Automation or AI? What’s the best fit for your dealership strategies?

I will start this article with industry buzzwords that aren’t “digital retailing.” I already screwed that up, but the words I want to focus on are those claims by every automotive tech vendor: “AI powers our platform.”

It’s sexy, tech savvy, forward thinking and still most of the intended audience doesn’t understand its true impact. Moreover, would we know if AI is driving a platform or just simple automation? Let’s dissect it so when you’re talking about the latest and greatest product offering with a vendor, you’re more in the know.

Definitions

Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the collection of different technologies that allow the machine to act at the human level of intelligence. This process requires learning from past experiences and self-correction to make a specific decision and reach an inevitable conclusion.

Breaking it down:

• AI makes a decision based on the learning from past experience and information it receives
• AI has interactions with humans, learns from those interactions, compares the situations, and then works according to its findings (usually moving into an automated process)
• AI is a system that helps experts analyse situations and arrive at a particular conclusion
• AI is for non-repetitive tasks
• AI involves a lot of learning and evolution.

Automation: Automation is programmed to run itself with little or no human interaction by some specific patterns and rules to perform repetitive tasks. Automation is used daily and applied in e-commerce, banking, telecommunication, etc. A simple example is when we book a test drive with a dealership and receive an automated email or message before our appointment.

Breaking it down:

• Automation utilises pre-set workflows programmed to perform specific tasks
• Automation is best to leverage to execute routine or repetitive tasks
• Automation does not involve learning and evolving
• Automation rarely interacts with humans but works based on instructions defined by humans.

As you can see, there is a marked difference between the two approaches. Automations have been a part of the dealer software universe for quite a while and can perform anything from simple to highly complex tasks.

Artificial Intelligence is now attaching itself to everything from ad serving, chat platforms, inventory acquisition, and performance reporting. Moving outside marketing, automotive manufacturers have been utilising AI heavily to evolve autonomous vehicles and safety features across their lineups. 

My sole focus here is to break these apart so you can determine what you need, how quickly you need results, and how both can assist with your marketing and operations.

Below is your quick cheat sheet to assess which is best for the situation in front of you.

Automation

Across your dealership, look for all the different tasks and responsibilities that are sucking up the staff members’ time negatively. Almost every organisation has monotonous tasks. Do you have to log into three or four different systems to get the information for one report? This scenario is a prime candidate for something you can automate.

Turning this into non-human automation allows the programming to complete the same exercise in a fraction of the time. Once programmed with its instructions, the automation can run this 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without breaks or the need to evolve its procedure.

Automations can be immediately applied front and back of the house, not limited to the showroom. A virtual workforce whose only bias is to get things done just as efficiently as possible. No logins and no turnover. No training.

AI

What facets of your marketing or customer segments can you afford to allow technology to learn about over a more extended period? A vendor may offer up AI-powered chat, but it needs time and the ability to ask visitors many questions to fill its brain. This approach may not be conducive to an optimised online visit; customers need fast answers and fast responses.

On the other hand, there are offerings like Clarivoy, whose pixel sits across dealer and third-party listing sites to learn about consumer movement to give retailers great intelligence on the consumer and how to credit your advertisers with the exact weight of their efforts.

It falls back to the above point: “AI has interactions with humans, learns from those interactions, compares the situations, and then works according to its findings.” AI needs to interact; its “brain” needs to grow, a longer-tail commitment.

In conclusion, both approaches can work well for your dealership, but you need to figure out the timings and specifics of your needs. Automation is your short-distance sprinter, while AI is your marathon runner. Assess both wisely as you determine what you need in accomplish immediately (with your marketing or internal processes) and what you can develop over a longer time. 

YOUR ACTION PLAN

• Assess what monotonous tasks are stealing employees’ time
• Consider where automation can help save time
• Does the software investment outweigh staff time investment?
• Where can you invest time to allow AI to learn about your business

By Brent Wees