As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across retail automotive, many dealership leaders view automated tools as a silver bullet for operational headaches. However, implementing AI without human oversight often amplifies underlying friction rather than solving it. On the latest episode of Loyalty-Based Sales Strategies, Founder and President of eDealer Solutions Jen Suzuki warns that AI technology is not a substitute for management discipline, but instead exposes broken dealership workflows.
According to Suzuki, a common misstep among executives is assuming new software will automatically resolve broken operations. She said the dealerships winning with AI aren’t simply plugging in tools and hoping for magic. Instead, they are even more obsessed with process than before.
"AI is not reducing the importance of process, it's actually exposing exactly where process matters the most."
Suzuki compared AI implementation to the rollout of online service scheduling, which was called a great customer experience that still breaks down without human oversight. When online portals let multiple customers book identical 7 a.m. slots, dealerships can end up with six major repairs landing at once, no loaner vehicles, a diesel job booked on a day the diesel technician is unavailable, a transmission concern scheduled in the express lane, and a recall booked without parts. According to Suzuki, the technology didn’t create those problems; it only exposed the process failure faster.
The danger of the “unmonitored” AI
The risks are particularly acute in customer communications, such as after-hours AI phone agents, which Suzuki described as a major source of missed service calls. When a call goes well, the AI answers naturally, schedules the appointment and answers questions. When something goes wrong, however, the agent can get stuck, repeat itself and go off the rails until the customer hangs up without booking. Without someone listening to the calls, the breakdown repeats.
Suzuki said customers rarely tell dealership management about a bad AI experience. They simply disappear. In her view, strong operators stay deeply involved after implementation by listening to calls, reviewing conversations, flagging issues, coaching employees, tweaking workflows and communicating with support teams. As Suzuki put it, “humans have to oversee this technology.”
Treat AI tools like human employees
Suzuki said strong operators will treat AI the same way they treat people by training, monitoring, coaching, improving and adjusting it. She added that the tool itself is sometimes the problem, since some products are rushed and some integrations are messy, but that many times the issue is a process breakdown finally becoming impossible to ignore. Ultimately, she said loyalty is built when customers feel the experience works, not only when employees are friendly. Customers remember friction, confusion and broken communication, but they also remember smooth processes.
Suzuki said AI supports great people and leadership rather than replacing them. When it exposes problems, she said, those problems become visible and fixable, which can make AI one of the greatest growth opportunities an organization gets.
