How Do I Balance AI in My Dealership and Get My Staff to Embrace It?

Everyone is searching for a software solution that saves time, cuts costs, and helps get customers in the door. But if your staff hates the software and worries it is going to replace them, getting them to use it becomes an uphill battle, and ultimately a waste of money.

I have been in this industry for 16 years, and I have seen major shifts: the growth of online sales, the decline of in-store traffic, the rise in online approvals, and the “sign and drive” process. AI is simply the next change our industry has to learn to adapt to.

Just like when dealerships first started building BDCs, AI can create skepticism among salespeople because they see it as competition instead of an ally. In some cases, that fear is understandable. Dealers often want to use AI because response times are slow or nonexistent, salespeople are inconsistent in what they say, and follow-up is lacking. AI starts to look like the answer to all of those problems.

And while I agree there is still a lot of work to do with sales teams, I do not believe replacing them with AI is the way to sell more cars, and I have the data to back it up!

The car business is still a people business. I have said for years, “People don’t buy cars from places, they buy cars from people,” and that is still 100% true today. In fact, studies show customers are willing to pay more when they like the customer service experience and feel confident they will be taken care of after the sale. Can AI create that level of trust and engagement? I do not believe so, and I have yet to see it happen. What I have seen are exceptional salespeople who build real rapport, create trust, and deliver an experience customers remember.

So how do we make AI work without losing the human element?

Step 1: Stop blaming your salespeople if you have not trained them and held them accountable.
Your salespeople do not know what they have never been taught, and it is your responsibility to give them the tools they need to thrive if you want the dealership to succeed. Invest in training. Teach them when to call a lead, how long to follow up, what to say on the phone, and then hold them accountable for executing it.

If a mechanic kept overlooking something simple and it kept blowing engines, you would not keep handing them cars to work on. Yet dealerships often allow salespeople to ignore leads or avoid making calls with little to no consequence. We pour energy into the things that cost us money or create immediate headaches but fail to invest in the team responsible for producing revenue. If they are not selling, that is costing you money too. Help them. Train them.

Step 2: Pay attention to your lead process, not just accountability, but the process itself.
What is it actually like to buy a car from your store? Do you know? I speak to a lot of dealer 20 groups, and I can say with confidence that most dealers do not truly know what it feels like to buy from their own dealership.

Do you know what your AI is saying to customers? What happens when a customer says, “I’m shopping your competitors”? How does your AI respond? More importantly, how should your salesperson respond?

What we often see is AI pushing the online application over and over again. Fifteen text messages all saying, “Click here to fill out our online app,” but no one ever picks up the phone. Do you really think the 16th text asking them to complete the application is going to be the one that works? Or is it more likely there is something missing in your process that is preventing the customer from moving forward?

You cannot fix what you do not understand. Submit a lead to your own store and see what happens. Review the calls, texts, emails, and AI responses. Then make adjustments. At the end of the day, if you do not know your own process, it is hard to place all the blame on your sales team. Real talk.

Step 3: Get your team to use AI where it makes sense.
AI can be incredibly useful after hours, when a lead sits untouched for 10 minutes, or when every salesperson is tied up on a test drive or writing up a deal. That is where AI can help. It can absolutely handle the initial contact, but it still needs to feel personal, and it should never replace the salesperson’s follow-up call. That call is what creates real engagement.

What often happens instead is that salespeople turn the AI off as soon as a lead comes in and then forget to respond themselves. They shut it off because they do not like how intrusive it feels or because they feel like they are competing with it. And honestly, that makes sense when the process is unclear, poorly written, or inconsistent.

When we do phone training and script writing, we build our word tracks around customer psychology. Why? Because we understand how customers think, what they are insecure about, how they want to buy, and the types of conversations they actually want to have. Yet many dealerships turn on AI and let it communicate with customers without ever teaching it those same principles.

Just like the techniques you use in person, AI needs its own communication strategy. Texting techniques are not the same as in-person selling techniques. The process breaks down when there is no structure, no consistency, and no synergy between the team and the technology. Work with your sales staff to create a smooth, coordinated process so communication feels natural instead of chaotic.

Thinking you can simply turn on an AI responder and magically sell more cars is naïve. You have to test it, monitor it, adjust it, and then do it all over again. Never stop training your team and never stop fine-tuning your AI tools. Things change, systems break, and customer expectations evolve. If you are not constantly paying attention, you will lose touch with both your customers and your sales process.

AI can absolutely help dealerships sell more cars, but only if it supports your people instead of replacing them. Get your staff involved, ask for their input, and build a process that works for everyone. That is how you make AI effective. And that is how you sell more cars.