Yogesh Darji, Founder & CEO of AgentDynamics, recently joined Daily Dealer Live to talk speed to lead, AI vendor selection, and what dealers should demand before signing anything.
Some context: Darji built large-scale communications infrastructure at Twilio and Amazon Web Services before training large language models at a venture-backed AI startup, an experience he says shapes how he thinks about what dealers actually need.
Here are the five strongest signals from his segment:
1. Two-hour response times are costing deals.
Darji says the industry average response time to a lead is over two hours, creating additional opportunities for stores that can get in touch with shoppers quickly and accurately.
"A customer submits an inquiry to five to six dealerships at once, and a dealer who responds first with the most accurate information is going to win,” Darji told Daily Dealer Live host Sam D’Arc.
2. The root cause of longer response times is fragmentation.
When pressed on why the two-hour average persists despite all the available technology, Darji pointed to system fragmentation, not to motivation or staffing.
His point: Dealerships run eight to ten systems that don't communicate with each other, forcing teams to manually piece together information across multiple tabs before they can respond to a single lead.
"All this data, which is living in all these different systems that don't communicate with each other, customer communication falls through cracks."
3. Do not sign a 12-month AI contract
Darji was direct in that the LLM technology underlying most automotive AI tools is only about three years old, and the vendors building on it are still figuring out what it can do.
Locking into a year-long contract before validating performance in your specific store is a risk, he says, no dealer should take.
"Don't sign up for an annual contract. You need to give 30 days, 60 days to do pilots to see how the AI is improving for your store."
4. Ask for integrations, dashboards, and weekly accountability before you sign anything.
Darji believes dealers should ask any AI vendor to walk through exactly how their system connects with the dealership's existing stack, not in theory, but with specifics on which certifications and API partnerships they hold.
Then, once live, dealers should expect weekly shared dashboards showing what's working, what's not, and what's being adjusted.
If a vendor routes you to a support ticket queue that sits for two weeks, Darji says that's a red flag.
5. Be skeptical of "number one automotive AI" claims
Darji said dealers should be skeptical of vendors making top-ranking claims in a category that barely existed three years ago.
Instead, he emphasized vetting the founder's background, the engineering team's experience, and whether the vendor is adding integrations proactively or only building what the majority of customers ask for.
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