Dealers and end-users alike, it’s safe to say, are in various stages of engagement when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Some are leveraging it to enhance sales talk tracks or generate marketing content. Others have heard of AI and think it sounds neat, but that’s about as far as they have progressed. Then there’s the meaty middle of the population that has played with Microsoft Copilot or another platform and sees the potential for various applications.
By the time the feet-draggers and lookie-lous earnestly investigate ways it can either help their own business or that of their clients, there will be even more AI-driven solutions and software hitting the market. That will create a greater chasm between early adopters and laggards that could well have dire consequences from a competitive standpoint.
That’s a challenge for another day. We’re wrapping up this month’s State of the Industry report on AI to gauge what’s next for our panelists in terms of new applications they will be investigating. The bigger question is which area(s) dealers would like to see enhanced.
One area of interest for Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises (DME) of Cincinnati is what the future holds for AI-powered security systems that could benefit their clients. Erica Huentelman, executive assistant for DME, is curious to see how facial recognition technology evolves.
“This could be a great fit for schools, health care and business offices that need stronger access control and safer environments,” she said. “As AI continues to advance, we see a lot of potential in helping our customers enhance their physical security with smarter, more automated solutions. It’s an area we’re excited to explore further.”
Tech Voyage
Vertical-driven applications have enabled Green Office Partner (GOP) to drill deeper for clients. Its educational customers are using the Xerox Translate and Print app. Now, co-owner Chris Gallagher is excited about his Chicago dealership offering the OEM’s CareAR augmented reality tool.
“Our technicians can have eyeballs on a situation in minutes via sending the customer a link to their email or text,” he noted. “This will revolutionize our service department.”
With the continued growth in AI adoption, dealers like Blue Technologies of Cleveland envision the opportunity to expand upon the advisory role they play for clients. Lauren Hanna, division president, notes the end-users are seeking guidance on how to thoughtfully integrate AI in areas ranging from streamlining workflows to bolstering security. The dealer, in turn, sees digital transformation and compliance as conversational table setters.
From an internal standpoint, Blue Technologies is evaluating how AI can assist with predictive support and long-term infrastructure planning. But the priority is centered on maintaining a role as trusted advisor for clients as they go more downstream in their AI adoption.
“Ultimately, we see AI as an ongoing journey—not a one-and-done initiative,” Hanna noted. “We’ve put together a team that’s continually evaluating how AI is working across our business and where it can bring more value, both for us and our clients. Our goal is to thoughtfully expand its use without losing what makes us different—our people, our responsiveness, and the relationships we’ve built. AI is a great tool, but it’s just that—a tool. The human element will always be at the core of how we serve our customers.”
Secret Agents?
Some observers feel the alpha and omega of the technology lies in AI agents, a system or program that can autonomously perform tasks on behalf of a user or another system by designing its workflow and utilizing available tools. This is the juncture where AI is arguably the most sexy, with the capacity for problem-solving, decision-making, and interacting with external environments. They can execute tasks on their own and essentially think, learn and adapt.
Chris Williams, vice president of marketing for All Copy Products in Denver, sees AI agents as the bold new frontier. “You can build out really extensive workflows and give them triggers so that they have the ability to do different things on their own,” he said. “We almost have our part of our SEO process fully automated through an AI agent to have all the triggers, and all the instructions. It has different tasks that it will do and then refine it back into a final end point and a result. I think that’s going to continue to scale.”
Some dealers are of the opinion that industry manufacturers can and will integrate machine learning capabilities into their data. This allows companies such as Fraser Advanced Information Systems of West Reading, Pennsylvania, to bring data analysis to the service and inventory side of the house, according to Justin Drabouski, vice president of technology and security. Fraser collects data related to parts and supplies usage, but Drabouski would like to see OEMs push that capability into their hardware to provide real value. Rather than simply reporting error codes, he’d like to see issue identification and self-healing, which catapults service to another level.
As for adoption on the dealer side, he views AI today in much the same way that dealers chose to (or not to) embrace managed services back in the early 2000s. While Drabouski feels dealers don’t have to fully commit to an aspect of AI, they need to start down the road of incorporating it into their overall strategy.
Familiar Territory
“You don’t have to pick a path today, per se, but if you aren’t investing in the learning side of this now, if you aren’t putting real dollars into your people to play with the tools, developing the skills and understand how these things get together, you won’t be in a position to take advantage,” he said. “I’ll immediately have a market advantage over you as soon as the OEM capability comes to the dealer. So at a minimum, put a number to it, assign some value, invest some real dollars into your company, and at least be in a position to make use of it when it all starts to hit the market.”
Clay Ostlund, president of the IT division at Marco of St. Cloud, Minnesota, believes there is a fundamental technology gap between the OEMs and the multitude of data collection agent solutions on the market. There’s a chasm between the legacy way of capturing data, he notes, and the newer methods. Like Drabouski, he sees a considerable opportunity for OEMs to simplify the ability to garner insights from customers.
“Dealers should tell their OEM partners that this is an area where you can make our customers’ lives better by making your partners’ lives better,” he said. “How do we create an AI agent that can just crawl a MIB and provide me every piece of information in a much more efficient fashion? How do I then use that information to create better analytics about the usage of those devices so we can optimize them from a service standpoint? I think there’s a big opportunity there on the IT side of the house. We’re just starting to see the beginnings of what’s going to be possible.”
For many dealers, the excitement surrounding AI is certainly palpable from a client standpoint. Scott Anderson, senior vice president of IT for Kelley Create, notes customers understand and appreciate how it can transform their business, and in turn the dealer is investing in helping them use tech to drive their business forward. And the choice platforms such as Copilot are fairly ubiquitous.
“We’re working with each of our client partners on preparing their environment to enable AI to utilize it best,” Anderson said. “For example, if all their files are sitting on an old school file server, AI cannot access them. But if you have them in Microsoft 365, SharePoint or Google, where they can be accessed, that’s where you start to see the real impact. So for us, it’s enabling and training our partners, but also helping them transform their environment and be AI ready.”
