TLDR: Dealership AI adoption sits at 5-15% despite vendor surveys claiming 80%+. The gap reveals a structural divide: owners see labor arbitrage, consumers distrust systems built against their interests, and workers are told to “lean in” to tools designed to replace them. Meanwhile, the dozen-plus startups racing to automate phone trees may be building features that general AI models will absorb within 18 months.
Marianne Johnson has 5,000 engineers on her team at Cox Automotive. She doesn’t know how many she’ll need next year.
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