Artificial intelligence. Almost everyone uses it, but few people understand how to leverage AI for car dealerships in a way that drives productivity, personalization, and revenue.
One of the key issues is that, for the most part, AI skills aren’t being taught on the job in a structured, formal way. Here’s why: Leaders just aren’t sure how to incorporate AI into their workflows or their employee training and development. Many leaders may not understand AI enough themselves.
While hesitation may be a natural reaction to the sudden explosion of AI products, delaying team training is not going to work for the long term for any auto dealership that wants to reap the rewards AI best practices can bring to its processes.
Not that this is shocking news to most executives and managers in the automotive industry. Most of them are knee-deep in the implementation of AI, and many realize the potential to accomplish more with AI. In fact, a recent survey revealed that a full 82% of companies said they were actively adopting AI into their operations. That’s the good news. The bad news is that around half admitted they weren’t sure how to use AI within their workplaces.
What’s the solution if you’re a leader who has already invested in automotive AI solutions for your car dealership but aren’t certain your people have the skills to keep up? In two words: comprehensive training. After getting an education in AI, your staff will be armed with the insight they need to move beyond dabbling to mastery, benefiting not just themselves but your dealership and the customers they serve.
An AI education positively impacts workers and workplaces
If your dealership staff is like most teams, people possess different levels of AI abilities and comfort. Some may use a generative AI product to craft emails. Perhaps a few are using predictive analytics to improve your marketing campaigns.
However, you can’t get the full benefits from AI until everyone on your payroll has reached AI fluency as it pertains to the automotive sales sector.
What are some of the benefits of AI training across your dealership workforce? For one, you’ll have more satisfied and confident employees. Rather than feeling confused or threatened by AI, they’ll realize its potential to improve operational processes.. In turn, this will streamline their personal and departmental workflows, enabling them to drive greater results more efficiently, achieve higher productivity, and contribute to innovation.
For instance, employees who have access to both agentic AI and an AI copilot might not be sure how and when to use each type of AI technology. That makes sense: There’s plenty of confusion surrounding the terms.
A simple way to delineate them is to think of agentic AI as an autonomous AI capability and assistive AI (or an AI copilot) as an assistant to personnel that requires guidance. An AI agent can maintain a conversation with a customer over weeks or months, and make independent decisions as prescribed by the business or user. As the conversation evolves, agentic AI will learn how to respond appropriately to create a dialogue that feels natural.Every interaction trains the AI, improving its capabilities.
In contrast, an AI copilot frequently fetches real time data to bring back to a human employee, provides helpful prompts or templates for creating emails or texts, and in general assists the employee with execution of tasks. The assistive AI copilot takes a supporting role, not a leading one. Employees who know these nuances will be able to successfully apply the right type of AI for a task or process.
A second benefit to having everyone trained on AI is that they’ll be able to know how to help their AI systems reflect your brand and internal rules. The more relevant information they pour into your AI products, the more value and efficiency you’ll get out of your AI investment. An additional advantage you gain from prioritizing AI training across your dealership team: You’ll be more competitive. Current data from McKinsey and Company shows that smaller businesses are lagging behind their larger counterparts when it comes to AI strategy development and execution.However, while eighty percent of survey respondents said efficiency was an objective of their AI initiatives, the businesses seeing the most value from AI include growth or innovation as additional objectives. Educating your workforce on AI can bridge that gap and enable you to compete.
Educating Your People on the Latest in AI for Auto Dealerships
Of course, you may feel unsure of where to start when you first consider training your people on AI. However, you can make the experience straightforward, affordable, and manageable with an AI-focused training program that checks four major boxes:
1. Highly accessible and easily consumed
Your employees might not have time to sit through dozens of training meetings. And from a purely logistical perspective, it’s nearly impossible to get everyone together for multiple sessions.With the right kind of AI training solution, you won’t have to. For example, consider an AI training program for car dealerships that’s delivered through short “micro-burst” videos on an intuitive app platform. Each learner will consume the same material at an individualized pace that works best. This asynchronous method of learning puts employees in charge of their educational experience and reduces challenges related to the accessibility of materials.
2. Industry-centric
Could you send your employees to a series of generic AI courses? Absolutely. But they wouldn’t necessarily be able to apply what they learn to their actual jobs. You and your people work in the car sales industry, which has specific considerations when it comes to choosing and using AI solutions. Offering your employees an AI training program specifically designed for automotive retail ensures that they’ll come away with sales expertise that they immediately can use on the job with customers.
3. Gamified
Many people prefer to learn through gamification, which rewards learners with small “wins” as they move through a predesigned curriculum. For example, a learning platform might provide features like digital credentials (e.g., badges) to participants who complete certain modules or whole programs. Many professionals like to add these types of shareables to their LinkedIn profiles, email signatures, and resumes. You can add to the gamification experience by holding contests to encourage employees or teams to “graduate” from an AI training program. Alternatively, you might make AI training a prerequisite for applying for a promotion or receiving a bonus. That way, your team members will have a monetary incentive to improve their AI expertise.
4. Inexpensive (but high-quality)
Training a whole workforce in AI technology for auto dealerships doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. A self-paced AI program for car dealerships that’s entirely delivered online can cut costs drastically and save time. That said, always look for options that are economical but don’t cut a single corner — such as the Automotive AI Certification Program.
Educating Your People on the Latest in AI for Auto Dealerships
In 2025, Impel and RockED (the premier mobile learning platform in the automotive industry) formed a partnership to design and launch the first Automotive AI Certification Program that allows learners in the automotive industry to reach their AI learning potential.
Built to accelerate AI learning among dealership employees at all career stages, the Automotive AI Certification Program offers more than 70 short-form videos that help learners understand what AI is and how to use it effectively. Each video is available on the free RockED mobile app and can be viewed repeatedly as needed.
Once they’ve completed the Automotive AI Certification Program, learners feel more comfortable applying AI to their tasks and workflows as they work toward meeting their individual and corporate goals and metrics. They can also share digital badges to showcase their AI skills.To date, thousands of automotive employees have enrolled in the Impel and RockED Automotive AI Certification Program. An Advanced Automotive AI Certification Program is also available to educate automotive leaders as they plan and roll out corporate AI strategies.
Want to unlock the full potential of AI for your employees and your company? Talk to Impel.
Our latest online AI learning resource will transform the performance and productivity of your people. It’s the simplest, fastest, and most economical way to equip your workforce with tomorrow’s AI skills — today.