Very excited to once again be kicking off the new Year in Las
Vegas with CES, which is in many ways become the preeminent
global automotive mobility conference.
As you walk through the floor, it's impossible not to get
excited about all the exciting new technologies that are coming
to market that when fully implemented are not just going
to change the automotive industry, but they're going to
change society.
I'm here with my partner Karen Lellouche, who leads a lot of
our work on the sales and marketing size in an AI.
I know you've been spending a lot of time looking at how
disruptive technology of AI is going to transform the industry.
As you talk to some of your clients here this week, what are
some of the things that get you most excited about how AI is
going to be truly transformative?
Well, you know what, someone told me that last year CS was
about an AI wave and this year is about an AI tsunami.
I think that's the right, that's the right description of what's
going on, which is like AI has become everywhere in every
single things that we're seeing here.
And when you think about the automotive industry, it's like
AI in the car.
We're hearing a lot of course around ChatGPT or Gen
AI being used in the car as a way to have conversation with
the drivers.
A lot of announcement around this recently, but also using AI
and Gen
AI in the end to end customer experience.
So how to we reinvent the experience by using generative
AI.
So somehow new bot functionalities, but in a better
way to enhance the experience to be able to have a conversation
that help the consumers navigating the offer or being
able to take an appointment in a better way or coach the dealers
so that they can be even more efficient in the selling process
or to the call center when the call center is considered.
So they're like a lot of use cases that we're seeing, a lot
of things that we're seeing around how to use AI and more
specifically this generative AI capabilities to enhance every
step of the customer journey.
That's terrific, I know it's it's hard to believe that in
many ways Gen
AI is only about a year old.
How soon do you see it really impacting the car retail
experience?
So it's only one year old, but it's true that it's been already
a few years that this idea of how can we think differently
about coaching both the salesperson but also the
consumers can be done.
And bots are not new.
It's been years.
I think what's new is the quality of the bot, the quality
of the experience that was that clearly wasn't there before.
So what we're seeing based on you know all the conversations
we're having with many of our clients is that all of them are
doing pilots currently, all of them.
There's no one single OEM not doing a pilot on using
generative AI for some piece of the customer journey of the
customer experience.
So the truth is when they are able to pilot it successfully,
we're going to scale it up and once it's scaled up, you know
it's going to be in every retail experience.
So honestly in a year from now, I think it's going to be a
reality almost everywhere.
That's exciting.
So what about you?
What are you excited about when you look at what's happening
here?
So I think one of the things that's noticeable about this CES
relative to years prior is the absence of a number of the
leading vehicle manufacturers.
In many ways, this has become a supplier conference.
And what's interesting for suppliers is on one hand,
there's all these great new technologies that are going to
allow them to many ways reinvent themselves that's going to
secure a future for decades to come that's really quite
exciting.
That said, it's difficult for suppliers to be able to manage
that transition and what is arguably the most difficult
for suppliers in the 100 plus years with production
volatility, with material inflation, with labour shortages
and so it's fun having a lot of conversation with the clients
about how do you really strike the balance between positioning
yourself to win long term while being the best of the way the
game is played today.
It's an exciting time and I'm looking forward to continuing
the discussions this week.
That's great.
Thanks a lot Brian.
It was great to see you.
Good to see you.