To Ai or Not To Ai: That is the Question

The days of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a plot for a futuristic science fiction movie are gone. According to a 2019 CIO survey by Gartner, AI implementation in businesses tripled in the last four years, with 37% of respondents using or planning to use AI, up from 10% four years ago.  

AI assistants can interact with consumers by text and email; the technology can even filter out spam phone calls before the phone even rings inside a dealership.

Communication between AI assistants and consumers is so sophisticated that virtual agents are sometimes mistaken for actual humans.

DCG News spoke with a series of AI companies to learn more about virtual assistants, how they help dealerships and the type of learning curve to expect.

Conversica offers AI assistants to varying industry verticals, including sports, technology, banking, education, and automotive. 

Clients include professional sports teams for help with inbound ticket inquiries and automotive dealerships to assist with lead generation.

“It’s no longer the automotive business, it’s just business,” said Micah Burgess, Vice President of Sales at Conversica. “We handle the influx of leads. We capture inquiries, analyze them, then pass them on to the appropriate department. Internet inquiries are the backbone to business.”

Out of approximately 17,000 dealerships in the United States, Conversica technology runs in 1,300.

Conversica takes a dealership’s service records, for example, and imports them into its AI system. Once completed, campaigns can be created, leads can be addressed, and emails from AI assistants, which dealerships give an actual name, can be sent to customers in varying categories like orphan customers, recalls, and reminders for scheduling a service appointment.

The way consumers research car buying has moved significantly online. If someone works second or third shift and can’t visit a dealership during normal business hours, at least they can go to dealership website and fill out a question box to answer additional questions. This is where AI supports dealerships; a customer can expect a reply in as little as five minutes to a query that came in after hours when no one is working. 

“After hours is a huge part of the sales pitch,” said Burgess. “AI carries the torch for them [dealership] until a live person is in store.”

By Amy Corr