AI will change where dealership employees spend their time more than it will shrink headcount. On today’s edition of CBT Live, Todd Smith, CEO of QoreAI and Author of The Intelligent Dealership, explains how AI will reshuffle dealership jobs and why dealers should own their data.
Smith says that while AI will take over tasks and some stores will lose positions, efficiency will create demand elsewhere. A faster service department needs more technicians, who are already scarce and hard to automate. Change will arrive through small bets, like a BDC that skips backfilling a seat after someone leaves, Smith said.
Dealer pay plans have barely changed since 1990 and should be reworked before org charts. As automation absorbs work people are paid for, rewards could move toward long-term customer relationships and CSI.
Dealers who lose what their AI tools learned after canceling a vendor are only renters. Smith sets up dealers with their own Amazon Web Services S3 bucket. DMS, CRM, call and payroll data then stays with the store through any vendor change. Dealers starting small can begin in fixed ops and the back office, where tasks rarely touch customers. Smith expects dealers to adapt, even though the industry is ill prepared for the acceleration already underway.
