The 10-Second Version (AI Summary)
What happened: Daniel Kim and Kyle Mountsier broke down how dealer groups can set AI ground rules ahead of their ASOTU CON West workshop.
Why it matters: Employees across the store are already building AI tools, with or without a policy.
What to do: Scope data access by role, and decide where a human must always stay involved.
AI-generated and reviewed by the ASOTU team.
On our team, the first and last touch of every piece still belongs to a person.
We've tried automating the image, the intro and the sign-off. Something about the beginning and end of a piece needs a human touch every time. That loose guardrail keeps our content moving in a warm direction, and it frees AI to carry more of the middle.
That's a framework, and on today's episode Kyle and Daniel Kim of Barnes Crossing Auto Group talked through what one looks like inside a dealer group, ahead of the workshop they're leading together at ASOTU CON West.
What does freedom within a framework look like at a dealership?
What happens when there's no AI policy?
Daniel put it plainly: without a policy, people are going to do whatever they want. And they're already building. He said the people walking up to him with homemade tools often come from places like a store's fixed ops department. Earlier this week, we looked at Goldman Sachs drawing hard lines on who gets which AI tools. Inside a dealer group, the harder question is what each person can reach once they're in.
"He's like, 'Hey, I built this thing,' and I'm like, 'What? How did you do that?'"
Daniel Kim, Director of Operations, Barnes Crossing Auto Group
How should dealer groups hand out data access?
Daniel's approach is to give people the proper data access through the right sources, with user rights management on top. Your service manager can build reporting without being able to pull payroll data on your salespeople. The riskiest setup is an employee who logs into the DMS, downloads a pile of reports and starts building on their own.
Does a framework slow people down?
At ASOTU, it has done the opposite. Kyle knows what everyone on our team is building. When someone heads down a path that won't work, he moves them back onto the desired one instead of telling them they did it wrong. The team gets more efficient, and people get to create things they couldn't have imagined a year ago.
"Here's the framework. You have freedom to operate in the framework that we provided you."
Where should humans stay in the loop?
Kyle's wife recently called a doctor's office with a real question about one of their kids. She could never get past the AI to reach a person. It kept sending her online to book an appointment. Every framework needs a line that marks where a human picks up, and in retail auto that line sits at the relationship. Don't outsource your core competency.
Daniel and Kyle lead "3 High-Level AI Strategies You Can Implement Today" at ASOTU CON West.
The workshop is at 3:20 p.m. on Nov. 18 at Plug HQ in Los Angeles. It covers three things:
running AI as a team tool
asking better questions of your data
how AI on the web finds your dealership
It's one of two AI sessions that day, after the 1:40 p.m. panel "Rewired: How Early AI Adopters Are Building the Dealership of Tomorrow." Every attendee also gets a ticket to AutoMobility LA on Nov. 19. The full conversation is on today's episode.
