The Reynolds and Reynolds Co. launched Spark AI, an artificial intelligence data layer that powers all Reynolds AI products. Reynolds says Spark AI eliminates silos created by AI tools and provides a broader data set, resulting in smarter tools.

The company is leveraging AI and machine learning to help the automotive retail industry advance.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are just beginning to come into their own,” said Reynolds President Chris Walsh. “As a result, some still struggle to get disparate applications to coordinate and function together as a whole to get the most benefit out of AI across their systems.

“At Reynolds, we have long approached designing our products to work seamlessly with each other. This forward-thinking approach has made it possible to implement widespread AI benefits across our entire Retail Management System, enabling dealers to maximize productivity, strengthen customer interactions, and make more educated decisions.”

At Reynolds Retail Summit, four AI products leveraging the single shared Spark AI data layer were released to deliver smarter, outcome-driven results:

• Conversation AI

Sales managers can have hot cases from phone calls served up to them automatically. They no longer have to review every call one by one to uncover coaching opportunities, upset customers, or those ready to buy. Conversation AI automatically transcribes each call, summarizes it, and tags it with a category directly in the customer relationship management system, simplifying phone call follow-up and conversion.

• Engagement AI

This product augments the often frustrating task of chasing down unresponsive leads through conversational text messages with prospects as leads come into the dealership. Engagement AI prioritizes high-value leads when it identifies customers ready to buy, then connects them with staff via instant notifications.

• Prospect AI

Prospect AI identifies customers with a high propensity to buy and matches them with vehicles in the dealership’s inventory that best fit their situations. It also goes a step further to determine how they will buy – finance, lease or cash. The Spark AI data layer leverages phases of life, major events, and a host of other factors and variables to make the determinations.

• Merchandising AI

Compelling vehicle descriptions and professional-looking photos are major factors in online conversions, but they can take a tremendous amount of time and resources. Merchandising AI is designed to eliminate guesswork, manual creation, and copy-and-paste entries by creating descriptions with key vehicle features pulled directly from the vehicle identification number. It also updates image backgrounds to remove distractions and automatically places overlays on images for consistency.

To maximize the impact of Merchandising AI, Reynolds also announced  the merger of ReconTRAC and AutoVision. ReconTRAC has been renamed ReconVision and is now a part of the AutoVision platform. The change brings all vehicle-management tools together in one platform and further broadens the Spark AI data layer.

“Spark AI helps dealers solve many of the problems they face on a daily basis,” concluded Walsh. “Right now, dealerships are experiencing staffing shortages and expectations of doing as well, if not better, than they ever have before. Spark AI helps them do this by making their people more efficient and productive. It is ushering in a new way to leverage AI in automotive retail.”