Real Intelligence

I’ve never had much luck with artificial intelligence. Siri, though I read somewhere that her voice was provided by a Texas actress, has never been able to make much sense of my Southern accent. I don’t know how the recently released version will do, but I probably won’t bother. 

As a professional writer, I’ve never used Grammarly. Spellcheck and my bookworm brain will do, thank you. And a thesaurus works just fine for wording inspiration when I get stuck. 

I don’t discount the oft-repeated refrain that if one doesn’t tap AI to help her do her work, she’ll be left in the dust. I can see it has practical applications that can open up efficiencies and fill knowledge gaps. Still, I’m wary because I know the information it provides is only as good as whatever information it was “trained” on. 

As a longtime journalist, I learned long ago the industry maxim to conduct a fact-check if “your mother tells you she loves you,” let alone a bot. 

A business must keep up with the times, though, of course. If AI can give a dealership an edge or at least help it keep up with the competition, its potential should be investigated. Different applications may be better fits for some stores than others based on any number of factors. 

At the same time, I don’t see AI, robots or any other technology replacing human reasoning, relational skills and local market knowledge, among many other capabilities. Thought leaders I follow point to the depth that only we can provide, and since the car business is often referred to as the people business, it’s all the more important to maintain its most valuable asset. 

Finance-and-insurance training expert Rick McCormick of Reahard & Associates expounds on this idea in his recent column. I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment. People are actually even more important to dealership operations, given today’s technology, he argues. After all, machines can’t do it all.