For World Automotive Group Owner Scott Falcone, AI is not about replacing dealership employees. It’s about giving his team better tools to solve problems, improve customer interactions and generate stronger results. Falcone joined today’s episode of CBT Live to discuss how he has built AI applications across his stores, producing measurable gains in sales and service.
Falcone’s approach starts with identifying a specific dealership problem, then building a tool to address it. His stores use AI for sales communication, financial modeling and service diagnostics, including tools that help advisors and technicians explain vehicle problems to customers in less technical language, an approach meant to improve transparency and build trust while helping employees work more effectively. Falcone said the technology has grown from simple tools solving simple problems into more complex applications across different areas of the dealership.
Rather than waiting for vendors to develop every solution, Falcone has invested in building some tools internally. He reviewed about 250 resumes before hiring a computer science-trained engineer whose background showed a willingness to build and experiment, a move he said gives the dealership greater flexibility to address problems specific to its operations. Falcone leaves larger projects, such as CRM and compliance systems, to companies with the resources and expertise to handle them, and he stressed that dealers need to understand their own lane before deciding what to build themselves.
Falcone measures AI by its outcome rather than by cost savings or headcount reduction alone. He said the tools have helped generate additional sales, more repair orders and higher-ticket repair orders, while also helping the dealership hold more gross on some closed deals. Looking ahead, Falcone sees significant potential for AI in BDC and outbound operations, where automated tools could help dealerships work through opportunities and data they currently cannot reach, and he said dealers should prepare for consumers to lean on AI more heavily when shopping and negotiating, making visibility in large language models another area dealerships will need to address.
