What have you replaced with AI?

[Alex Snyder]

Mine is from a vendor/technologist perspective. Would love to hear how dealers are replacing things, or if they are yet.

We initially started with AI as a quality control test writer. It is excellent at that and has significantly reduced the priority of building a team there. I can't say it has outright replaced the need for a dedicated quality control person forever.

The second thing has been UI/UX development. We could be unique in that I could make a pixel-perfect design for engineers to implement before AI came around. For the redesign of our product from FRIKINtech to VehicleLyfe, I designed all the screens and worked directly with a backend developer to bring them to life. With AI, that backend developer can build a front-end product easily. As he is figuring it all out, he wants to turn me into a full-blown "developer" using prompts. I'm super excited to start spreading my wings. I can say that we absolutely have no need for a UI developer these days. Something I never thought we'd live without!

 

[tylernobi]

From what we're seeing on the dealer side at Nobi, the first thing getting replaced isn't a role, it's the BDC's first-touch attempt. The "did you still want to see the 2022 RAV4" follow-up, the nudge after that specifically related to if they need any further information, the appointment reconfirm... that whole tier of repetitive outreach is where dealers are pulling hours back.

 

[GrossOrGhost]

Great thread. Seeing AI replace a surprising number of things across dealerships I work with:

Appraisals - ML models trained on historical transaction + live market data are starting to replace manual pricing decisions. The main win isn't speed, it's consistency. Two appraisers on the same car shouldn't have a $2,000 spread..

Sales training - AI roleplay coaches for new hires. Reps practice objections, F&I pushback, cash buyer scenarios before they ever touch a real customer. Cuts ramp time significantly and takes the burden off managers.

Acquisition outreach - AI calling and texting private sellers from Marketplace and Craigslist listings. Dealers who used to do this manually 2 hours a day are now running it 24/7 with a fraction of the staff.

Development - even on the build side, tools like Claude Code are replacing a lot of what junior devs used to handle. Faster to just prompt your way through it.