AI has become deeply embedded in our daily lives. From predicting the next word you’re going to type on your iPhone to braking your car at just the right time, AI adoption is more than mainstream: It’s essential to our everyday dealings.
Artificial intelligence is also essential for your dealership to remain competitive in a 24/7, always-on world where personalization is table stakes. In fact, 68% of dealerships report positive results after investing in AI products.
With that in mind, let’s talk about two evolving AI products often misunderstood: Agentic AI and AI copilots. Many auto industry leaders believe they must choose one or the other for their dealerships — they don’t. Agentic AI and AI copilots offer more impact when they coexist because of complementary features that make them a powerful “dynamic duo.”
Agentic AI in Automotive Dealerships: Sales Engagement on Autopilot
Let’s start with understanding agentic AI. Essentially, an agent-based AI system working behind the scenes at your dealership is like having extra talent on your payroll that doesn’t take personal time or ask for a raise.
After being prompted with a “mission,” agentic AI systems can take independent action. Zero babysitting required. Thanks to its autonomous nature, it proactively re-engages leads and customers with the right message at the right time. This boosts customer awareness and drives retention.
For example, an agent AI solution can respond to incoming dealership leads, conduct robust (and natural) conversations with customers, and set up showroom appointments. (TL;DR: Fewer leads fall out of your carefully curated sales funnel.) Agentic AI can even accurately answer common service questions and schedule service appointments, all without any active employee involvement.
Make no mistake, though: Agentic AI isn’t just another dated car dealership AI chatbot tool that sounds unnatural and robotic. Advanced agent AI programs feature embedded deep learning capabilities and use conversational generative AI programming. Consequently, they keep improving and adapting, making them an increasingly valuable asset. Like a human, agentic AI can switch tone, content, and context based on the input it receives.
AI Copilots for Car Dealerships: An Always-On Assistant
An AI copilot solution works differently from an agent-based AI solution because it works alongside dealership staff in an assistive, albeit self-directed, capacity.
Rather than independently handling all aspects of a task or objective, an AI copilot offers insights and suggestions to human employees. Could an AI copilot also conduct some back-end preparation before a phone call or test drive appointment? Sure. But, as an assistant would, an AI copilot eventually hands off its duties.
For instance, an AI copilot can fetch and evaluate historical information based on a customer’s prior interactions with the dealership. Afterward, the AI copiloting software can send that information to an employee before a meeting or call.
Plenty of dealership salespeople depend on systems that feature AI copilot capabilities to get ahead of buyer intent and preferences, and to flag VIPs for white-glove, red-carpet treatment.
Agentic AI and an AI Copilot: Why Automotive Dealerships Need Both
After reading about both types of AI, you might assume you could “get by” with just an agent-based AI autonomous solution. However, that approach is risky and can lead to missed opportunities.
For instance, by taking humans completely out of your AI dealings, you won’t have as much control over the choices your AI makes. You also won’t have an assistant to handle repetitive to-dos, such as writing a compelling, personalized, and grammatically correct email to interested leads. For this reason, you should always include an AI copilot system in your dealership.
A recent survey showed that three-quarters of consumers want the option to speak with a human agent. An AI copilot provides that option and empowers the agent. (As a side benefit, it will be trained on your dealership data, meaning you’ll get even more customized responses to input such as voice and text prompts.)
Working in tandem, agentic AI and an AI copilot can handle priority tasks that could be fully or partially automated. (Think creating conversation summaries, retrieving customer insights, or grabbing historical data.) That said, human intervention will always remain in the loop, which is becoming more essential.
Remember: As impressive as AI is, it can’t replace or replicate genuine human intuition (at least not yet). And intuition is a critical component during moments requiring empathetic feedback and decision-making; only the human brain, heart, and gut can provide. Therefore, feel free to use agentic AI, but augment it with an AI copilot to get the best of all worlds.
Amplify Human Performance With Two AI Solutions
The most successful dealerships don’t just sell cars or provide service. They build relationships. But you can’t build relationships if you spend all your time sorting through data or engaging in time-consuming, non-customer-facing responsibilities.
Imagine walking into an appointment with a couple who want to buy a car. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a wealth of information about them that was provided by your agent AI and AI copilot systems? You would have the insider knowledge necessary to solve their concerns and meet their goals. Talk about AI-driven personalization — and you could enjoy this type of interaction repeatedly without doing any of the back-office work yourself.
This isn’t a dream; it’s all possible. And it might be exactly what you need to get past frustrating sales and service conversion plateaus and streamline your business processes.
Balance Your Approach to AI for Your Car Dealership
Bringing an AI tool into your automotive dealership shouldn’t be a way to avoid human contact with leads and customers. On the contrary, AI products like AI Agents and AI copilots should be viewed as solutions capable of bolstering a thriving and human-centric retail environment.
We’ve been at the forefront of the dealership and AI worlds for decades. Our recommended AI strategy is to use all complementary products, which is why we’ve built these capabilities into our AI Operating System. We believe in using a combination of agent AI and copilot AI to achieve maximum efficiency and results: Use the agent AI for completing repetitive tasks and lean on the AI copilot abilities for enhancing employee-customer bonds.
If you’re interested in working at the leading edge of automotive AI solutions, now is the time to seamlessly build AI into your dealership operations. With agentic AI as well as an AI copilot, you’ll empower every department from the showroom floor to the service center. And as you continuously deliver premium customer experiences, you’ll gain more momentum and fuel your success.
Why limit your dealership to one type of AI when you can benefit from both autonomous and assistive tech? When you’re ready to discuss the power of a balanced AI strategy for your dealership, contact us to chat about how Impel’s AI Operating System can impact your results.