Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap—a rundown of key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guest is Brian Hoang, CEO of Mia.
Brian explains why consolidation is inevitable, and how dealers are already driving real revenue by offloading high-volume service tasks.
Tech stack consolidation is accelerating faster than expected.
The dealership tech stack is broken—too many point solutions, too many logins, too much fragmented data, and AI is making it possible to consolidate what used to require multiple vendors into unified platforms.
"Things are being done with software today that weren't possible yesterday. And that includes the pace of development. I think even later this year, we're going to start seeing a lot of meaningful software consolidation for automotive dealers."
That's because AI providers are expanding beyond single channels into unified communications engines and full workflow automation.
Out-of-the-box AI implementations are failing at dealerships.
Dealers who assume AI will just plug in and solve everything tend to see poor results, while the winning approach treats AI like a new employee who needs proper onboarding and training specific to each dealership's culture and processes.
"There's a reason why we like to have a very collaborative onboarding process with our dealers. There's a reason why we ask for a lot of feedback on your specific processes and preferences. We have quite literally over 150 possible configurations for Mia."
Brian says that's because successful AI deployments require deep customization to mold into unique dealership workflows rather than forcing dealers to change operations.
AI voice agents are converting higher than human staff when properly configured.
When dealership teams are juggling phones, greeting customers on the floor, and managing the service drive, something has to give, and that's usually incoming calls and lead follow-up.
"Dealers drop 30 to 40% of calls and they mishandle 43% of leads on average. Like either they're never touched just period, or maybe you touch them once, but you fail and you forget to follow up."
The trend shows that properly configured AI is rescuing these dropped opportunities and proving out higher conversion rates than traditional BDC teams.
The shift is moving from automating communications to automating the dealership itself.
Voice and text were just the beginning, as AI is now handling outbound campaigns, parts counter automation, appointment booking that accounts for inventory levels, and streamlining workflows between service and parts departments.
"There's so many kind of broken and disjointed workflows across a dealership and within each department beyond just communications."
What that looks like in practice: Recalls, special-order pickups, surveys, and CRM lead response are all being automated without requiring manual data pulls or campaign tracking.
Presented by:
1. Uber for Business - If you’re headed to NADA, you already know that dealership operations are complex. Uber for Business helps make them simple by streamlining operations, improving CSI scores and keeping parts moving—all while delivering a better customer experience. Visit Uber for Business at NADA at Booth #7944N and get started @ businesses.uber.com/CDG.
2. CNA National - CNA National is the premier F&I provider for dealerships nationwide. With more than four decades in the industry, we’ve earned a reputation for service excellence. Plus, we are backed by one of the largest insurers in the U.S. If you are looking for stability, consistency and experience, look no further than CNA National. Register for your commitment-free F&I profitability analysis by visiting @ cnanational.com/NADA.
3. Mia - Your 24/7 AI receptionist who speaks like a human, not a robot. No more "press 1" - just natural conversations for sales, service, and support. She handles everything from car shopping to appointment scheduling in multiple languages, while integrating with your systems. Never miss another lead. Learn more @ mia.inc
The winning AI strategy elevates dealership teams rather than replacing them.
Leading AI providers are explicitly avoiding the "replace your staff" pitch, instead focusing on liberating teams from mundane, repetitive tasks so they can focus on higher-value work like greeting customers and building relationships.
"We view Mia as your augmentation to turn—as a super employee will help elevate your staff and make them super employees too, because there's a lot of this just volume and mundane stuff that just doesn't make sense for them to handle."
The philosophy is simple: when freed from chasing leads in databases, dealership teams can focus on in-person customer experiences that actually drive loyalty.
High-volume dealers see the fastest ROI from AI automation.
Medium to high-volume dealerships benefit most from AI because it excels at handling repetitive, mundane tasks at scale, with service departments especially seeing exponential lift since customer volume far exceeds what any human team can personally touch.
"Part of the beauty of AI and how it's possible to deliver near instant ROI for clients is that it's one of the easiest first things to take off of your plate and your team's plate is the mundane and the repetitive."
Brian points out that service customer lifecycle touchpoints are mathematically impossible to handle manually at scale with personalized, meaningful engagement.
Category winners in dealership AI will become clear in 2026.
The market is noisy right now with capital flooding into automotive AI, but this year separates the companies with sustainable advantages from the rest.
"Not to say that the story will be fully written by the end of this year, but I think it's going to be more apparent."
Brian believes capitalization strength, product roadmap execution, and meaningful stack consolidation will determine who leads.
Two out of three customers don't return to a dealership after buying a car.
The industry has a massive customer loyalty problem, and reimagining dealership operations with AI directly impacts how consumers experience buying and servicing their vehicles.
"Part of the reason we started the company is as founders, we had negative experiences buying and selling cars and friends and family as well."
From Brian’s POV, scaling a delightful, genuinely helpful consumer experience requires rethinking software and operations from the ground up.
Properly customized AI is driving 60%+ increases in call answer rates.
When dealers engage deeply with AI configuration and customize it to their specific workflows, the results compound across multiple metrics.
"The amount of calls that [one shop] was taking increased by 60%. The booked appointments increased by 80%."
What's remarkable: Containment rates, resolution rates, and booking rates all improved while simultaneously reducing load on human teams.
The future of dealership software is being rethought for an AI-native world.
The old SaaS model of buying point solutions for each function is being replaced by a fundamental reimagining of how dealerships operate when AI is built in from the ground up.
"We're really making aggressive progress on rethinking, like, what should dealership software look like in an AI native world."
The shift signals a broader industry inflection point where software consolidation and consumer experience improvements are the same thing, not separate initiatives.
