KANSAS CITY, Mo., September 10, 2026 — Automotive retail has spent three decades making it easier for consumers to find and research vehicles. Speaking at NCM Clients & Friends 2026, Spyne’s head of US business argued that the harder problem is what happens after a shopper raises their hand.
Dave Purgason, Head of US Business at Spyne, delivered an insightful keynote on Thursday, September 10, at the Kansas City Marriott titled “The AI Follow-Up Gap: Why Dealers Are Losing Customers Between the Lead and the Appointment.”
Purgason opened by tracing the industry’s technology arc—newspaper classifieds in the 1990s, print magazines on the rack in the 2000s, third-party marketplaces in the 2010s, digital retail in the 2020s, and AI now. Each wave, he argued, made vehicles easier to find. None of them fixed the handoff between a customer’s first inquiry and a scheduled appointment.
The lead is not the finish line
Dealerships invest heavily to create demand, then lose momentum in the quiet gap before the appointment. A customer calls while the BDC is occupied. An inquiry arrives at 11 p.m. A shopper gets an instant reply that does not answer what they asked.
Purgason framed the first minute as decisive. “Respond fast enough and you are part of the shopping experience. Respond later, and you are trying to interrupt it,” said Dave Purgason, Head of US Business, Spyne
He described the mismatch as the five-minute customer meeting the nine-to-five dealership. “Missed calls and after-hours inquiries are not tomorrow’s work. They are today’s buying moments.” he added.
Conversational AI, he said, gives dealerships coverage when staff are busy or the store is closed, without asking the team to be permanently on call. His framing: around-the-clock response does not replace the team; it makes sure the dealership never goes silent.
Against the follow-up zombie
Purgason then turned on a standard practice in his own category: the automated “just checking in” cadence.
“Automation without context is just faster irrelevance,” he said.
He illustrated the alternative with a single exchange. A shopper asks whether a vehicle has a good maintenance history. A typical bot replies that it will email the Carfax. A context-aware system answers the question—this vehicle has fourteen service records, the most recent oil changes were completed at this dealership, the wipers were replaced at the last service, and the maintenance history is above average.
That, he said, is the difference between automation and assistance. “The customer should not have to become the project manager of their own car purchase.” He extended the point to channel-switching: a conversation may start in website chat, move to SMS, continue by phone, and finish over email. The customer can switch channels; the conversation should not lose its memory or momentum.
Relay team, not cage match
Purgason rejected the human-versus-AI framing outright. “Think relay team, not cage match. Let AI run the repetitive laps. Let your people take the baton when human judgment matters.” In his split, AI handles immediate response, missed-call recovery, after-hours coverage, persistent follow-up, qualification, scheduling, and consistent multi-channel touches. People handle trust, emotion, complex trade and finance conversations, negotiation, exceptions, and closing.
“AI doesn’t replace the BDC; it makes sure the BDC never has to start with a missed opportunity.”
Measure appointments, not replies
The session closed on evaluation. Purgason argued that “lead responded” is not a finish line, and that dealers should judge AI on four measures: qualified opportunities, appointments set, show rate, and sold units.
“Maybe AI is the first technology wave that doesn’t just make cars easier to find but makes dealers easier to buy from,” said Dave Purgason
About Spyne
Spyne is an AI-native automotive retail technology company founded by Sanjay Varnwal and Deepti Prasad. Spyne empowers automotive dealers with end-to-end digital solutions that eliminate inefficiencies, unlock more opportunities from their CRM, and accelerate vehicle sales. Today, Spyne supports over 3,000 dealerships worldwide in building AI-powered digital storefronts with premium merchandising and conversational agents that drive appointments through seamless lead handling and customer engagement. Serving dealerships and OEMs across the United States, Europe, EMEA, and APAC, Spyne is shaping the future of automotive retail with cutting-edge AI solutions. The company has raised over $25 million in funding from investors, including Vertex Ventures SEA and India, Accel, Storm Ventures, and Alteria Capital.
Visit: https://www.spyne.ai