10:40 am, August 27, 2024
The automotive industry is facing a perfect storm of challenges: rising inventory, shrinking margins, supply chain disruptions, and persistent labour shortages.
While these issues are familiar, AI is emerging as a powerful tool to successfully drive business results in this environment.
Dealerships that have successfully implemented AI have reported significant increases in sales and service appointments, large gains in productivity, as well as substantial growth in repair order revenue.
As Impel works with thousands of dealers across the globe, we’ve found that adopting and implementing AI successfully requires a clear strategy, effective planning, and seamless integration. In particular, leveraging AI for isolated use cases or narrow applications results in sub-par results and return on investment.
The most successful dealers have deployed AI at scale across their tech stack and operations, integrating one unified AI platform across the customer lifecycle.
How AI is impacting automotive retail
AI is an increasingly popular technology for managing potential customers, but its capabilities extend far beyond this. AI can intelligently automate and handle many aspects of the customer journey:
- Vehicle image enhancement: At the earliest stages of a customer’s car-buying process, AI can help attract more leads by improving the quality of vehicle images, enhancing the online vehicle display page (VDP) experience.
- AI-powered digital showroom: Imaging solutions leverage Computer Vision AI to showcase vehicles in the digital showroom and even produce virtual photo booths, delivering studio-quality 360-degree views and realistic backgrounds without the need for dedicated physical space or investment.
- Instant, always-on lead engagement: Automotive Conversational AI enables dealerships to engage with potential customers in highly personalised and humanlike conversations across various channels, including web chat, SMS, email, WhatsApp, and even voice interactions.
- Stronger customer loyalty and retention: Full lifecycle AI platforms deliver hyper-personalised engagement at every touchpoint, from the initial website visit through after-sales service milestones, MOT initiatives, abandoned customer recovery, and subsequent car purchases.
- Increased team productivity and efficiency: Furthermore, AI allows dealerships to scale or streamline operations efficiently and cost-effectively in response to fluctuating demand, maximising productivity and enabling them to make the most of their current resources.
Best practices for getting started with AI
To maximise the benefits of AI, consider these key steps:
- Automotive-specific AI: Choose an AI solution that is specifically tailored to the automotive industry. Industry-specific training and optimisation ensure that AI delivers relevant and effective dealer outcomes, without the dangers and pitfalls of open-source applications.
- Platform over point solutions: Integrate AI as the core of your dealership’s technology stack. Deep integrations with CRM, dealer management systems, and inventory feeds are essential for optimal performance.
- Prioritise security and control: Ensure the AI platform has robust security measures and safeguards to protect sensitive data and prevent AI hallucinations or user manipulation.
- Effective change management: Communicate openly to your staff about the benefits of AI, provide clear roles and responsibilities, and offer appropriate incentives to encourage employee adoption.
- Implementation partnership: Don’t implement AI in a silo. Select an AI partner that can consult and advise on the best implementation and integration approach for the unique needs of your dealership.
The road to success
AI offers immense potential for automotive retailers. By enhancing customer experiences, optimising operations, and empowering staff, Automotive AI will drive significant business growth.
To find out more, contact Impel to request a demo or email [email protected].
