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Blogs · July 2026

What should AI never do in a motor business?

It should never invent a price, promise a date, talk finance it is not authorised to talk, or stand between a customer and a person. Everything else is fair game.

The short answer: it should never make a promise you have to honour. No invented price, no made-up delivery date, no finance advice, no claim about a vehicle's history or condition that nobody checked. It answers from what you have actually told it, it books, it follows up, and the moment it is out of its depth it puts the customer through to a person. Get a supplier to state that boundary in one sentence, or do not put them on your phone.

The four things it must never do

1. Invent a price. Not on the car, not on the hire, not on the part exchange. It gives the prices you have set and the vehicles you actually have. A number pulled out of the air is a number an unhappy customer will hold you to.

2. Give finance advice. It can tell a customer what products you offer and that a person will talk them through it. It does not recommend, it does not advise on affordability, and it does not tell anyone what they can borrow. That is a regulated conversation and it belongs to a human.

3. Make claims about a vehicle it cannot back up. Condition, history, previous owners, whether that mark on the wing is a scratch or a dent. If it is not in your own data, the agent does not know, and it should say so rather than reassure.

4. Trap a customer. If someone wants a person, they get a person. An agent that makes a human hard to reach is not saving you money, it is losing you the customer with the most to spend.

Why this matters more in motor than most sectors

Because communication is already the thing your customers complain about.

The Motor Ombudsman opened 18,570 used-car complaints in 2025, up 14% on the year before. And the biggest single driver was not the car. Customer service accounted for 40% of used-car complaints, which the Ombudsman explicitly describes as including "consumers not receiving responses to their queries when contacting businesses".

Customer service was the largest single driver of used-car complaints at 40%, and not being answered is part of it. Which means an AI agent has an obvious job, and an obvious way to make things worse. Doing it badly, by fobbing customers off with a machine that cannot help and will not hand over, would turn a complaint into a scandal.

What it should absolutely do

  • Answer. Every call, email, chat and message, day or night, in your voice. This is the whole problem: 18% of the top 1,000 UK retailers did not reply to an email enquiry at all in Auto Trader's mystery shop, and 12% replied by neither email nor phone.
  • Follow up. Only 36% of retailers attempted a follow-up within 48 hours of a forecourt visit, on a purchase that takes an average of 87 days to make. The agent does the chasing nobody has time for.
  • Book. Test drives, appointments, collections, into the systems you already run.
  • Hand over. Fast, with the details captured, whenever the conversation needs a person.

It is not there to replace your salespeople

And it should not try. 95% of buyers still want an in-person experience, and almost two in three turn up on the forecourt unannounced. The customer standing in front of your salesperson is worth more than any automation, which is exactly why that salesperson should not be stuck on the phone.

The agent takes the overflow and the out-of-hours. Your people take the customer.

Headcount is the alternative, and it is not cheap. The IMI puts the average vehicle technician salary at £40,128, up 13% in two years. Adding people is a legitimate answer to a coverage problem. It is just the expensive one, and it still does not answer the phone on Sunday.

The one-sentence test

Before you sign anything, make the supplier finish this sentence: "Our agent will never..."

If they cannot, they have not thought about it, and you will be the one explaining it to the Ombudsman.

Frequently asked questions

Can an AI agent give finance advice to a car buyer?

No. It can explain what you offer and hand the customer to a person. Advice and affordability are regulated conversations for a human.

Can it quote a price for a part exchange?

It can capture the details and book the valuation. It does not put a number on a car nobody has looked at.

What happens if a customer just wants to speak to someone?

They get put through. An agent that makes a human hard to reach is doing damage, not saving money.

Does it replace the sales team?

No. It covers the calls and messages nobody reached, so the team is free for the customer in front of them.

Sources

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