Using AI for Car Dealerships: All You Need To Know

AI’s various use cases are quickly reshaping how industries connect with customers, design new products, and streamline processes to achieve greater efficiency.

Consider this your guide to artificial intelligence in the automotive space; below we’ll explore how to leverage AI to boost sales at your car dealership and highlight some of the best available tools (including Podium’s AI BDC) for increased revenue and accelerated growth.

What Does AI Look Like For The Car Industry?

Artificial Intelligence tends to serve as a catch-all term for tech capable of completing specific tasks on its own. However, there are a few noteworthy components that either contribute to or are often confused with AI:

• Machine learning is a type of tech that analyzes large datasets to improve itself over time.
• Natural language processing is designed to respond to human speech and text by identifying common language patterns.
• Computer vision allows programs to process visual information.

In the auto industry, AI tools are helping dealerships respond more quickly to customer concerns, improve inventory management, and even boost a dealer’s local marketing campaigns. Further up in the auto supply chain, AI is busy building more efficient auto manufacturing processes and developing complex features like autonomous driving.

5 Benefits of AI for Car Dealerships

The potential for AI use is virtually limitless for dealerships. AI can be used to automate manual tasks (like reaching out to new leads), schedule test drives, and quickly search your inventory for vehicles in line with the needs of a potential customer. Check out the full list of areas we expect to AI impact for car dealerships in the days ahead:

1. Cost Reduction

The role of AI in any business is to save time and money. For auto dealers, that might mean saving sales teams time by responding to customers’ frequently asked questions or showing the marketing department where to focus its next paid promotion.

AI can also help ease a dealership’s carrying costs through more accurate forecasting. By reading into historical sales data, market trends, and supplier information, AI can protect dealers from loading up on unnecessary stock or suffering accidental shortages.

2. Increased Sales Efficiency and Productivity

Adopting AI tools improves how efficiently sales can convert prospects into satisfied customers. Removing some of the more time-intensive to-dos from a sales agent’s calendar frees them up to focus solely on closing deals. Plus, by arranging appointments with prospects most likely to convert, AI boosts the odds of each in-person meeting ending in a successful sale.

3. Improved Customer Service and Personalization

Every dealership wants to provide consistent customer support, but customers in need of assistance over the weekend or after hours are often forced to leave a voicemail and wait on solutions to their problem. Too much waiting gives car-shoppers time to overthink, pivot to rival dealerships, or simply place their search for a vehicle on hold. Virtual assistants help keep customers engaged by quickly addressing questions, giving recommendations, and confirming new vehicle availability.

4. Better Lead Management

AI algorithms are trained to identify patterns within large datasets that signal a buyer’s intent to purchase. Sales teams can be sure high-quality leads receive immediate attention by following AI’s guidance while marketing studies which factors the AI used to identify these high-grade prospects.

5. Shortened Sales Cycles

The natural result to all the above is a more efficient sales cycle — which is good news for both customers and dealerships. AI simplifies a customer’s path to purchase and prevents the process from becoming drawn-out.

5 Steps to Implement AI in Car Dealerships

So, if AI has so much to offer the automotive space, why isn’t every dealership already on board? As with any industry, integrating a business with a new AI tool requires a lot more than a simple program download. Fortunately, with a little training and preparation, every dealership can follow these five steps toward successful AI implementation:

1. Identify Areas for Automation

A quick, informal audit of your dealership will likely reveal a few problem areas. These are usually pretty easy to identify, as they’ll be the areas where the most errors occur or where tasks grow overly-repetitive. Evaluate the state of your dealership’s inventory management, check reviews for any negative comments on your customer support, and note where AI may prove most effective once implemented.

2. Research and Select Appropriate AI Tools

Familiarize yourself with the major auto-centric AI tools and platforms currently available and determine which features will best strengthen your dealership’s weak points. Don’t forget to confirm an AI tool’s compatibility with everything else on your work computer (like a CRM). The most advanced AI in the world won’t do much good if it can’t access your CRM data.

3. Reach Out to AI Solution Providers

Automotive is large enough of a vertical to warrant tools made specifically with it in mind. Don’t worry about retrofitting an AI platform to fit your dealership needs when plenty already exist. Some vendors specializing in automotive retail (like Podium) are also willing to demo and discuss the best plan for your business beforehand.

4. Train and Upskill Employees

An AI tool is only useful if teams are willing to adopt it. Don’t overlook employee training, as it’s a key piece of implementing your chosen AI platform. If employees aren’t comfortable using a program, its promised cost- and time-saving benefits will be all but nullified.

5. Monitor and Evaluate AI Implementation

Once “live,” your new platform’s performance can be tracked in a few different ways:

• Key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates and customer satisfaction scores can gauge the AI’s effectiveness.
• Honest feedback will help identify any gaps in the training process or lapses in the customer experience.
• Regular reviews can refine how your dealership puts AI to use and boost its ROI.

3 Best AI Tools for Car Dealerships

These established AI platforms are widely-available, extremely versatile options designed to improve your dealership’s workflow:

Podium AI BDC

Podium AI BDC is an AI platform built to help dealers engage with prospects across multiple channels (including text messaging, online reviews, and webchat). Features like AI-powered review, response suggestions, chatbots, sentiment analysis, and personalized messaging are all tailored to the automotive space. In practice, that means sales agents won’t miss a beat with their high-value prospects — even when busy with a test drive or a one-on-one meeting.

Podium’s AI BDC can be added to any Podium plan, which start at $399 per month.

ChatGPT

At this point, you’ve probably heard of the conversational AI tool powered by OpenAI’s GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) model. ChatGPT can serve as a dealership’s chatbot on a website or messaging platform and give assistance 24/7. However, while ChatGPT excels in natural language, it may occasionally generate responses that are not entirely accurate or relevant, requiring human intervention for the more complex inquiries (the chatbot used by Chevy of Watsonville in California provided one infamous example).

Only ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users are currently able to build a chatbot with ChatGPT (ie. a custom GPT). ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month, while the Enterprise subscription plan varies depending on usage and customization requirements.

DALL·E 3

DALL·E 3 is an advanced image generation AI model. Developed by OpenAI, DALL·E 3 leverages deep learning algorithms and large-scale training data to produce visually compelling images. Car dealerships can use this model to rapidly generate highly realistic images of vehicles and customers based on textual descriptions for online listings, digital marketing materials, and virtual showroom experiences.

This generative image software can significantly reduce the costs of marketing and advertising for a car dealership. However, while DALL·E 3 excels in generating realistic images, there may be limitations in terms of specificity and fine-grained details, particularly for complex or unique vehicle features.

Pricing for DALL·E 3 varies by usage. Depending on image size and quality, an image may cost between $.04 and $.08.

Podium’s AI BDC

Learn how you can turn every lead, day or night, into a meaningful conversation that drives sales with Podium’s best-in-class AI BDC. You can even take it for a test drive yourself with our AI BDC Demo.