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MCP from CDK & Reynolds and other DMS companies

What could possibly go wrong—especially inside a multimillion-dollar operation? ...

A lot.

It will come down to whether MCP connections can securely control exactly what an agent can see, what it can do, and when human approval is required. That said, based on what I’ve seen, I believe we are much closer than most people realize.
 

✨ AI Highlights

Dealers and vendors debate how soon CDK, Reynolds, and other DMS providers will offer Model Context Protocol (MCP) connections, with Tekion reportedly already charging extra for it. The consensus is that DMS companies will ship something branded as MCP within 12 months, but meaningful data access — especially permissioned write access — could take two to three years, and the real concerns center on data quality, pricing, security of sensitive customer PII, and whether dealers can connect their own AI tools or only the vendor's. The thread surfaces deep skepticism that early MCP offerings will be little more than costly rebranded API toll gates rather than genuine dealer empowerment.

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