#1 reason your dealership isn't using AI yet?

[EmmaTully]

Hey DR fam, Emma from Hammer AI here (Yep, im a vendor but not here to pitch you) Just trying to actually understand where your heads are at when it comes to AI in the dealership world. AI has blown up the last few years in the auto space, everyone’s promising faster response times, better engagement, and smarter workflows. But… most dealers still haven’t fully adopted it.

• Is it price?
• Worried about complicated tech integrations?
• Not convinced you'll see a clear ROI?
• Is your staff just not feeling it (or you’re worried they won’t)?
• Or maybe it’s something completely differnet?

Not here to sell, just to hear what’s actually happening on the ground. I can also share what other stores have done to work through the same challenges if that’s helpful

 

[Alex Snyder]

Glad to see you on here, Emma! I'll vouch for the Hammer team as we work very closely with them.

And I'll respond by saying that the largest complaint we hear is that a dealer has already tried an AI and didn't like the way it generically spoke to their customers. After digging into that, the usual suspect(s) are the names of the tools they tried.

 

[Brian Michael West]

I can give you one big reason...

 

[EmmaTully]

Glad to see you on here, Emma! I'll vouch for the Hammer team as we work very closely with them.

And I'll respond by saying that the largest complaint we hear is that a dealer has already tried an AI and didn't like the way it generically spoke to their customers. After digging into that, the usual suspect(s) are the names of the tools they tried.

Hey Alex! Thanks for the warm welcome - great to be here.

Totally agree about the "generic" feel issue. I think dealers have a really valid point there. A lot of early AI tools focused on speed but kind of forgot to sound human. We've definitely spent a ton of energy on making sure Hammer feels authentic and dealership-specific (no awkward robotic replies allowed!).

I'm curious - what do you think is the key to making AI feel more personal and less canned from your experience with dealers?

 

[kelseyv]

I can give you one big reason...

when your AI chooses global domination over lead followup

 

[joe.pistell]

my $0.02
AI will create a totally new car shopping UX and it'll hit critical mass and replace lead gen by 2027.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I'm curious - what do you think is the key to making AI feel more personal and less canned from your experience with dealers?

Data and tuning. The more data the AI has to work with the better it will respond. And the ability to tune the responses based on the data are key.

Many times the data fed to the AI is a First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, and a vehicle of interest + some dealership info. The AI doesn't have as much to go on to make a really good first response to that lead. However, the AI that receives click-path information and/or a translation of what that customer did before submitting the lead mixed with some historical purchase or service data can change the whole response!

One of the reasons we (FRIKINtech) started working with you (Hammer) was your willingness to not only ingest all the data we were compiling on a lead, but also to tune the responses the AI put out based on that data.

It was shocking to me how few companies were willing to do this. Seemed like a no-brainer and the results speak for themselves.

 

[Alex Snyder]

my $0.02
AI will create a totally new car shopping UX and it'll hit critical mass and replace lead gen by 2027.

You should elaborate more on this!

 

[joe.pistell]

You should elaborate more on this!

***PROMPT***
You are my car shopping assistant. Find me the 3 best Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE AWD (Plug-in Hybrid) under 15,000 miles. I want the lowest miles possible. clean carfax. I want it well equipped with a good price. I prefer to buy it from a toyota dealer with good reviews. Search some where within 50 miles of 13029.

Watching AI Robots Go Car Shopping

 

[kelseyv]

my $0.02
AI will create a totally new car shopping UX and it'll hit critical mass and replace lead gen by 2027.

View attachment 9515

you're not wrong, i totally see it becoming a completely autonomous shopping experience, so many ppl want to just go online, put in their criteria, and if AI goes shopping to find the best bang for your buck, whoever has the most data available to be searched will win out if with how AI ranks your vehicle into their criteria. the prompt entered will definitely change the results as well. i'm trying to build a simple
GPT to use to see how well it actually "goes shopping" biggest issue i am seeing is that when it searches online it automatically searches your physical ip geolocation, more tweaks though and i'm sure you can avoid that..