Mike Gilson on Making AI Accessible to Every Dealership Employee

Mike Gilson, CEO of Conversica, joins us to discuss how AI is helping dealerships uncover hidden revenue opportunities buried within their existing data systems.

As dealerships generate massive amounts of information through sales, service, inventory, and customer interactions, much of that data remains trapped in disconnected legacy platforms. Gilson explains how modern AI can act as an intelligence layer on top of existing DMS and CRM systems, helping dealers identify actionable opportunities without replacing their current technology stack.

Key discussion points include:

•  Why valuable revenue opportunities are often hidden in dealership data 
•  How AI can surface insights from DMS and CRM platforms 
•  Identifying opportunities through declined services, lease maturities, and inventory trends 
•  The importance of acting quickly on time-sensitive revenue opportunities 
•  How AI can make dealership analytics accessible to every employee 
•  Why personalized customer engagement improves when teams have better information 

Gilson also shares how conversational AI is changing the way dealerships interact with technology, empowering employees to make faster, more informed decisions while enhancing the customer experience.

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Transcript

Why Dealers Need Practical AI

Announcer 0:07

Welcome to Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:12

AI has become one of the biggest conversations in automotive retail, but for many dealers, the real question is how do you actually use it in a practical way? Joining us now with more on this ahead of the CBT News Auto Leadership Summit is Mike Gilson, who's the CEO of Conversica, a conversational AI platform. Thanks so much, Mike, for joining us on the show today.

Mike Gilson 0:33

Yeah, great to be here, Jeff.

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:35

Sure. So let's let's talk about this. Obviously, as I mentioned in the opener, AI is all the rage in retail automotive. Many dealers are are using it daily for different uh uh things and to run their dealership. But then there's also many that aren't, and they're just kind of standing back saying, well, where is all of this gonna go? What does it all mean? So talk to us about how dealerships can kind of monitor modernize their legacy

Legacy Systems That Bury Your Data

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:57

systems, you know, without ex you know, kind of that expensive rip and replace projects that often happen.

Mike Gilson 1:03

Absolutely. So you just you just hit on a very important point there, Jim, and this is really what I would love to kind of delve a little deeper into here. Sure. Is I feel like this industry for a very long time has really suffered from just a lot of data that's buried in some of these old archaic legacy systems that are very hard to use, they're very hard to get information out of. So when you own a group or you own a dealership, you know, oftentimes you accumulate years and years worth of very complex information. And uh oftentimes what we see, there's there's a lot of uh money that gets buried from just not being able to understand um your data at a fundamental level. So whether we're talking about repair orders, whether we're talking about sales transactions or inventory turnover, there's a lot of complexity in automotive that kind of gets buried behind this layer of complexity.

Jim Fitzpatrick 1:54

Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Gilson 1:54

And I think when we talk about AI, it's really important to acknowledge that because that context, if you will, that's buried is really what powers these conversations. They power campaigns, they power insights. And so if you can't kind of unlock that data, you can't unlock that meaning, um, it's very hard to deploy any AI solution or really any type of technology solution at all. And I think what ends up happening as a result is dealerships and group end up deploying multiple different point solutions. These systems aren't talking to one another. And I think that creates a lot of burden for teams to really implement that, manage that, execute on those on those systems. And I think that's really the fundamental problem that uh that we're trying to solve. And I think that's an important one for the industry to think through.

Jim Fitzpatrick 2:39

Yeah, it's a very, very good point you make there for sure. There's not a dealer out there listening that can't relate to the to what you just said there.

Turning DMS And CRM Data Into Revenue

Jim Fitzpatrick 2:46

And and then the big question is how to leverage AI to service uh or to surface hidden uh revenue opportunities across sales and F and I and fixed ops, right? Talk to us about that.

Mike Gilson 2:57

Absolutely. So I think if you look at automotive, really the kind of the core, the two systems of record that really every dealership will use in some capacity will be a DMS system or a CRM system. These are kind of omnipresent throughout throughout the industry. Yeah. And I think that the the problem really is how do you interface with these old archaic systems that have all this data and actually put meaning behind that and action that data? And so what AI systems modern AI systems now can do is really kind of integrate deeply into these old systems, prescribe meaning to it, and then surface revenue opportunities automatically. So whether we're talking about uh declined services, whether we're talking about upcoming lease maturities, whether we're talking about specific inventory insights that someone can leverage all of that data now, an AI system can reason against, can surface it automatically and really kind of tee it up for dealerships teams to go and execute. And I think kind of taking it a step further, once you're able to kind of surface these revenue opportunities, you can now take action and execute against that. So really augmenting your team to go and schedule service appointments, schedule sales appointments, you know, identify those insights which can really move a dealership forward, all of that can happen now without kind of rip and replacing a core DMS offering or an old CRM system. It's kind of this intelligence layer that can now power the surfacing of those insights and then running those campaigns. I think that's really what dealerships should be thinking about now.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:27

Yeah, without a doubt. And and and you know, if we can get the AI to make everything accessible, the necessary information and data

Making Insights Accessible With Chat

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:35

accessible to everyone at the dealership, uh, huge win. Talk to us about that.

Mike Gilson 4:40

Absolutely. So accessibility is really a key word here, right? So whenever whenever anyone is deploying solutions, oftentimes what we've seen, these these solutions tend to get relegated to a small team of people.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:53

Right.

Mike Gilson 4:53

So whether we're talking about a conversational AI system, whether we're talking about a DMS system, generally it's a small subset of users that have access to that and understand how to use it. And I think from this modern AI age that we're now entering, you know, everything should happen through a chat interface. It should be accessible to everyone inside of a dealership.

Jim Fitzpatrick 5:12

Sure.

Mike Gilson 5:12

I think we've all gotten accustomed to using Chat GPT or Cloud or Gemini, these incredibly powerful tools that are highly accessible to any user, whether they're very technical or not. Right. So how do we kind of develop a similar design paradigm that kind of makes all this uh you know analytic firepower and make it accessible through kind of natural language?

Jim Fitzpatrick 5:33

Yeah.

Mike Gilson 5:33

And I think that's the approach that that we're taking, which is we fundamentally believe that any AI solution that gets deployed inside of a dealership or group, everyone from the GM to the service advisor to the sales rep to a group executive can all key off of one source of truth and interface with their data in natural language.

Jim Fitzpatrick 5:52

Yeah.

Mike Gilson 5:52

You know, that in that natural language interface, it's on top of the DMS, it's on top of the CRM, it's on top of the conversational AI data, and all that can kind of get unified into one source of truth that's now accessible through natural language.

Jim Fitzpatrick 6:05

Yeah. I mean, AI is is gonna be a game changer for dealers to run their dealerships much more efficient and much more competitive. I mean, for dealers that

Speed Wins When Opportunities Expire

Jim Fitzpatrick 6:14

are not on board with something like this, they're gonna they're gonna miss deals. They're gonna miss opportunities across the board for for profitability, right? I mean, it the it's for dealers that are sitting on the sidelines of this, major mistake, right?

Mike Gilson 6:27

Absolutely. So I think now is an incredible time in the industry. In some ways, I'm very excited about this based on what I'm seeing in the demand for this type of technology. But I think this radic radically simple approach that sits on top of this very sophisticated AI engine that's now accessible to everyone can really speed up a dealership's operations, right? So instead of piecing together all this complex information, spending days, weeks, months trying to tie it all together. Um, the other thing with automotive, it's very time, a lot of these opportunities are very time sensitive. Meaning if you're not enacting on them today, tomorrow, you're missing very clear revenue opportunities that can make or break uh a month or a quarter.

Jim Fitzpatrick 7:07

That's right.

Mike Gilson 7:08

Having an engine that could stay ahead of that, you know, speed up how you can react and be proactive about getting in front of these opportunities and executing on them. I think that's what AI can really do. And it is it's really this incredibly powerful tool to augment your team of people to help them execute more efficiently. And I think that's really what uh this new age, I think, is gonna bring to this vertical.

Jim Fitzpatrick 7:30

Yeah, it's it's such an exciting time to be in retail automotive with tools like yours. And uh it's it's just one of those things that we're gonna look back, I think 10 years from now and go, how did we live without this, right? And uh it's gonna be an essential part of running a successful dealership operation.

Mike Gilson 7:47

I think it's really gonna be exciting for you know GMs, dealer principals, service advisors, anyone really working in the weeds of of this industry day-to-day. And I think at the end of the day, really that the customer is the one that's gonna win. And because I really think it's gonna enable these teams of people to really respond intelligently, to be proactive, to really develop these very deep relationships with this intelligence, with this context that this surf that the system can surface for them. It's really gonna enable a much more personalized way of working for dealerships across the country.

Summit Panel Invite And Closing

Jim Fitzpatrick 8:20

Yeah, with it without a doubt. Without a doubt. Well, we are looking forward to uh having you on one of the panels there. It's gonna be the uh culture, compliance, and accountability panel uh out at the conference, uh or this, I should say, the summit, the CBT News Auto Leadership Summit in DC on the 16th. We're showing the information on the screen right now. So, Mike Gilson, CEO of Conversica, thank you so much for joining us on the show. We really look forward to uh to your input and your insights on the panel. And uh, for those dealers that are going, you might want to grab Mike uh, you know, at one of the breaks and say, come on over to my store and show me what this looks like in in uh everyday use. So I think you're gonna be impressed with what you see. So, Mike, thanks so much.

Mike Gilson 9:00

Yeah, thank you, Jim.

Jim Fitzpatrick 9:01

Thanks.

Announcer 9:08

Thanks for watching Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.