Placing AI at your fingertips: Meet your Co-Driver
AI has very much been the buzz word of 2024. But beyond the hype, there are some incredible applications for AI in the automotive retail world, many of which are yet to be truly realised.
In our latest webinar, we explored how retailers can utilise AI and shared how we’ll be putting AI at the fingertips of all retailers.
We’ve got a long history of AI at Auto Trader, stretching back almost 10 years. Our first AI model was our Valuations model, which we’ve enhanced and still use for our Valuations (including Trended Valuations) today.
Where can AI support retailers?
We asked retailers what they wanted from AI and the answers painted a very clear picture. Most retailers indicated that help with advert creation and improving their online advertising were the top things that they want from AI.
This is hardly surprising when we consider that it takes a retailer, on average, 28 minutes to create an advert. So, if AI were able to do this effectively, it would free up a huge amount of time for retailers.
Despite the time savings, many retailers are sceptical about AI, with 40% indicating they are yet to use AI. Many are unsure how to use it but also many retailers have seen poor implementations of AI tools, resulting in sub-standard adverts.
Those retailers who have used AI do see the benefits in terms of time saved, but existing tools are not created specifically for this market. For example, many retailers highlighted that when using off-the shelf AI solutions to generate their advert descriptions, key details and important vehicle specifications were missed completely.
As our Chief Product Officer Karolina Edwards-Smajda says, “AI is only as good as the data sitting behind it”. So, without the right data e.g. vehicle taxonomy, key selling points of vehicles, vehicle imagery etc. the benefits of AI to retailers may be limited.
Meet your Co-Driver
More than Artificial Intelligence, this is Auto Trader intelligence. This is your new toolbox of AI-powered features that make retailing simple. Empowering you to do more in less time.
Co-Driver AI is underpinned by Auto Trader’s wealth of vehicle data and consumer insights. With 1.3 million vehicle observations every day, and the view of 70 million car buyers’ behaviour every month, we are in a unique position to lead the way in creating new opportunities for retailers with AI-powered technology. Co-Driver will create the difference between AI describing a vehicle and your vehicle.
Co-Driver’s 3 initial features
Co-Driver will be launched with 3 initial features, each designed to make creating perfectly tailored and engaging adverts simpler for retailers.
The features will be rolled out in 2 phases in the coming months, with Smart Image Management, the first of the 3 features, launching in early November. Two more powerful features, AI Generated Descriptions and Vehicle Highlights, will then be launched in early 2025.
Ultimately, Co-driver aims to do what AI is best at, giving retailers more time to do what they are best at. As Peter Jones, Principal Product Lead at Auto Trader, stated on our webinar “Ultimately, people don’t buy cars from the machines, they buy cars from people”.
Check out our webinar where we share more about how we’re bringing AI to you with Co-Driver
