Automotive News Canada - September 2023 - 6

6
* SEPTEMBER 2023
Finding ROI in AI TRENDING
Dealers can
effortlessly turn
data into decisions
and complete
time-consuming
tasks in seconds
By KELLY TAYLOR
WINNIPEG CORRESPONDENT
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
is playing an increasing role in
Canadian automotive retailing,
helping sales staff create compelling
advertisements, automating
choices on which cars to advertise
and expediting extended-service-contract
claims, among other
tasks.
Nikhil Chugh, country manager
for advertising-technology provider
Cartelux Canada, said that while
the first use might
have involved a
platform such as
ChatGPT helping
write vehicle listings,
AI's influence
continues to
grow.
Chugh:
Using AI can
dramatically
cut the time
it takes for
dealers to get
their vehicles
online to be
sold.
SUPPLIED
PHOTO
AI is helping
brands sell cars
more quickly after
entering inventory,
Chugh said, citing
statistics that
show it can take
15 days or more
to sell a vehicle. It
takes that long for
dealers and automakers
to work
with their media
agencies on the
platforms to use
and the audiences to market to, he
said.
" With the platform we run, all of
this is done in 60 seconds, " he said.
Cartelux uses 300 million data
points to analyze such decisions
and provide solutions, Chugh said.
This is aggregate data - such as
the number of searches for eightseat
vehicles with all-wheel drive,
or two-seat sports cars - mined
through online analytics software.
Crunching that data helps the
Cartelux platform advise customers
which vehicles are in demand
and by which demographic groups.
Brent Sayles, president of
Applewood Auto Group, is an early
adopter of AI. He uses it in a variety
of forms to write vehicle listings,
to help sales staff who struggle
with grammar respond to customer
texts and emails, craft operating
procedures and target sales
promotions to the right customer
at the right time.
Sayles, whose British Columbiagroup
includes 11 dealerships from
Port Hardy at the north end of
Vancouver Island, to Surrey, just
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
SPOTLIGHT
PHOTO: ISTOCK
east of Vancouver, said he has subscribed
to 30 AI applications. He
is more interested in building his
own in-house AI solutions, often
collaborating with vendors rather
than buying offthe-shelf
applications.
MacDonald:
Autotrader's
Upgrade
Optimizer
AI
can help
promote
vehicles
that, for
example, may
be popular
in online
searches.
SUPPLIED
PHOTO
Examples
include using
Jasper AI to create
35 job descriptions
in one day, a
task that can often
take hours per job
description.
" I don't think
I could do 35 job
descriptions in a
year, " he said.
Sayles encountered
a humorous
example in
an email from
his accounting
department, written
in a tone that
got his hackles up.
" They didn't
mean anything by
it, but I thought,
maybe we can use AI to create
emails that don't make you want
to walk over there and pick a fight
with someone, " he said.
Sayles' next project is developing
a system that uses the various
points of data that his group
already has to target customers
with timely promotions, such as
when service appointments suggest
that it's time for new tires.
" We could send them a note that
says they might want to consider
replacement - and, oh, by the way,
here's an offer for buy three, get
the fourth free. "
USING DATA TO MAKE DEALS
For Autotrader.com, which
serves dealerships of all sizes, the
just-launched Upgrade Optimizer
AI performs a similar function
automatically, said Ian MacDonald,
the company's chief marketing officer.
Autotrader
publishes online
listings of new and used vehicles
and for added fees can boost certain
vehicles to increase their visibility
on the site. MacDonald said
Upgrade Optimizer will, given a
dealer's budget, boost certain vehicles
depending on a large number
of data points, such as search popularity,
as well as when a rise occurs
in the number of searches - based
on features such as seat counts, allwheel
drive or engine style - that
match a vehicle in inventory.
Freeing up that time allows
Autotrader and the dealer to concentrate
on what matters most to
the retailer: How
much did it cost,
and how much did
it help?
" That's part of
the beauty of it, "
McDonald said,
" in that we can
begin to have conversations
... that's
more relatable
to an advertiser
- in this case,
a dealer - who
can say, 'This is
how much I want
to invest, and this
is the kind of ROI
[return on investment]
I'm looking
for. "
LGM Financial,
which provides
extended-service
contracts either
IT'S THE END OF THE LINE FOR THE RAM TRX
STELLANTIS WILL END PRODUCTION OF ITS HIGHperformance
off-road pickup at the end of the year. The Ram 1500
TRX, equipped with the superPHOTO:
STELLANTIS
charged 6.2-litre V-8 engine made
famous by Dodge's Hellcat muscle
cars, was introduced in 2020. It has
702 horsepower, 650 pound-feet of
torque and hits 100 km/h from rest in
4.5 seconds. Ram is marking the end
of the TRX's run with a 2024 Final
Edition model that comes in a choice
of eight colours and offers exclusive wheels and other flourishes.
The pickup lists for $153,065, including shipping.
ONSTAR ADOPTS AI TO BOOST SERVICE
GENERAL MOTORS IS USING GOOGLE TECHNOLOGY TO
improve voice recognition of the automaker's OnStar safety and
connectivity service and to more quickly
answer customer questions. Google Cloud's
Dialogflow technology will be woven into
OnStar's Interactive Virtual Assistant that
debuted last year. It can give users turn-byturn
navigation help and improves OnStar's ability to pick up on the
driver's spoken request the first time, GM said. The Google-powered
virtual assistant is offered in most of GM's vehicles from the 2015
model year onward that are equipped with OnStar.
Rutherford:
AI is used
to expedite
some servicecontract
claims,
which
frees up
staff to deal
with more
complicated
cases.
SUPPLIED
PHOTO
directly or behind the scenes at
dealerships, recently began using
AI to expedite claims, with many
approved in as little as five seconds.
Automating
simpler claims frees
staff to adjudicate more complex
ones, said Scott Rutherford, LGM's
executive vice-president of technology.
I
don't think
I could do 35 job
descriptions
in a year. "
Brent Sayles
President,
Applewood Auto Group
At the retail level, Rutherford
said, LGM also provides a " recommendation
engine " designed to
simplify the purchase of extended-service
contracts and ancillary
products. LGM provides service
contracts sold through dealerships
as if they were sold by the brand,
he said. Such contracts have nine
categories, but with thousands of
options.
By asking a series of questions,
Rutherford said, the recommendation
engine helps narrow choices
for customers. - ANC
CAYENNE TURBO E-HYBRID STARTS AT $174,050
PORSCHE IS DIALING UP THE
Cayenne's performance to the tune of
729 horsepower, 59 more than the outgoing
Turbo S E-Hybrid. The new 2024
Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid, available in
crossover and coupe body styles, will
arrive in the second quarter. The crossPHOTO:
PORSCHE
over will start at $174,050 in Canada, including shipping, while the
coupe starts at $173,150. The Cayenne is Porsche's second-best
Canadian seller - the smaller Macan is the leader - accounting
for 1,544 sales in the first half of 2023.
CANADIAN SUPPLIER ABC IS GOING PRIVATE
ONE OF A HANDFUL OF PUBLICLY TRADED CANADIAN
parts makers is being taken private by a pair of asset management
firms. All but 6.6 per cent of ABC Technologies Holdings Inc.
in Toronto is owned by Affiliates of Apollo Global Management and
Oaktree Capital Management. The plan to buy the remaining public
float in the supplier for $6.75 per share was announced Sept. 5. The
price represents a 31.8-per-cent premium on the 12-month average.
CUTS AT VOLVO CARS ARE 'ALL-ENCOMPASSING'
AS PART OF A GLOBAL EFFORT TO CUT
Cottone
FILE PHOTO
spending, drive efficiencies and update its work
force for an all-electric future, Volvo Cars is restructuring
its U.S. and Canadian operations. Michael
Cottone, Volvo Car USA and Canada president, said
the initiative is " all-encompassing. " The automaker
is cutting more than 10 per cent of its nearly 1,000
white-collar work force in the United States and
Canada, a source briefed on the plan told sibling
publication Automotive News. - ANC
CHARGING AHEAD
Honda and Acura are just the two latest brands to say their electric
vehicles will adopt Tesla's North American Charging Standard connectors.
Ford began the trend in May, followed by General Motors,
Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and others. What brands will be next?
STORIES
automotivenews.ca
ONGOING WEB COVERAGE
CONTRACT TALKS
The contracts between Detroit Three automakers and the UAW in the
United States and Unifor in Canada expired Sept. 14 and 18, respectively.
Both unions warn that strikes are a real possibility. Unifor has
picked Ford to negotiate with first, setting a pattern for talks with GM
and Stellantis.
FOR FULL TEXT OF THESE STORIES AND MORE
automotivenews.ca
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Automotive News Canada - September 2023

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