Dealers’ interest in AI has evolved from broad excitement about the technology to a need for more targeted, practical business applications.
The details: A recent Lotlinx survey of approximately 215 dealership executives across the U.S. highlights a significant gap between general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT and actionable AI that can improve key retail operations.
84% of dealers surveyed said they “often” or “almost always” fail to get what they need from generic AI tools.
66% of executives said they are not confident that general AI understands their business operations.
87% of respondents found the concept of an inventory-specific AI advisor “extremely” or “very” appealing.
56% of dealers said their most critical need is a “better understanding of data and inventory risk” to maximize ROI.
Why it matters: Interest in AI is strong, but value will depend on whether the technology can solve real dealership problems. Tools that help stores better manage inventory, risk, and profitability are likely to matter far more than broad-use platforms that produce generic outputs.
Between the lines: Dealer use of generative AI, the type of artificial intelligence that creates new content, including text, images, code, audio, and video, also underscores the need for more specialized tools, according to the Lotlinx survey.
54% of dealers use generative AI tools weekly, 34% monthly, and only 12% said they rarely or never use them.
That usage, however, is still largely limited to functions such as vehicle descriptions (24%), marketing copy (22%), social media (20%), and email templates (18%).
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What they’re saying: “For too long, dealers have been sold a one-size-fits-all view of AI, where generic tools are expected to solve highly specific business challenges,” said Randy Kobat, chief commercial officer of Lotlinx. “When nearly two-thirds of their peers say the tools available to them don’t understand their own inventory and 84% say they fail to get useful results, that’s not a technology problem, that’s an industry problem.”
Bottom line: Dealers appear ready to move beyond experimenting with AI for basic content tasks and toward tools built for the realities of retail automotive. The providers that can deliver more dealership-specific insights, especially around inventory and risk, will likely have the strongest opportunity to gain traction.
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