On the eve of their annual golf tourney, the Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario issued a press release announcing a new strategic partnership with Flitehouse, an AI tech firm based in Ontario.
The announcement gave the association an opportunity to promote it to their dealer members at the golf tourney, and they later sent them follow up information. Flitehouse offers AI-powered agents built exclusively for car dealers.
“This is exactly what our members have been asking for,” said Todd Bourgon, CEO, Executive Director of the MVRO, in a press release to dealers. “Dealers are looking for smart, scalable ways to manage rising staffing costs, reduce turnover friction, and harness AI in a way that actually drives the bottom line. MVRO is proud to bring industry-leading innovation to Ontario’s retail automotive landscape through this partnership with FliteHouse.”
In an interview with Canadian auto dealer, Bourgon said dealers are being approached by many AI vendors. “They don’t know where to start and they don’t know who to trust, and they have no idea of what is fair and what is not fair and what is required and what is not required.”
Bourgon said the company’s co-founder Marty Meadows is known to car dealers for his work growing Carfax, and then working with other digital companies serving the Canadian auto retail industry.
“He knows the pain points in the car industry extremely well. They built the AI bot program around that knowledge and around real life examples of what happens at a dealership and around tying this into the CRM so that it becomes very intelligent,” said Bourgon.
Flitehouse AI Agents act like virtual team members for the dealership. They handle inbound lead triage and outbound follow-up to appointment scheduling, CRM updates and reporting. They support Service Drive operations, booking and confirming service appointments. The agents are designed to work with a dealer’s existing systems.
“Five years ago dealers were hiring people with an average of 3.2 years of experience. Today, that average is 1.4 years,” said Marty Meadows, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of FliteHouse, in the news release. “Turnover is up. Costs are up. And that means training, process, and scalable support have never been more important. Whether a dealer wants a done-for-you solution like our AI Agents, a do-it-with-you approach like our custom playbooks, or a do-it-yourself model with our call coaching platform — FliteHouse has it all under one roof.”
The partnership with MVRO will initially offer three flagship agents:
- The Triage Agent: A virtual receptionist that can handle inbound calls, answer inventory questions, qualify leads, and direct inquiries to the right place — 24/7;
- The Sales Agent: A fully trained follow-up machine that responds to trade-in, credit, and general leads via call or text, schedules appointments, and keeps CRMs updated in real time; and
- The Service Drive Agent: Built to keep your shop humming, this agent books and confirms service appointments, handles no-show follow-up, and delivers a consistent experience for every customer — without any manual lift.
According to the release, the agents are being developed in Ontario.
Bourgon said they are trying to work to dispel the myths that AI is out to replace dealership jobs, and don’t want people to try to block it from their operations. “It’s not to take jobs away, it’s just to make businesses more efficient.”
He added that if dealers think AI is just another fad and they can just avoid learning about it, their competitors will embrace it and they will be playing catch up.
To learn more or request early access, visit flitehouse.com/mvro or contact Marty Meadows: marty@flitehouse.com.
