Dealerships gain another AI training option
By: Mark Hollmer
Two automotive retail technology companies are partnering on an artificial intelligence certification program designed to help dealerships learn new skills, adding to a robust amount of tutorial choices in the marketplace.
Impel and RockEd, which have worked together previously, describe their app as a variation of Google Analytics certification for digital marketing. They say their focus on AI readiness in automotive retail is timely for today’s dealerships as they test artificial intelligence and modernize their operations.
“Most AI training today is either too generic — teaching broad concepts that don’t connect to a dealer’s day-to-day — or too narrowly focused on tools without context for how they fit into real retail operations,” said Impel co-founder and CEO Devin Daly. The free app, he said, is “practical, immediately usable and designed to drive real results.”
That approach is an important way to make AI relatable in the dealership environment, said RockEd CEO Matthias Stoever.
“It’s very specific to automotive where everything that we’re explaining and teaching focuses on the reality of a dealership,” Stoever told Automotive News. “What we’re doing is to make everything that we teach about AI … very practical and always bring it back to use cases … that people see on a day-to-day basis.”
Impel, of New York City, produces an AI platform for dealership marketing, merchandising, sales and service operations. RockEd, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., offers a mobile learning platform through which dealerships subscribe to training modules for their employees.
Their joint platform offers more than 70 short-video learning modules that look at core AI concepts, real-world applications and best practices for using AI to drive productivity and performance. It is on-demand, and automotive managers and executives can eventually obtain advanced certification designed to help them successfully plan and implement AI programs and strategies.
“Dealers don’t just learn what AI is; they learn how to apply it in the showroom, the [business development center] and the service lane to improve lead management, streamline service and deliver better customer experiences,” Daly said.
AI training options for dealerships vary
The Impel/RockEd app joins a market with several other options for dealerships.
One of the most intensive comes from the National Automobile Dealers Association. The group provides AI training at its NADA Academy over several weeks in Tysons Corner, Va., particularly in its Inventory and Marketing Management class.
“We discuss the variety of AI programs, the differences between them and their strengths and weaknesses … and we teach [managers and employees] how to use these tools to enhance their dealership, especially in the creation of content for their website,” Amy Hunter Wright, NADA’s vice president of public affairs, said via email.
NADA training also focuses on guardrails dealerships might need when using AI tools, such as helping to determine what privileged information should be entered into a database.
“We want to make sure they are confident using these tools and know how they can help and how they can hurt,” she said.
Salesforce, a business software company in San Francisco, has Trailhead, a free online learning platform designed for businesses — including automotive retailers — that teaches AI basics.
“The best part is you don’t need to be a developer or have a degree in computer science,” Achyut Jajoo, general manager of automotive, manufacturing and consumer goods at Salesforce, said in an emailed statement. “All of our training and learning content is designed to be bite-sized, simple and practical and able for anyone to understand.”
The platform gives users hands-on experience building AI agents with clicks rather than programming to support sales, schedule test drives and assist service centers.
Salesforce customers also can work with the company’s new Forward Deployed Engineers program, which provides technical experts who can be embedded within a dealership to help design, build and launch AI more quickly than the store would be able to on its own.
Finance Manager Training, of Fairpoint, N.Y., offers AI role-playing to train managers as part of its finance and insurance diploma program, according to its website.
Automotivaters, of Victoria, British Columbia, provides AI tips as part of its roster of classes offered to dealership automotive executives. They are held at dealerships or over Zoom.
