Bruce Rosen, CADA’s Executive Director of External Relations, and Darren Slind, Clarify Group President and Co-Founder
Dealers received a detailed picture of how Canadian retailers are using, and often struggling with, their technology tools during a Saturday presentation of the first-of-its-kind Canadian Automotive Retail Technology Study (CARTS) at the Western Canadian Dealer Summit (WCDS) in Lake Louise, Alberta.
The event is put on by the provincial dealer associations from Alberta, B.C., and Saskatchewan.
The session was opened by Bruce Rosen, CADA’s Executive Director of External Relations. He described CARTS as the next step in the association’s Road Ahead research series, following the launch earlier this year of CADA’s CARES study on the future of automotive retail.
“It’s been a long road to get where we are today, but I think we have something extremely robust,” said Rosen in his opening remarks.
Rosen said the finished product is a comprehensive view of the technology landscape, and the first Canadian report designed to map the full range of tools dealers rely on every day.
You can access the CARTS study and download it here.
“We commissioned it at CADA, it was sponsored by RBC Auto Finance, and it was conducted by Clarify Group,” said Rosen. “It is the first study of its kind in Canada that really looks at a comprehensive view of how dealers across the country use and value the wide range of technologies that power their operations every day. So it is all about you.”
Rosen also noted that CADA is working with a dealer-led AI subcommittee to address governance and related policy questions. “The topic of AI is so important to industry relations and CADA that we established a subcommittee with seven dealers to talk about guardrails,” he said, adding that guidance from that group is expected to be shared with the broader dealer community in the near future.
The study findings point to several clear gaps. Dealers reported issues with training, integration and usage, particularly in core systems such as DMS and CRM. With many software providers in attendance, Rosen said the industry has an opportunity to work more closely together.
“What is clear is that the industry is ready to take greater control of its technology stack and digital roadmap. Dealers are looking for solutions that work better, and tech partners have a unique opportunity to help shape the next phase of innovation,” said Rosen.
During his presentation, Clarify Group President and Co-Founder Darren Slind outlined how the study was developed. It began with 31 in-depth interviews with dealer principals and general managers across Canada to help frame the research, followed by a national survey completed by 549 respondents, including decision makers and end users who work with the technology every day.
“Our mandate from CADA and the Industry Relations Committee was to benchmark the state of technology in Canadian auto retail, identify investment priorities and measure, to the extent that it is possible, the level of satisfaction that dealers have with different types of retail technology,” said Slind. “And because we are obligated to talk about AI, we also wanted to understand what is going on with AI adoption and where things are heading.”
One of the first questions examined dealer attitudes toward adopting new technology. Three clear groups emerged: early adopters who proactively seek out new solutions; followers who prefer a more cautious path; and laggards who adopt more slowly but still engage with new tools.
“About 30 per cent of decision makers rate themselves as early adopters,” said Slind. “The largest single group are followers who are cautious, willing to go down the technology path but who want that first group to blaze the trail. Then there is a smaller group who would self-describe as laggards.”
When asked about investment priorities for the year ahead, dealers focused on the front end of the business: sales, marketing, digital advertising, social media, websites and CRM. Customer communication tools ranked second, followed by security and fraud prevention tools, and then fixed operations technology, which Slind said represents a major growth opportunity in future years.
“If you look at where the investment dollars are going, the first two buckets at the front end of the business account for more than half of the spend,” he said. “Over time, we think fixed operations is going to need to grow in importance, because the opportunity to leverage technology in service is very significant.”
Tech stacks growing more complex
Slind noted that most Canadian dealerships operate with between five and nine applications in their technology stack. A significant number, about 20 per cent, are using ten or more systems. The real number may be higher, he said, based on the share of respondents who were not sure how many tools their store uses.
“What surprised me was the 20 per cent who told us they have ten or more, and I suspect many of those who said they do not know are actually in that category too. It begs the question, is there an opportunity over time to simplify our tech stacks, because this requires a lot of effort and adds complexity to the business,” he said.
This level of fragmentation leads to predictable friction. Dealers identified five consistent challenges: fully leveraging solution capabilities, workflow integration, data integration, proving return on investment, and training and staffing limitations.
“In summary, we would say looking at the data that it is not the code, it is the implementation,” he said. “The software works, but it does not always work for us in our particular store environment.”
Mixed satisfaction with core systems
End users were asked to rate six technology categories across several attributes, including ease of use, integration, stability and whether the solution meets their needs. On a 1,000-point scale, Canadian dealership staff averaged 756.
Vehicle valuation tools rated highest, with websites and service appointment schedulers also performing well. The weakest results came from DMS and CRM tools, two of the systems used most frequently in daily operations.
“It turns out that when you calculate what really drives dealer satisfaction with technology, some things matter a lot more than others,” said Slind. “In particular, the ability of the solution to meet dealer needs and its ease of use are disproportionately more important than the other attributes we measured. Those should be the first two questions you are evaluating when you make technology decisions.”
A weighted gap analysis showed CRM providers face two main pressure points: stronger alignment with dealer needs and improved ease of use.
“When you do the math, the biggest opportunities for CRM providers are to build solutions that truly meet dealer needs and to make them easier to use,” he said. “What dealers want CRM to do is apparently not what it is currently doing, and it is not doing it in a way that is easy.”
AI adoption growing, but uneven
Sixty per cent of decision makers reported using AI in their dealerships, and just under one-third said it is already improving customer experience. However, 40 per cent are still not using AI at all.
“The good news is that 60 per cent of decision makers report at least some form of AI adoption in their business, and about 31 per cent tell us it has improved customer experience in a meaningful way,” said Slind. “Here is the number that concerns me: 30 per cent of those using AI say it is not making a difference. That tells me that if we are not very thoughtful about why we bring technology in and what problem we want to solve, we end up in that bucket — and that is not a nice place to be.”
Among end users, the adoption rate drops to 42 per cent, with most use cases focused on automated communications and writing vehicle descriptions. Nearly all end users who use AI tools say the technology improves their work.
“It speaks to the need for dealers to get their arms around governance of AI in the store so that there is consistency and control. There is massive upside to come, but we need to put some guardrails around it.”
Recommendations for dealers
Slind outlined six recommendations drawn from the CARTS findings: align technology solutions with business goals; prioritize usability; evaluate integration; consider the entire dealership rather than predominantly the front end; move decisively but not without proper assessment; and establish clear AI governance.
“When you are meeting with vendors, make sure the conversation emphasizes your business needs, not the provider’s feature list,” he said. “If the business benefit is not clear before you put the system in, it will likely remain unclear after you begin using it.”
He also highlighted the new dealer snapshots available by region and store type, accessible through CADA’s website, which allow dealers to compare their results with metro, rural, provincial or single-point and multi-point peers.
Strong engagement from technology vendors
The presentation generated immediate interest from suppliers at the event and in discussions with Canadian auto dealer magazine before and after the session. A number of vendors and dealers were having conversations about implementation, training and integration once the session ended.
Many of the vendors we spoke with said they were not surprised by some of the key findings, and pointed to their own company’s efforts to present more unified solutions instead of a fragmented tech landscape.
During the Q&A after Slind’s presentation, one DMS provider said his company had already been contacted that morning by a dealer who wanted to discuss the CARTS study results and identify gaps in their implementation and training. The vendor said these types of conversations create more productive relationships between dealers and technology companies.
Another dealer at the event said that after the presentation, he went directly to his DMS provider’s trade show booth and set up a time for a full system audit of their platform to determine how much functionality was actually being used. He said he also put them on notice that they need to develop integration with a payment system the dealership recently put in place, and made the direct connection to his payment system tech provider.
Rosen added that CADA will host webinars for both dealers and software and tech providers to ensure all parties understand the findings.
“We are actually holding a webinar with the providers, not just with dealers,” he said. “We want people coming to you saying, ‘We heard you. Here is what we can do for you.’ We think they need to know this as well to help you in making decisions.”
It appears that the process of dealers talking with vendors is already underway, as both sides use the CARTS findings as a starting point for more focused conversations about whether their current technology stack is really delivering full value.
