate from about a 4 per cent engagement rate to about an 18 per cent engagement rate. 

Mr Cooper said that the computer revolution transformed the workplace in the late 20th century and the smartphone has done the same at the start of this century. But, he said, the capability of AI to change our lives is probably even bigger than the smartphone.

“This isn’t about replacing people. This is about embedding technology within processes within how organisations work to make those organisations more effective. 

“What if each of your employees had an additional two and a half hours in their day? What could they achieve with being able to take away all those manual labor burdens and tasks from what they do? It opens up a whole world of possibility in terms of how you can service customers. 

“It means that we can do more with less or do more with the same amount of resources that we have within our organisations without having to hire exponentially to try and keep up with the day-to-day of running dealership businesses.” 

He said that a study this year by HubSpot of 1300 professionals where AI is being used in their businesses found that of salespeople using AI:

• 85 per cent say it makes prospecting efforts more effective
• 79 per cent of the salespeople using AI said it allows them to spend more time selling and doing the value-adding tasks that their roles are really there for
• 72 per cent said it meant that they could build rapport more effectively and more quickly with their customer base. 

“If you take away those manual tasks, 95 per cent of people who use this technology already today believe that they are reducing the amount of manual work that they’re doing.

“This opens up a whole world of possibility in terms of how you can use that time to grow your businesses more effectively,” Mr Cooper said.

He said that 88 per cent of people who use the technology believe it helps them spend more time on the more important parts of their role, 85 per cent of people spend more time on the part of their role than they enjoy the most. 

“You think about what salespeople do in terms of prospecting leads and trying to convert leads into appointments. Salespeople don’t like the chasing piece of their role, they like the deal-making part of their role. 

“So if we can redress the way that that time is spent in the workplace, we can create happier people in terms of what they do. We don’t want team members spending their time on these kinds of repetitive burdensome tasks, we want them spending their time on things that are truly creating value.”

“What we see today in many dealerships is this concept of organisational drag. This is the cumulative effect of all the unproductive burdens and tasks that the people have to do; if you think about the salespeople who are there to set appointments, or the service people who sit in BDCs, who are chasing people, and all of the activity tracking measures what they have to do.

“That’s a heavy toll on organisations. People spend a lot of time filling out reports instead of being in front of customers, generating relationships that can help the business move forward. The opportunity (with AI) is to move towards a model that is supported by technology that can deliver that white glove level of service through all of those touch points in the customer journey.” 

Mr Cooper said that AI was suited to managing chat sessions and that most dealerships used chat on their websites. “But most dealers say the  job in the dealership that every salesperson hates is sitting there responding to these kinds of chat sessions.”

AI’s strengths are the ability to answer questions in real time in a highly conversational way that doesn’t need human beings, he said. 

If the customer asks what kind of engine a car has or asks questions around the features, we can respond to the customer in a very conversational way around that engine choice. As long as the data point sits within some manufacturer PDF manual the AI can take all that information and provide customers with detailed responses that, quite frankly, human beings find difficult, especially with the amount of turnover of employees that we see within organisations today, Mr Cooper said.

“Because of the way that AI works today, it’s not just factually recalling information, it can use comparative information as well. How trim levels compare. ‘I’m trying to find a car for my family. Let me know what are the best options for me’. 

“It can also talk to our customers about the trade-in processes. So really think about this technology as a brand ambassador that covers a whole host of different topics that car buyers are going to be interested in as they go through the shopping journey. 

“We’re continuing to see very, very low unemployment rates and the challenges of staff retention and staff training and how we get staff to be effective in our businesses. We are still seeing fluctuating demand and we’re continuing to see uncertainties of supply disruption.

“So all of this tells us that we need to do more as businesses with what we’ve got. We cannot keep hiring exponentially to deliver that white glove service, so we need to use the technology in wise ways,” Mr Cooper said.

Footnote: The CEO of Cox Automotive Australia, Stephen Lester, announced at this year’s AADA Convention that the Australian operations of Cox would be leveraging Impel’s AI technology into its local products.

He said that Cox Automotive was already partnering with Impel in the US and Europe and the liaison was now being taken up Down Under.

Mr Lester said that businesses across the globe were already leveraging AI to more rapidly satisfy customers, “making their experiences more streamlined, and connecting the physical and digital experience whilst minimising the resources they allocate to them”. 

“And rest assured, if you don’t understand and embrace AI, your rivals will,” he said.

By Neil Dowling