Automotive Business Magazine – Q2 2026 – Digital edition - Magazine - Page 10
FEAT U R E
TECHNOLOGY
It’ll be interesting
when autonomous
driving hits the roads
of Britain – how many
customers actually
want to be in a car
with their hands off the
steering wheel, being
driven by a computer?”
enabled products at the minute, rather
than actually getting people to do their
jobs properly.
“You won’t replace the desire for
people to do business with people when
you use AI, but what you can do is
streamline some of the processes to get
there. If you’re looking for a magic bullet,
I think you may be a little disappointed.”
That said, there is evidence that
dealerships have had success using
AI for some elements of customer
contact. McPhee says: “We've got an AI
agent called Charlotte Brickfield. What
Charlotte will do is contact customers
to say ‘your vehicle is due for a service,
when can we book you in?’
"She creates a huge number of
bookings month in month out for us, day
in, day out.
“We've got an AI agent called Max
Lane who's one of our sales execs.
"If we've got any events coming up,
typically what would happen is we would
send a communication to our customer
base about a certain event, and our sales
teams would work from five o’clock in
the evening to nine o’clock in the evening,
phoning all the customers that we've
contacted.
“The last event that we had, we said
to our team ‘don't worry about that.’ We
engaged a company called Car Buddy,
and this is where Max Lane came in.
"Max contacted all those customers
in a consistent way, and generated
probably about 30% more sales
opportunities and appointments than
what we would have done previously
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AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q2 2026
using our teams, because sales teams
don't really like to be cold-calling,
outbound prospecting.”
Hendy has seen a positive response to
the AI calls, although the system did have
some teething problems. Proof, perhaps,
that the technology can only work
effectively when combined with human
common-sense and problem-solving.
McPhee explains: “It wasn't good for
some customers who received a phone
call at three o’clock in the morning. We
had a little bit of a false start with it, and
we had to correct that very, very quickly.”
AI is already embedded in the
processes of dealers worldwide, but
its role in the fleet sector has been less
clear-cut.
This is, in part, due to confusion around
terms, and too many companies jumping
on the buzzword bandwagon.
Hollick says: “There’s been an abuse of
the word ‘AI’ in the marketplace. There
are some things that are either just
spreadsheets, machine learning or an
element of IT software that are being
bandied around as AI.
“AI for fleet managers is in its infancy.
I’m interested in AI when it comes
to being able to use data to work out
predictive analytics, to see which drivers
could have an accident over the next six
or 12 months, and give predictive steps to
be able to avoid these types of accidents.
Using AI automation when it comes to
fleet management, fine management,
damage charges from rental companies.
“At the moment, I don’t think we’re
even scratching the surface of AI.”
Screens on wheels
Perhaps no area of the industry has been
as obviously affected by technology as
the cars themselves.
Once-spartan interiors now look
like Piccadilly Circus, while regulation
demands that all cars are fitted with
a raft of advanced driver assistance
systems (ADAS).
But the question remains: are
customers really interested in all of this?
In November 2025, the Startline Used
Car Tracker found that 80% of used car
dealers felt buyers were put off by newer
cars equipped with the ADAS bells and
whistles. CEO Paul Burgess suggested
that many buyers simply found this
technology “annoying” and “intrusive.”
