8:07 am, September 8, 2025
Automotive AI company Impel reports that fast responses, persistent follow-up, and after-hours availability are now vital for maximising dealership lead conversions.
The analysis, covering 187,000 sales leads handled by Impel’s AI operating system in the first six months of 2025, shows how AI is helping dealers capture more opportunities by doing two things most sales teams struggle to focus on consistently.
These are responding instantly to new enquiries and sustain high-quality, human-like engagement well beyond the initial follow-up window.
Almost half of prospective customers engaged within 15 minutes of receiving an AI response to their initial query.
Of those, 60% booked an appointment in that same window; Impel said this is ‘especially valuable’ especially when ‘37% of engagement took place outside regular business hours’.
The analysis also highlights the value of long-term follow-up.
One in four prospects re-engaged more than 48 hours after going quiet, well beyond the point where most human-led follow-up ends. This suggests a missed opportunity in many dealerships, where attention is often focused only on the first few hours or days.
James Leese, managing director of Impel UK, said: ‘The data tells a clear story about online car buyer behaviour in 2025. Buyers exhibit an unpredictable blend of urgency and sluggishness, presenting a challenge for time-stretched sales teams.
‘But a significant proportion of prospects will act when given the opportunity, be that during or outside of traditional opening hours.
‘AI is helping dealers be the first to respond, but it is also giving them a second chance with leads they would have otherwise lost,’ said Leese. ‘It is not just about attracting more traffic, it’s about converting more of the traffic they already have.
‘By handling both the fast and the slow, AI supports sales teams around the clock and hands off qualified leads when the customer is ready to talk. Rather than starting the day with a long list of unqualified leads to work through, AI empowered dealers are starting with appointments already booked in their diaries.’
In total, Impel helped its customers book almost 6,000 appointments in the first six months of this year.
While the dataset reflects just a small portion of the wider UK retail market, Leese believes it offers a useful snapshot of where AI is already showing value on the showroom floor.
‘This is not theory. These are live interactions in real UK dealerships, every day. We are seeing how AI can extend the reach and enhance the performance of sales teams, especially when it comes to out-of-hours contact and long-tail leads.’
Impel’s Sales AI and Chat AI solutions are designed to support dealer teams by managing inbound enquiries, maintaining natural back-and-forth conversations with buyers, answering complex inventory, financing, and part exchange enquiries, and booking appointments directly into existing systems.
Impel is used by thousands of dealers globally and was introduced in the UK in 2022.
