vAuto Digital Assistant adds Amazon Alexa skill
vAuto’s First-Ever Digital Assistant for Dealers Drives Efficiency and Advantage
Monday March 12, 2018
Article Highlights
- vAuto is announcing another industry first—Nexi, the automotive industry’s first Digital Assistant for dealerships. Nexi will debut at the 2018 NADA Show in Las Vegas.
- Through a skill for Amazon Alexa, available on Echo Devices, Nexi helps dealers access their inventory, sell cars and generate profit. The cloud-based service is capable of answering a full range of questions on inventory, local market data, operations and more.
- “Dealers are incredibly busy and we’ve arrived at a time when voice-enabled assistance can help them multi-task and make the right decisions more efficiently and effectively,” said Dale Pollak, founder of vAuto and Executive Vice President of Cox Automotive. “Nexi is the industry’s first skill that helps dealers know the critical conditions and tasks that need their attention now."
OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL (March 12, 2018) – vAuto is announcing another industry first—Nexi, the automotive industry’s first Digital Assistant for dealerships. Nexi will debut at the 2018 NADA Show in Las Vegas.
Through a skill for Amazon Alexa, available on Echo Devices, Nexi helps dealers access their inventory, sell cars and generate profit. The cloud-based service is capable of answering a full range of questions on inventory, local market data, operations and more.
“Dealers are incredibly busy and we’ve arrived at a time when voice-enabled assistance can help them multi-task and make the right decisions more efficiently and effectively,” said Dale Pollak, founder of vAuto and Executive Vice President of Cox Automotive. “Nexi is the industry’s first skill that helps dealers know the critical conditions and tasks that need their attention now. Nexi provides this information in the most efficient manner possible—by voice through the Amazon Alexa skill, as well as emails, text messages and notices within vAuto applications.”
The Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review published a study of more than 3,000 business executives, managers, and analysts in 112 countries and 21 industries, called Reshaping Business With Artificial Intelligence. Of the findings:
- Eighty-four percent of respondents say AI will enable them to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage.
- Eighty-three percent believe AI is a strategic priority for their businesses today.
- Sixty-three percent believe the pressure to reduce costs will require their organizations to use AI in the next five years.
“Retail automotive is ripe for AI,” Pollak said. “Thanks to margin compression, dealers are working harder than ever while making less money. The answer to this problem is increased operational efficiencies, and Nexi helps dealers take a significant step in this direction.”
The Nexi AI-enhanced service will be offered at no additional cost to all vAuto customers who use Stockwave, vAuto’s proprietary solution to help dealers analyze their current inventory.
With Stockwave, Nexi can alert dealers when wholesale vehicles that meet a dealer’s profile and profit objectives are available. Over time, Nexi will also work with vAuto’s Provision and Conquest solutions to call out general inventory management tasks that need attention or are overdue.