Last weekend, I was lying back on the couch watching college football, which is exactly what I do on a Saturday. Around the time of a disputed holding call, just as a key third-down stop was happening, a commercial came on. It was an ad for Google’s AI, Gemini. In the ad, a man stands on the premises of a car dealership, looking at a brand-new car.

He takes out his phone, photographs the window sticker, and then casually asks the AI what the best way is to negotiate a better price for that car.

I got up off the couch. That wasn’t a futuristic science-fiction idea, it’s happening right now. It struck me like a ton of bricks: traditional information asymmetry in the car sales industry is gone. Customers now walk onto your premises with a real-time, hyper-intelligent negotiation coach in their pocket.

That leads me to a rather uncomfortable question for anyone who is in business today: While customers are using AI at your store, are you?

In the past, cars were sold with a certain formula: we had the data, we knew the margins, and the customer was left to combine internet research with their own instinct. That is no longer the case. Nowadays, when a buyer points their camera at a window sticker and immediately gets a bulleted list showing leverage points, dealer holdback estimates, and market day supply figures, the playing field hasn’t just been leveled … it’s been completely tilted.

How are you preparing your front-of-house staff for this? If your sales team is still using traditional word tracks and manually entering data into the CRM, you’re like using a knife against a gun. Forward-thinking dealerships have already improved their procedures.

They use smart tools to create highly personalized email outreach that sounds natural, rather than sending boring, template-based auto-responses that customers immediately delete. They use AI to analyze the leads they receive and score them by how likely the customer is to buy, so the floor staff knows exactly who to call first. They also use conversational bots to handle initial late-night web queries, arranging warm appointments for the BDC the following morning.

Let’s put the showroom aside for a moment, since the front of the house isn’t the whole story. Are you using AI in the service lane?

Fixed operations forms the financial foundation of any successful dealership, but it is usually the area in which meaningful technological innovation is last seen. The service department is well suited for an AI-driven makeover. Consider the daily annoyances: the morning rush, the constant phone calls needed to get repair approvals, and the frustration of an inexplicable check-engine light.

Picture AI incorporated into your scheduling system so it doesn’t just book a time slot, but forecasts how long a job will take by referencing technicians’ historical performance and current parts inventory. For customer communication, intelligent systems can now automate real-time conversational text messages, converting the technician’s detailed notes into simple, easy-to-understand language for the customer. The system will also automatically request approval for extra work, including video links and cost details, helping avoid situations where voicemails are ignored.

The diagnostic aspect is even more remarkable. AI now assists technicians in diagnosing repair orders by comparing vehicle data, error codes, and millions of previous warranty claims to identify the most probable root cause. Instead of taking an hour to locate the problem, the system can pinpoint the problem because data shows similar cases. It doesn’t replace your experienced technicians; it gives them a powerful advantage. It greatly cuts down on diagnostic time, gets the cars back to customers more quickly, and increases the rate at which your service bays operate.

The automotive industry has shown great resilience for a long time, coping with the shift to internet sales, the disruption caused by third-party lead providers, and the huge supply chain shockwaves of the last few years. However, this AI revolution seems different because it’s not merely a new marketing channel or a simple software update; it represents a fundamental change in how business is run, how information is handled and how decisions are made.

The commercial was more than just an advertisement, it served as a warning. The tools exist, and consumers are already comfortable with them. It is a serious misjudgment to stick to the old methods and hope that this technological trend will disappear.

Adopt the technology, give your sales and service teams better insights, simplify your service lanes to remove any friction and increase your profitability, for the future of automotive retail is already situated on your premises, and you must not be left behind.

 

Euwart Anderson is the general manager of Vehlo’s Dealership Division.