AI and car sales, October 3. Toyota hybrids close in on GM

This issue has 19 news items, seven with a full analysis and twelve in short, plus ten headlines of the day.

Toyota hybrids close in on GM while gasoline costs $4.43#

GM sold 670,974 vehicles in the US in the third quarter, down 5.5%. Toyota sold 633,223, up 0.6%. The gap is now 37,751 vehicles. Hybrids and other electrified models gave Toyota 57.4% of its volume. GM's electric vehicle sales fell about 62%.

Regular gasoline cost $4.43 a gallon on average in September. A year ago it was $3.20. The average price of a new vehicle was $50,089 in August. Cox Automotive forecast that Hyundai Motor Group would sell more than Ford in a quarter for the first time.

My opinion. The buyer counts money and is not loyal to a brand. Gasoline costs over a third more, so people go where a hybrid is in stock. A salesperson who starts with trim levels misses this moment.

I would put one question into the first conversation. How far do you drive in a month, and what do you pay for fuel? The agent calculates the saving for each model before the call. The human talks with the customer about the decision.

Source CBT News

Buyers come to the showroom and ask for the AI assistant by name#

Jen Suzuki is the founder of ZukiTalk. She told CBT News how dealers adopt AI. At one dealership the AI voice assistant said the name of the store wrong. Nobody noticed, because nobody listened to the recorded calls.

Her second point is about customers. They get used to the assistant and ask for it by name in the showroom. The staff have no training on what to answer. Suzuki advises dealers to present the assistant as a team member and then pass the customer to a human.

Her product calls service customers and goes through the technician's inspection report with them. She says the customer approves the work in one minute. Before, it took 20 to 45 minutes.

My opinion. An agent without control is the same as a salesperson without control. The record exists, but nobody listens to it. If nobody reviews the record of each contact, you do not have a sales department.

I would name one person who listens to ten agent conversations each day. I would also decide in advance who meets a customer who came "to see the assistant". The agent brings the customer to the door. After that the human works.

Source CBT News

70% of buyers walked in, and the dealer knew nothing about them#

Peter Cooper is the president of Lexus of Lehigh Valley. He told CBT News about the record sales month of his store. About 70% of sales came from walk-in customers. A walk-in is a person who comes to the showroom with no appointment. The dealer had no record of digital contact with these people.

The customer often knows what they want, but the purchase still takes four or five hours. Cooper advises dealers to remove obstacles from the deal and not to copy Carvana. He says the same about AI. First decide how the process must change, then buy the tool.

My opinion. A customer with no digital record is still a prepared customer. This person chose the car online, but not on the dealer's website. The four hours in the showroom go to paperwork and waiting, not to the decision.

I would give this part to agents. The form, the trade-in valuation and the loan calculation are ready before the visit. The human keeps the test drive and the negotiation.

Source CBT News

Apple limits full disk access for AI agents#

Apple says it will tighten the Full Disk Access setting on macOS. This setting opens files, mail, messages and browser history to an app. Apple says a part of developers use this access in ways that put everything on the computer at risk. The risk grows as agents become more autonomous. Apple gave no details of the changes.

TechCrunch reminds readers of a recent case. An Inc. columnist reported that the Meta Muse app on the Mac read a user's private messages. Meta disputes this.

My opinion. The same happens at a dealership. A salesperson installs an AI assistant on a laptop and opens everything to it. That laptop holds customer passports, loan applications and private chats with customers.

An agent must work inside the company system, where each action is logged and can be undone. The salesperson's own laptop is the wrong place for it. Tomorrow I would ask the team which AI programs they use and what those programs can access.

Source TechCrunch

A Salesforce co-founder asks why anyone should log into the CRM#

At its Dreamforce conference Salesforce showed a set of ready agents. One agent works on the website and leads the visitor to a deal. Another one is a voice agent. Co-founder Parker Harris said on stage, "Why should I ever log into Salesforce again? Maybe you never will."

The example with numbers came from Adecco, a staffing company. Its voice agent works day and night and handles 2.6 million conversations a year. The company says its recruiters save 35 to 40% of their time. The article gives no prices.

My opinion. The CRM as a window where a salesperson types in each call is going away. That is right. Salespeople never liked this work, and that is why the customer cards are empty.

The agent must keep the record, by itself and for each contact. The human needs a ready summary before the conversation, not one more program. I would stop measuring how full the CRM is. I would measure the number of contacts recorded with no work from the salesperson.

Source CX Today

The "AI sales engineer" job now has listings and scholarships#

The company Clay introduced the term "GTM engineer" in 2023. GTM means go-to-market, the way a company sells. This person builds automated revenue processes and does not do sales tasks by hand. TechCrunch writes that about 100 job listings of this kind appear each month. In September Clay announced a $1 million fund to train these engineers.

My opinion. I call this AI Sales Engineering, and I build the same thing in the car business. Sales is engineering, not motivation. The software market has confirmed it with jobs and money.

A dealer needs this role as much as a software company does. I would look for this person inside the dealership. It is a strong sales manager or a salesperson who likes to break a process into steps.

Source TechCrunch

BMW promises AI-based sales in Europe from mid-2027#

BMW presented its roadmap. From mid-2027 a new AI-based retail sales model will start in the EU. The company says the model will adapt to the customer through the whole purchase, from the test drive to service. The article gives no details.

The same plan cuts the number of internal divisions and management roles by 20% by mid-2027. BMW deliveries fell 4.9% in the second quarter. In China they fell 30.2%.

My opinion. The carmaker wants to lead the customer itself, from the test drive to service. The one who holds the customer record owns the customer. A dealer with no record of each contact will be a handover point by 2027.

I would not wait for a program from the brand. I would put my own agent on the first answer now and build my own history for each customer.

Source WardsAuto

In short#

Tesla grows in the world and falls at home. It delivered 486,532 vehicles in the quarter, against 497,000 a year ago. Cox Automotive estimates that its US sales fell about 20%. The cost of ownership holds demand, not the brand name, and a salesperson must know how to calculate it. TechCrunch

A Chinese car is number one in Britain. The UK registered 350,518 new cars in September, up 12.1%. Electric cars took 28.3% of the market, and the Jaecoo 7 led with 10,813 cars. Buyers change a familiar brand for a new one easily, so the dealer who answers first wins. SMMT

Honda dealers have stock for 16 days. American Honda sold 392,341 vehicles in the quarter, up 9.3%. Hybrids made 53% of CR-V sales, and dealers hold 16 to 17 days of stock of key models. With stock this low, I would let an agent manage the waiting list and update each customer before they ask. CBT News

Ford dealers have pickups for 40 days. The company's target is 50 to 60 days, and F-150 production in Dearborn stopped on September 24 because of a supplier. Ford CEO Jim Farley says the problem is fixed. I would record each person who asked for an F-150 and left, and the agent would write to them on delivery day. CBT News

The US government promises $1,300 less per car. The fuel economy target for 2031 went down from 50.4 to 34.9 miles per gallon. A CBT News column cites the government estimate that the average car will cost $1,300 less. This is an estimate and not a price tag, so I would not promise a customer a discount that the showroom does not have. CBT News

Rivian grew 45% in a quarter. It delivered 19,248 vehicles, and the growth came from the new R2 model, which starts at $60,000. The forecast for 2026 is 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles. One model at the right price changes a quarter, so a salesperson must know the price of each new competitor. TechCrunch

A startup wants to rent out cars from the dealer's lot. MyMonthlyCar tests this with seven US dealerships. It takes 10% from the dealer and 10% from the customer. The idea is sound, because a car on the lot loses value each day, but I would calculate insurance and wear first. TechCrunch

A Mercedes service department cut repair time by a third. The service director of Benzel-Busch in New Jersey told WardsAuto that AI helps technicians write to customers and prepare warranty documents. He says the repair order time fell from 6.5 to 4.3 days. The article is from September 28. Again the gain is in routine work, and again one number can prove it. WardsAuto

Ford will certify used commercial vehicles. The Ford Pro Advantage program starts on October 6 at more than 700 centers. It covers vehicles that are 2 to 3 years old with 30,000 to 70,000 miles. A business customer needs a vehicle that does not stand in repair, so the warranty sells better than a discount. WardsAuto

Anthropic puts $100 million into deployment engineers. The company says it will train 10,000 engineers by the end of 2027 to deploy AI at client companies. The first participants include Accenture, McKinsey and Morgan Stanley. Everyone has the models, but few people can build them into a process, and dealers have the same shortage. Anthropic

Nobody opens a third of the software that companies buy. HubSpot cites a 2026 figure from Zylo in its software buying checklist. On average, 36% of SaaS licenses in a company are not used. Before I buy one more AI tool, I would list the programs my sales team opened in the last month. HubSpot

The Airbnb CEO does not believe in a chatbot as a shop window. Brian Chesky told TechCrunch that a chatbot is not the right interface for e-commerce. Airbnb launched AI-powered search this week. Car buyers also want to look at photos and prices, and the agent is there to answer at night and book the visit. TechCrunch

Hype of the day#

These are headlines with no analysis. The largest number of outlets write about them, or the source did not open.

• Business Insider. Apple is adding new privacy safeguards for Mac users as AI agents get more powerful, 119 outlets
• Bloomberg. Ford Narrowly Avoids Falling Behind Hyundai as US Sales Drop, 51 outlets
• WSJ. Three OpenAI Researchers Fired for Allegedly Sharing AI Safety Information, 14 outlets
• Forbes. Jensen Huang's Fortune Breaks $200 Billion As Nvidia Stock Reaches Record High, 14 outlets
• Reuters. GM hangs on to US sales crown, but Toyota closes in, 8 outlets
• Business Insider. Tesla sales smash Wall Street's expectations, 6 outlets
• Reuters. UK new car sales rise 12% in September as EVs and Chinese brands gain ground, 6 outlets
• CNBC. 'The hottest skill on Wall Street'. Demand for this AI ability jumped 1,721% as banks embrace agents, 3 outlets
• The Verge. OpenAI DevDay 2026, the biggest news and announcements, 3 outlets
• WSJ. American Car Buyers Rediscover Sedans, Small SUVs as Gas Prices Bite, 1 outlet