In an automotive landscape increasingly crowded with fully automated solutions, ActivEngage is taking a distinct stance: Artificial Intelligence should amplify the human voice, not silence it. At the upcoming NADA Show 2026 in Las Vegas, they will unveil the ActivEngage AI Suite, a new collection of tools designed to remove friction from dealership communications while keeping real people at the center of the sales process.
For nearly two decades, ActivEngage has built its reputation on the effectiveness of live engagement. With the launch of this new suite, the company aims to address a critical pain point in the current rush toward automation—the erosion of trust caused by AI “hallucinations” and impersonal interactions. By integrating purpose-built AI features into its established human-led framework, ActivEngage seeks to offer dealerships the speed of automation without sacrificing the nuance and empathy that close deals.
“We’ve been very deliberate about how we use AI from the start,” said Ted Rubin, CEO of ActivEngage. “Our goal isn’t automation or ‘AI’ just so we can use the phrase in our marketing. It’s to leverage AI to build better relationships and sell more cars through real conversations. The industry standard of 20% hallucinations is unacceptable to us. It erodes trust quietly, and customers disengage. Our approach ensures more consistently accurate AI-assisted conversations.”
What is the ActivEngage AI Suite?
The ActivEngage AI Suite is engineered to function as a force multiplier for dealership staff and ActivEngage’s own engagement experts. Rather than attempting to handle the entire customer journey via bot, the suite focuses on identifying intent, clearing language barriers, and surfacing actionable insights so that human agents can step in at the moment of highest impact.
The suite includes five core components, each targeting a specific area of operational friction:
AI Receptionist
This tool serves as the first line of engagement, handling instant responses to inbound inquiries. Unlike traditional bots that can trap customers in endless loops, the AI Receptionist is designed to resolve simple questions seamlessly while intelligently guiding complex queries to live Engagement Experts. Available 24/7, it ensures no lead is left waiting, accelerating the path to a real conversation.
AI Language Translation
Recognizing the diverse demographics of modern car buyers, this feature enables accurate, real-time communication across dozens of languages and regional dialects. It eliminates language barriers, allowing dealership staff to converse naturally with a broader customer base without the stilted nature of legacy translation tools.
AI Summaries
For service advisors and sales teams, context is king. This tool provides immediate post-interaction clarity by identifying exactly what happened, what matters to the customer, and what the next steps should be. This allows for faster, more confident follow-up that references specific customer needs, preserving the context of the original conversation.
AI Outreach
Moving beyond reactive measures, this tool focuses on re-engaging past leads and stalled opportunities. It deploys relevant, timely campaigns designed to restart conversations, handing warmed-up leads back to human agents to close.
AI Lead Pulse
This analytic tool surfaces real-time sentiment and intent before a staff member even picks up the phone. By helping teams quickly understand the customer’s mindset, it allows them to prioritize engagement based on who is ready to buy now.
Taking the AI Suite Into the Future
“This suite is about precision and restraint,” said Michael Third, CTO of ActivEngage. “For more than three years, we’ve been intentionally building and refining AI designed to enhance human conversations, not replace them. We’ve engineered these tools to add speed, clarity, and intelligence, and then get out of the way so human expertise can take over at just the right moment.”
ActivEngage will be demonstrating these new capabilities live at NADA 2026, offering dealers a firsthand look at how a “human-first” approach to AI can drive clearer communication and stronger sales results.
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