A Cox Automotive study of 537 franchise-dealership leaders found that 81% agreed AI was here to stay, while 74% identified accuracy as a concern. Cox described a research design that included focus groups, a 516-person survey and follow-up interviews.
The results capture real operating tension: stores want automation to produce measurable outcomes, but inaccurate outputs can create pricing, compliance, customer-experience and reputation problems. Cox also sells dealership technology, so its findings should remain clearly labeled as commercial research.
The strongest use cases have visible checks
Dealers can begin with bounded work where the input, output and business result are observable: summarizing calls, routing leads, drafting follow-up or flagging missing data. Human review should remain strongest where the system can affect price, credit, safety, legal rights or a customer commitment.
Governance should precede broad access
Stores need approved tools, data-handling rules, role permissions, logging and a correction path. Employees should know what information may enter an AI system and who owns the decision when a recommendation is wrong.
The buying question is not whether a product contains AI. It is what task it performs, what evidence supports the claim, how accuracy is measured and what happens when it fails.
The study was produced by a company that sells automotive data and dealership technology; methodology and commercial interest should travel with the findings.
Cited references
- Cox Automotive dealer AI study — Commercial dealership study