Keith Legg (left) and Chris Rulon (right)
Reynolds & Reynolds used its Innovation Summit in Mississauga this week to showcase how artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and robotics are becoming increasingly integrated into dealership operations.
The two-day event, held at the Courtyard Toronto Mississauga West hotel, brought together dealers, OEM representatives and Reynolds executives for presentations, live demonstrations and discussions about the future of automotive retail technology.
The summit featured an expo floor with demonstrations of Reynolds tools and services, along with presentations focused on dealership efficiency, profitability, customer experience and emerging technologies.
Canadian auto dealer attended the event, where company executives highlighted new developments including Rey, an AI assistant the company has been developing for about a year and recently soft-launched at the NADA Show.
Chris Rulon, Senior Vice President of Sales for Reynolds & Reynolds, compared Rey to a ChatGPT-style assistant. He said the tool is currently being tested on a pilot basis in several dealerships in the U.S.
“It’s a sidebar that pops up and the dealership employee can type in simple questions and get feedback such as: How do I do this? What is the most popular car we should be stocking? What am I grossing the most on?” said Rulon.
“We anticipate this will be a lot of learn-on-your-own, but we’re also going to have our performance managers and utilization partners out in the field teaching dealers how to use it.”
Rulon said the goal is to make dealership systems more intuitive and help staff improve efficiency in day-to-day operations.
Keith Legg, Senior-Level Sales Leader for Reynolds & Reynolds, said Rey is designed to be conversational and eventually suggest more efficient ways for users to navigate dealership systems.
“Having an intelligent tool like Rey will not only be able to answer specific questions, but also watch what users are doing and suggest more efficient ways to use the tools,” said Legg.
Throughout the day, Reynolds executives emphasized that dealerships are increasingly looking for technologies that can automate routine processes, improve efficiency and allow employees to spend more time on customer-facing and revenue-generating activities. Legg pointed to dealership phone handling as one example.
“AI can take some of those low-risk, high-volume tasks and manage them so employees can spend more time on the high-value tasks,” he said. “They can focus on the revenue-generation pieces, customer satisfaction pieces — things that matter. It’s low risk in that we’re not asking AI to sell a car.”
Another newly released feature is Appointment AI, designed to help dealerships schedule appointments throughout the day while also handling overflow and after-hours calls.
Cybersecurity was another focus of the summit. Reynolds recently introduced software security packages for Canadian dealerships through its Proton division. “Cybercrime would rank as the third-largest economy in the world,” said Rulon. “We feel it’s an area where people need protection, and we wanted it to be part of our ecosystem.”
The company also demonstrated Relo, an automated robotic parts runner already launched in both the U.S. and Canada. The robot is designed to pick up parts and deliver them directly to technicians, reducing the time technicians spend walking to the parts department.
Rulon said the technology can improve efficiency while also reducing the risk of workplace injuries associated with lifting and moving parts. Relo will also have the capability to communicate with manufacturers regarding items such as old parts returns.
The summit also included opportunities for attendees to interact directly with Reynolds specialists and explore tools aimed at streamlining dealership workflows and addressing operational challenges.
“We’re trying to keep our dealers abreast of everything we’re doing as fast as we can,” said Legg. “The buzz right now is around what people are doing with AI. Robotics is obviously another major tool people are investigating.”
