Why Dealership AI Needs Better Data Integration

Kerri Wise, Chief Marketing Officer at Lotlinx, and Lance Schafer, GM of Product and Technology, join Driving Solutions to examine why generic AI tools are falling short for dealerships—and what’s needed to unlock real value. Drawing on new survey data, they explain how widespread AI adoption has yet to translate into meaningful operational impact, largely due to disconnected systems and lack of dealership-specific context.

Wise and Schafer outline how integrating AI with CRM, inventory, and performance data enables deeper insights and more actionable decision-making. They also explore the evolution of AI from simple content generation to advanced inventory diagnostics, VIN-level analysis, and automated execution. As dealers move beyond experimentation, the focus is shifting toward measurable outcomes, operational efficiency, and smarter merchandising strategies driven by connected, purpose-built AI tools.

Key discussion points:

•  Why generic AI tools often fail to deliver useful dealership insights 
•  The importance of integrating AI with CRM, inventory, and performance data 
•  How dealers are using AI for inventory analysis and VIN-level strategy 
•  The shift from content generation to operational execution 
•  Emerging role of AI in automating dealership workflows 
•  What the next phase of AI adoption looks like for dealers 

Driving Solutions is the go-to podcast for dealership professionals who want to stay sharp, informed, and ahead of the curve. Hosted by Jim Fitzpatrick and powered by CBT News, each episode brings you real strategies, smart tools, and expert insights to help you run a more profitable operation.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and visit CBTNews.com for more.

Transcript

AI Arrives In Auto Retail

Announcer 0:04

This is Driving Solutions exclusively on cbtnews.com.

How Dealers Use Gen AI

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:10

Hey everyone, Jim Fitzpatrick. Welcome into another edition of Driving Solutions right here at CBTnews.com. AI is everywhere, and dealerships are starting to test where it actually makes a difference. Today we're joined by Carrie Wise. You've seen her here before on CBT News, as well as Lance Schaefer. You've seen him as well. So they're both from Lot Links to break down how dealers are using AI now and where it's headed. So thank you so much for joining us, folks, on the show today. The AI is, as you know, the buzz out there. Everybody is using it. They don't know if they're using it right or not. They know, though, it's going to play a big role in operating a profitable dealership moving forward. So Kerry, let me start with you. Right now, many dealerships are experimenting with generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot. What are the most common ways you're seeing dealers use these tools today? And where do they actually deliver real value?

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yeah, we actually did a survey just to see what the feedback on these tools were from dealers across the country. And, you know, as you would imagine, eight eight out of ten of them are using them on a weekly basis. Um, but it's primarily reserved to marketing and sales related prompts. So they're looking to rewrite their vehicle descriptions. Um, they're looking to use these tools for marketing and ad copy or a social post. Um, they're also using it to help them write email templates and scripts. So if you think about it, you know, we're really at a very surface level in terms of how we're using these tools in terms of auto auto retail. Okay. And, you know, that that is promising that at least nine out of 10 or 8 out of 10 of them are are using it on a weekly basis, but there's still a lot of opportunity, as you can imagine, that we'll discuss, you know, where we can make more out of these tools um to help help drive business uh outcomes.

Jim Fitzpatrick 2:06

They're only scratching the surface, that's for sure. Yes, absolutely. Lance, why is it important to connect AI systems to real dealership data and what impact does that have?

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah, so I mean, yeah, it's really important. And uh the first thing I'd say is that usually if you're using, say, a regular chatbot, like say um ChatGPT or Gemini, in order to get that data into the system, you gotta use that upload button. You gotta or cut and paste it into the browser. Yeah. And which is fine, but it's it's really inefficient. So, first of all, so you gotta go get that data, upload it. Um, if you have a full connection, that's already in there. You don't have to worry about that. So that's kind of the first benefit. It's just faster. And and you know, it's if it's being up, you know, if it's fully connected, you have to worry about all that stuff. Right. The second is it's orchestrated. So what that means is basically when all those systems are up there simultaneously, when you're asking the chatbot something, it can look at a whole bunch of things at the same time. So, for example, the CRM data and maybe your marketing data, uh, your Google Analytics, for example, uh your uh your sales data, um, all that type of stuff. So it actually has a nice uh way better context on how to help you because it's got all those kind of data connections put inside.

Where Generic Chatbots Fail

Jim Fitzpatrick 3:17

Nice, nice. Um, Carrie, what are some of the limitations dealers run into when they rely on general purpose AI tools instead of industry-specific AI platforms?

What Dealers Ask Lot GPT

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Yeah, I mean, back to the survey we did, what we're seeing is a couple of themes in terms of frustration. One, um, there's prompting failure, as I call it. You know, we saw 84% of dealers reporting to us that they were often or almost always um get a failure in terms of what they get out of generic AI tools. Um, when we look at what they were most frustrated with, it was typically the response was too generic or it wasn't tied specifically to their dealership, their inventory, as Lance just pointed out. We also see that in many cases, they're just not confident that the chatbot really understands their question, their business operations. And really what it comes down to is while they're using it for marketing and sales tactics, what they really are also looking for is help me understand my inventory, um, help me diagnose, you know, why vehicles aren't selling, help me identify you know which vehicles I need to focus on. So I think dealers are wanting a deeper level of guidance. And really what they're looking for is answers.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Right? Give me the answers to the strategic problems that I face every day.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:42

Yeah, that makes sense. Lance, I know that your team recently launched Lot GPT, which we've talked about here at CBT News, and now it's got around 6,000 dealers using it. What are the most common themes or types of questions that you're that you're seeing from users?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah, so it it's funny because it depends on how long they've been using it. What we see is when they start, there it's very kind of cursory. You know, they're testing stuff out. Sure. One of the first things we see them usually do is examine comp compet their competition. You know, dealers are hyper competitive, and because Log GPT has uh all this data in it, can be know how would I how am I doing this week versus so-and-so dealership, right? So we see lots of like kind of analysis. Where am I positioned in the market? The second thing we kind of see then is after they've kind of got that, uh, they're starting to look at their own business. So they're saying, you know, how are you know, what can I do better with my SUV? So that's more of like on the inventory side. Okay. They're also doing merchandising. So that's actually probably one of the biggest things. And though that goes into the category of just instead of learning and and all the things that AI can do or Gen AI around learning with your data to doing things. So we're seeing, you know, uh, you know, we're seeing kind of these uh initial agentic kind of things like writing descriptions uh for the website or to be distribution into the portals, or taking a look at images and redoing them or annotating them to be more effective on the websites or in when they distribute. So that's more of like kind of the newest stuff, which is more what we ever, of course, the buzzword is agenc, where you're giving it agency to actually do things that are actually happening in the business. So those are those are the other, I guess the last one, and probably that makes sense with with uh lot link specifically, uh, is VIN level analysis. So digging in on a VIN, and you know, you can see dealers saying, What's going on with this VIN? And well, you know what they're asking. Why is it still on the watch? That's right. And you know, having all that data come in and having it synthesized and say, I think this is what's going on, and here's what we think you should do. That's also a that's also a pretty uh, you know, one of the top features for sure.

The Shift To Agentic AI

Jim Fitzpatrick 6:34

That is that blows me away. That's fantastic. I wish I had that when I was operating dealerships for sure. I mean, if you could get that spin of in specific and get that information, man, is that that's just so invaluable. So really so, Lance, looking ahead, how do you see AI evol evolving uh inside dealerships over the next few years from a novelty tool to something that actually helps run dealerships uh and stores day to day?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, and and that's exactly what it is. So the of course the buzzword is agentic, but what what it really means is that you're hiring these AIs to do to do things for you autonomously. I mean, that's the the future. Um, where's or in uh in the interim, it'll be what's known as human in the loop. So it kind of does all the work, but you still need a manager to kind of approve, say, for example, that description that's going on to the site, or like a price change, for example. Or, you know, you can imagine even screening a bunch of resumes for salespeople and then agentically deciding who to hire. Right. Like so you can see like all these happening um uh all at once. So that that really is the future, is the is um right now we're seeing uh dealers using it to distill and help you know intelligently look at their businesses. That's barely established now. What we're seeing is like, okay, now that you the can you act upon that intelligence? Can you actually start? So we'll start seeing that start to chip away a different functions within the dealership over time. And it's gonna be really exciting. And I think we haven't even seen the tip of that yet. Yeah, but that's that's what's coming. That's fair.

How To Get Access Free

SPEAKER_02 7:58

And it's exciting because we're on the forefront of that. And you know, we'll be back here, Jim, you know, announcing some new things that we're working on that will be really leading the way in automotive on this front, this cat, this category for automotive. Yeah. Um, I think we're we're at a point where dealers have have lots of data intelligence. They have all kinds of reporting from every single vendor, but the idea of giving them answers and actually helping them to actually take action, um, it's really exciting to see where the industry is going. Oh, no. And we're in the forefront of that.

Jim Fitzpatrick 8:32

For dealers, uh, Carrie, that are interested in trying Lot GPT for themselves, where do they go to access that?

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Yeah, so you can go to our website, lotlinks.com slash lotgpt, and you can request access. And the only thing we're really vetting is you have to be a dealer. So give us your information, we'll get right back to you with an access code, uh, assuming you're a dealer, and you're you're right in. Uh, it's free for dealers, so we're not charging for this. Um, and uh that's awesome.

Jim Fitzpatrick 9:00

I've spoken to deers that that are on your program and using it, and they absolutely love it. They're blown away with it.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

So absolutely, absolutely. And um, you know, we love it. Like we like Lance said, we're at 6,000 dealers now and and steadily growing. And really what we love to see is the engagement level and how often dealers are logging in, how many prompts they're making. Um, it's just becoming more embedded in in their day-to-day. Yeah, that's very cool.

Jim Fitzpatrick 9:26

Very cool. Carrie Wise, Chief Marketing Officer at Laud Links and Lance Schaefer, GM of product and technology at Lot Links. Thank you both very much for coming in today and sharing um, you know, this this exciting information for dealers. I mean, AI is, as you know, as I open up the segment, it's everywhere. Everybody's using it, everybody's trying to figure it out. Sounds like you guys have got your hand on the pulse and you have figured it out. So I would encourage everyone to go to uh Lot Links and check out this uh this chat that they've built. It's it'll blow you away. You will be 6,001 in a second to to of dealers using it. So again, thanks so much. Great seeing both of you, and I can't wait to uh have you back to hear what's next coming out of the Lot Links band.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Hey, thanks for having us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah, thanks so much. Absolutely.

Announcer 10:10

Thanks for watching Driving Solutions.