Digital Dealer - June 2019 - 25

MA R K E TIN G & AD V E R TISIN G: E mergi ng Trends

By Mo Zahabi
Senior Director
of Product Consulting,
VinSolutions and Dealertrack F&I

What Artificial
Intelligence
Can (and Can't)
Do for Your
Dealership
If you've ever watched a
movie on artificial
intelligence, you're left with
the impression that robots
will soon be taking over our
world and running our lives
(see "iRobot" [2004] and "Ex
Machina" [2014]).
While entertaining to
watch, these Hollywood
visions have left some
misconceptions about
artificial intelligence as the
technology finds its way to
the marketplace. The topic
has particular importance
for dealerships with artificial
intelligence software now
available for the auto retail
space and more advances
coming soon.
So, what can artificial
intelligence deliver? What's
the reality and what's the
hype? First, let's take a look
at what artificial intelligence
can't do (at least for now).
Artificial intelligence
can't replace humans. A
common misconception is
that artificial intelligence will
take over the in-store role of
dealership staff and leave no

room for human interactions.
Research shows car buyers
still highly value the human
interaction of an in-store
experience. While more
than 80% of consumers say
they want to do one or more
steps of the car-buying process online, almost 90% still
want to sign the final document in-store, according to
the Cox Automotive Future
of Digital Retail Study.
Artificial intelligence also
can't provide all the answers. Sometimes automated responses don't align
with the question asked because it's difficult to process
all the nuances of human
interaction. While artificial
intelligence can be incredibly
useful to guide consumers
to the right department,
dealership employees still
need to be on the other end
of the call/screen to offer the
best possible experience for
the customer.
SO, WHAT CAN AI DO?

Artificial intelligence can
help identify and analyze
customer data, enabling

dealers to create relevancy
in an instant through a more
personalized experience.
This ultimately leads to
dealers having a deeper
understanding of a customer's needs and preferences.
Not only does this improve
the car-shopping experience
for consumers, but this
helps the dealership staff to
streamline their to-do list.
For example, when a
customer comes into the
dealership, employees often
have little or no time to
prepare for the customer visit. Artificial intelligence can
help by instantly providing
and analyzing information
about that customer. What
vehicles do they currently
own? What kind of vehicles
have they been shopping
for online? And what kind of
past interactions have they
had, either in-store or online,
with the dealership? It can
also be a proactive tool to
flag ready-to-buy consumers
based on their shopping
behaviors.
If successfully imD I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

plemented, artificial
intelligence can improve
productivity by helping
employees more effectively and efficiently handle
their jobs. According to
Accenture's artificial intelligence research, artificial
intelligence technologies
are projected to increase
business productivity by up
to 40% by 2035. Artificial
intelligence also can help
deliver the personalized
shopping process that customers want. Almost half of
all consumers are willing to
shop more frequently and
34% are willing to spend
more money when artificial
intelligence is used to help
personalize the experience,
according to PointSource
research data.
In the near-term,
artificial intelligence won't
make work magically
disappear at dealerships or
replace the need for human
interaction with customers.
However, it can provide
a powerful assistant for
connecting with each customer, better understanding
when a customer is serious
about making a purchase,
and creating a faster sales
process that benefits the
dealer and consumer. Artificial intelligence can provide
actionable insights that
allow dealership staff to
concentrate on what matters most, which is selling
cars and making customers
happy.
MO ZAHABI is an advocate
for backing every decision with
data, and he is passionate about
embracing technology to improve the car-buying experience
for both dealers and consumers.

JUNE 2019

25
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - June 2019
