Artificial intelligence is shifting from experimentation to everyday utility inside dealerships. Instead of sitting at the edges of the business, AI is now woven into routine workflows—managing administrative tasks, smoothing handoffs between systems, and supporting customer interactions that once required manual coordination. Recent industry research shows that 77% of stores using AI have already integrated it into the systems they rely on every day, marking a clear transition from testing to consistent, real-world use. The impact is tangible: more than half of dealers utilizing AI say it’s strengthening their business performance, improving efficiency, and helping sharpen their competitive edge.
As dealerships grow more comfortable with the technology, they’re moving beyond isolated trials and are embedding AI into their daily rhythm that complements existing tools and teams. Early adopters say the biggest change is improved stability across the store: fewer workflow bottlenecks, clearer visibility into workloads, smoother coordination between teams, and more consistent, higher-quality customer interactions. These gains often appear within the first year of implementation, signaling that AI is quickly becoming a dependable asset rather than an experimental add-on.
AI Isn’t Replacing People—It’s Empowering Them
One of the most immediate shifts dealers see when they introduce AI is a reduction in workplace interruptions. AI absorbs the repetitive, low value interactions—appointment confirmations, basic service questions, routine follow-ups and even after-hours inquiries—and enables employees to devote more time to guiding customers through complex decisions, building trust, and addressing the needs that require human judgment. For many dealerships, this redistribution of time and attention has proven to be a major operational improvement as AI becomes embedded in everyday workflows.
Where Dealers Feel It First: Service
Service is the starting point for the earliest and most visible AI impact due to the sheer volume and complexity of daily interactions. In ongoing industry discussions and demonstrations, dealers highlight AI’s ability to streamline scheduling by balancing after-hours demand, providing proactive repair updates, and automatically handling common customer questions. Advisors see fewer interruptions, technicians gain clearer visibility into upcoming work, and customers receive faster, more transparent communication in their preferred language.
Sales & BDC: Fewer Missed Opportunities
In Sales and the BDC, AI helps prioritize leads by routing inquiries to the right person, flagging stalled conversations, and ensuring active shoppers maintain momentum even during high-traffic periods. This consistency turns more conversations into appointments and showroom visits—and it’s a key reason nearly two thirds of dealers either use AI today or plan to adopt it over the next few years, with 64% of non‑users expecting a positive impact once they deploy.
For many dealerships, the move from interest to full adoption starts with a 30- to 60-day pilot focused on everyday workflows—whether that’s service scheduling, after-hours inquiries, or lead follow-up. During that period, dealers track a few simple signals: how much time AI gives back to staff, how quickly customers receive responses, and how often conversations progress to next-step conversion. These insights provide a clear blueprint for where AI should be scaled next. And the stores that lean in now will set the pace for the next phase of automotive retail.
Data source: CDK AI at the Dealership Study\
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Leigh Ann Conver is the Sr. Director of Product Marketing for Data & Intelligence at CDK. She’s responsible for CDK’s Fortellis and Data Services go-to-market strategies, delivering demand generation programs, enabling sales channels, and defining market requirements and business cases for product line investment. With over 20 years of experience in the automotive retail services industry, Leigh Ann offers extensive knowledge on the application of data insights and integration to drive dealer success.