Kia co-op now funds Impel Chat AI and Sales AI at 100% for dealers across the U.S. and Canada. Notice the word both. Most OEM programs fund a piece of the customer journey. Kia just funded the whole sales conversation — from the shopper poking around your site at midnight to the high-intent buyer confirming a Saturday appointment.
Two agents, one conversation
Your customer will never see a handoff. That’s the point. Behind the scenes, though, two things are happening. Impel Chat AI runs the front of the funnel, engaging shoppers and customers the instant they land on your site. Impel Sales AI runs the back, taking every lead the moment it arrives and carrying it all the way to a booked appointment or a live call. Both live inside Impel’s AI Operating System (AIOS), so what feels like one seamless thread to the buyer is actually a coordinated relay to you.
Fund one agent, and you’ve plugged one hole. Fund both, and there’s nowhere left for a deal to leak.
The front of the funnel: nobody’s home
Here’s the uncomfortable part. The vast majority of the people shopping your inventory right now (or looking for service information) will never fill out a form. They browse, they hesitate, and they bounce to the next tab. To your team, they’re invisible. To your competition, they’re up for grabs.
Impel Chat AI makes sure someone’s home. It greets every visitor with real, humanlike conversation and answers the questions that actually stall a customer — inventory, trade-in, financing, service. Then it books the appointment right in your CRM or scheduler, at any hour. So the anonymous browser becomes a named lead who’s already qualified and already on the calendar.
The back of the sales funnel: the follow-through gap
Getting the lead was never the hard part. Following through is. Response slips past the golden window, cadences fizzle after two tries, and the buyer quietly commits elsewhere. That gap is where most of your pipeline dies.
Impel Sales AI closes it. It engages in seconds over SMS or email, reads each buyer’s intent and sentiment, and keeps the conversation alive for weeks without ever going quiet or sounding canned. It fields VIN-specific questions, knows when to press and when to wait, and books the appointment on its own. Your rep walks in with a full summary and clear next steps — closing, not chasing.
Why funding both is the whole game
Think about what Kia actually did here. A program that covered only lead follow-up would still leave every silent website shopper and customer unengaged. A program that covered only website chat would still let hard-won leads go cold. Kia covered both ends, which means co-op now stretches across the entire path a buyer takes, not just one slice of it.
And this isn’t off-the-shelf AI wearing an automotive badge. Impel built its agents on hundreds of millions of real automotive conversations, with control layers that keep every exchange accurate and on-brand. A permanent AI Knowledge Bank holds your store’s own offerings, services, policies, and voice, so both agents sound like your dealership and nobody else’s.
Proof, not promises
The results land where you feel them. Dealers running Impel report a 31% lift in appointment rate, a 23% lift in close rate, and 33% greater team efficiency — more shoppers booked, more of them buying, no headcount added to pull it off.
“With the help of Impel’s AI solution, we’re seeing internet close rates that are double the industry average across all of our dealerships.”
— Ryan Rohrman, CEO, Rohrman Automotive Group
Turn co-op into closed deals
The funding’s approved. The agents are ready. The only variable left is how fast you turn them on. Enrollment runs through the Kia Dealer Portal and takes minutes, because Kia’s already handled the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Which Impel products does Kia co-op cover?
Kia co-op covers both Impel Chat AI and Sales AI at 100% for dealers in the U.S. and Canada. Chat AI handles website shoppers, Sales AI handles lead follow-up, and together they cover the full path from first click to booked appointment. Enrollment runs through the Kia Dealer Portal.
How do Chat AI and Sales AI work together?
Impel Chat AI engages shoppers on your website and turns anonymous visitors into qualified leads. Impel Sales AI then works each lead over SMS and email until it books an appointment. Both run inside Impel’s AI Operating System (AIOS), so the buyer experiences one continuous conversation.
Do I need extra staff to run Impel AI?
No. Both agents run around the clock without added headcount. Chat AI answers shoppers instantly, and Sales AI handles follow-up automatically, freeing your team to focus on closing the appointments that land on the calendar.
What kind of results do Kia dealers see?
Dealers using Impel report a 31% lift in appointment rate, a 23% lift in close rate, and 33% greater team efficiency. Rohrman Automotive Group reports internet close rates at double the industry average across its stores.
How do Kia dealers enroll?
Enrollment takes minutes through the Kia Dealer Portal, with separate enrollment links for Sales AI and Chat AI. Because the program is 100% co-op eligible, Kia funds the cost once a dealer enrolls.