Matador AI review. AI agents that answer dealer leads and keep your CRM

DriveCentric asks a dealer to change the CRM. Matador AI says the opposite. Keep your CRM, and we will work on top of it.

Five AI agents text new leads, run the conversation on live inventory, bring back customers who went quiet, answer calls and work the website chat. The company is from Montreal. It started in 2019 and says it works with 1,500 dealerships in North America.

I did not work inside the system. Only customers can log in, there is no trial, and the price is not public. I studied the Matador site, a Canadian government register, company press releases, the DealerRefresh forum page, a G2 summary and sponsored Car Dealership Guy episodes. Every picture below comes from the company site. These are marketing mockups, not live screens.

In short#

• Matador is a Canadian layer on top of the dealer's CRM. Five agents work in text, email, voice and website chat. They also answer on Facebook and Instagram. They write the results back into the CRM.
• The company sells best through carmakers. In 2025 Nissan USA made it a preferred partner for AI lead follow-up. Since August 2026 Stellantis pays dealers back 100% of the cost of five Matador products from co-op funds.
• There are almost no independent dealer reviews. The DealerRefresh forum says in plain words that no member has shared numbers or rollout stories. The 4.8 rating on G2 rests on 47 reviews.
• The most honest material about the product comes from the company itself. In its sample monthly report, 322 new conversations gave only 6 booked visits. The AI's median reply time was 15 minutes. The team's median was 3 minutes.
• The result numbers come from the company. One number, 87%, means two different things on two pages of the site.

Where Matador came from#

The legal company is registered in Quebec. The company page says "Built in Montréal". The file for AI search tools on the same site names the town of Laval, a suburb of Montreal. Press releases give 2019 as the start year.

The co-founder and CEO is Nick Cossette. Kevin Esmezyan is chief product officer, and Ayoub El Khattabi is chief technology officer (company page).

I found no venture rounds in open sources. Only one outside source of money is confirmed. It is 280,000 Canadian dollars of repayable funding from the agency Canada Economic Development. The contract is dated February 7, 2025 (Government of Canada register). The register says the money is for marketing and sales growth.

In December 2025 Matador said it was on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list. The company gives its place as 238 and its revenue growth as 339% from 2021 to 2024 (press release on Business Wire). Companies on this list have at least $5 million in revenue. So this business lives on sales, not on investor money.

The company gives different sizes at different times. In November 2025, the Nissan release said "more than 1,000 dealerships" and "more than 100 employees." Today the site says 1,500+. These are the company's own words, and you cannot check them.

The main screen. Revenue on autopilot#

The home page title is "Revenue on Autopilot," with the line "AI Agents for Car Dealerships" under it. Below is a promise. No lead waits, and no deal dies quietly. Every lead gets an answer in 30 seconds, and the agents work it until it books.

Next to it is a G2 badge with a 4.8 rating. Above everything is a banner about Stellantis. The company puts the carmaker deal above its own product, and this is a smart choice. A dealer finds it easier to say yes to a tool that the brand paid for.

Five agents. Each one owns one moment#

The site splits the work with a lead into five parts and gives each part its own agent. The company says each agent is measured like a salesperson. Appointments, deals, revenue.

• AI Engage. It texts a new lead in the first 30 seconds. The first message depends on the lead source and the text of the request. A buyer, a seller and a trade-in customer each get a different message. Then it sends up to 6–8 messages over two weeks, each with a new reason. When the customer answers, it passes the talk on.
• AI Reply. It runs the conversation on live inventory and prices. If the exact car is gone, it offers the next best one and books a visit. It goes quiet when a salesperson joins the thread. The company calls it an "AI BDC." A BDC is the dealership team that answers leads and sets appointments.
• AI Follow-Up. It brings back quiet leads for up to 180 days. Every day it ranks the quiet conversations by their chances. Then it writes with a reason, for example "the trade-in bonus ends on the 31st."
• Call AI. Four voice agents. The receptionist works with no phone menu. The voicemail agent turns a missed call into a lead. The sales agent knows the inventory, and the service agent books straight into Xtime.
• Chat AI. Website chat. It answers about stock and price and takes the contact.

Around the agents there is the usual set of tools for customer messages. One inbox for all channels, text blasts, video messages, review invites, service reminders, a browser extension, and apps for iOS and Android.

AI Follow-Up needs a closer look. The company says it has no sequence builder and no scripts, only one on/off switch. The agent decides who to write to, when, and with what reason. For a manager this is easy.

But it also means that the model, not the dealer, sets the rules for repeat messages. Ask about this before you sign.

Calls. Four agents on one number#

Matador also sells voice, not only text. The Call AI page promises an answer on the first ring, with no "press 1" menu and no hold music. The company says Call AI has handled more than 500,000 calls.

Here the voice agent is not the main product. It continues the text conversation.

The company bets that one system with one memory of the customer should run every channel, from calls to chat. Pam and other voice startups work the other way, they start with the phone. If you lose most deals on service calls, compare Matador with them. If you lose them on internet leads, compare it with Conversica and Impel.

Not a CRM, a layer on top of the CRM#

The main line in Matador's sales pitch is "Matador is not a CRM, it integrates with yours". The company even gives away a CRM checklist with 130 points. It ends with a question. Should you change your CRM, or add AI to the one you have?

A dealer is afraid of the move more than of the price. A CRM switch takes months and breaks the habits of the sales team. Matador removes this fear with one sentence. Compare DriveCentric, which asks you to replace the whole system. Dealers on forums argue a lot about the cost of that move.

The site gives two different numbers of integrations. The footer of every page says "62 and counting".

The file for AI search tools speaks of 14 CRM and DMS platforms, grouped by how deep the link goes. Certified partner, two-way sync, or service data from the DMS only. The list includes VinSolutions, eLead, DealerSocket, Tekion, Reynolds & Reynolds, CDK, PBS, Dealertrack and Activix, plus the Xtime scheduler. How deep the link to your own system goes matters more than the number of logos.

How Matador sells. Through carmakers#

There is no price on the site. In a sponsored Car Dealership Guy episode, listeners got the first month free. But the main sales channel is different.

• Nissan. In November 2025 Nissan USA named Matador an official preferred partner in a new category, AI lead nurturing (MarTech Series). The company says it has worked with Nissan dealers since 2020, and the review took about four months.
• Stellantis. On August 11, 2026, Matador said that Stellantis dealers can get 100% of the cost back from co-op funds for five products. These are an AI sales agent, voice agents for sales and service, voicemail and chat (press release, Automotive World). The small print under the release adds a condition. The payback depends on how much money is left in the dealer's co-op fund.
• Honda, Acura, BMW. The program page offers certified chat for Honda and Acura. The BMW program says "coming soon."

For a buyer this is a good sign. A carmaker checks a vendor for rules, integrations and reporting before it lets the vendor near its dealers. It does not replace dealer reviews. But it is an outside check, and young competitors do not have it.

The sample report. Six bookings from 322 conversations#

The most interesting thing on the Matador site is on the AI Scorecard page. This is a monthly report. The AI reads every conversation of the store and writes where the dealer loses deals. The company shows a sample of a real report from a franchise dealer that uses all the products. The names are hidden.

Its numbers do not match the tone of the home page.

I see three lessons here. First, the AI does not make replies faster in a live conversation. The team's median is five times shorter. The AI wins on the slow tail, when a person answers hours later or never. The "30 seconds" promise is about the first message to a new lead, not about the whole conversation.

Second, the agents earned 457 "AI wins," but only six bookings. The page does not say how the company counts a "win." You cannot compare vendors on such metrics. Compare them only on booked visits and on sales.

Third, and this one speaks for Matador. The report names the causes on its own.

Four required topics in the AI settings were left empty. Price, down payment, credit and trade-in. The team sent zero videos, and three staff members closed zero tasks. Part of the failure belongs to the dealer, who did not set up the agent. The company itself shows that the product gives 2% when nobody manages it.

Numbers on the home page. One number, two meanings#

The home page has a block called "Numbers From Real Stores, Not a Slide Deck." It has four numbers.

• 86.4% of the appointments that Matador set end with a visit.
• 93.6% of the sales at one partner store went through Matador conversations.
• +256 internet appointments in one quarter.
• 87% "Faster Response Time" at Easterns Automotive Group, across 14 stores.

The sales page shows the same 87% at Easterns with a different label. There it is the share of AI-set appointments that showed up. One number at one customer means two different things. Most likely this is a layout mistake, not a lie. But this is how numbers look when nobody outside has checked them.

The other cases also come from the company or from paid media.

• Jim Ellis Kia. Three people handle 700 leads a month. The store books 90% of service callers, and service retention grew from 30% to 50%. General manager Mike Martucci says this in a Car Dealership Guy episode that Matador paid for.
• Tim Short Auto Group. From 40 to 400 visits a month, as internet sales director Chris Walls says in a video on the Matador channel.
• Rosen Automotive. Conversion went from 9–11% to almost 50%. This is the title of a video on the company channel.
• Average across customers. A 25% lift in pipeline conversion, as the company says in the Nissan and Stellantis releases.

What customers say#

On G2 Matador has 4.8 out of 5. Different pages show 45 or 47 reviews. The G2 summary says 81% of reviewers work in automotive and 63% come from small companies with up to 50 people.

The reviews are short and full of praise. People like the night replies, when the team is not at work. They also like that the tool is easy and connects to other systems. The G2 page does not open without a login, so I rely on search results.

On the DealerRefresh forum Matador has a sponsor page. In the whole history of the forum there is one mention, and it is about a podcast at a trade show. The forum itself says that no member has shared performance data, ROI results, rollout stories or critical views.

The reviews on the company site are short too. A customer named Floyd from a large national dealer group writes about a higher internet closing rate. Layton from a family group in Texas says leads now get faster answers in sales and service. The company does not give last names.

I found no long independent dealer reviews. I found no complaints either.

Problems and risks#

Open sources show no lawsuits, data leaks or public complaints. The weak points are elsewhere.

The company told almost everything about the product itself. Cases, average numbers and the customer count come from its releases, videos and paid episodes. Outside sources confirm only the legal company, the government loan and the carmaker programs.

The agent decides on its own when to write again. The company says AI Follow-Up is the only agent that is "allowed to double-text". It talks about quiet hours and a stop after the customer answers. For texts there is a filter called Matador Shield that checks outgoing messages against the rules.

But in the US a dealer can be sued under the TCPA law for texts sent without the customer's consent. The dealer carries this risk, not the vendor.

The AI may not say it is AI. I did not find on the site whether the agent tells customers that it is AI. The company praises a voice that sounds "human-like." Rules about this differ by state and country. Check them with a lawyer.

What is checked and what is not#

What to ask the company before you sign#

1. Price. How much does each agent cost per month, and the full set? What will my brand's program cover, and what happens when the co-op money runs out?
2. Integration. How deep is the link to my CRM and DMS, certified or one-way? What goes back into the CRM, and in what form?
3. Report. Show me an AI Scorecard from a dealer of my size. How many bookings and visits, not "AI wins"?
4. Speed. What is the AI Reply median time in a live conversation? Why is it 15 minutes in your sample?
5. Repeat messages. How many times does the agent write to one customer, by what rules, and can I set them myself?
6. Disclosure and consent. Does the agent say it is AI? Who is responsible for text consent under the TCPA?
7. Cases. Name three dealers on my CRM that I can talk to without you on the call.

What to take for yourself, even if you do not buy Matador#

Sell on top, not instead. Matador removes the main objection with one line, "we work inside your CRM". If your product or process can sit on top of what the customer already has, say this first.

Look for brand money. Stellantis and Nissan pay for dealer AI because they see a fast lead reply as part of their buyer's experience. Check the programs of your brands before you pay yourself.

Fill in the empty topics. In the sample report the AI failed on price, down payment, credit and trade-in, because the dealer gave it no answers. Any agent, bought or your own, writes only what you taught it.

Count bookings, not activity. 457 "wins" and 6 bookings in one report. Decide in advance which result you pay for, and look only at that.

Videos worth watching#

• Inside Matador AI. What the Fastest-Growing Dealers Are Doing Differently. Jennifer Suzuki channel, 40 minutes. The product chief explains why AI works at one dealer and fails at another.
• Tim Short Auto Group Went From 40 to 400 Appointments a Month. Matador channel, three and a half minutes. A short case from the internet sales director.
• Are Car Dealerships Ready for AI? w/ Matador.ai. Marc Lavoie channel, 53 minutes. An early podcast with the team. You can see where the company started.

Who Matador fits, and who should look elsewhere#

The strong side of Matador is that it does not ask you to change your system. The agents sit on top of the CRM. They cover the first reply, the conversation, the return of quiet leads and the calls. For Stellantis and Nissan dealers the brand may pay part of the cost. The company lives on revenue, not on venture money.

It even shows the weak points of its product in its own sample report.

The weak points are clear too. There is no price. There are almost no independent dealer reviews, and the main cases were told on paid media. A few numbers on the site do not match each other. The model runs the repeat messages, but the dealer carries the legal risk.

Look at Matador if you have a CRM you do not want to change, a lot of internet leads and no strong BDC. This is even more true if you sell Stellantis or Nissan. If your main loss is in service calls, first compare it with voice agents. If you plan to change your CRM anyway, look at DriveCentric and Podium.