Fuel/five: 5 ways AI is already part of the automotive industry

1) Damage recognition

Inspecting a vehicle for damage has historically required specialist knowledge, but now artificial intelligence (AI) is helping make the process easier. Technology that can recognise chips, scratches and even tread depth just by analysing pictures and video exists on the market today. It’s still early days, but the tech should open the doors to allow anyone to complete accurate appraisals in minutes.

2) Chatbots

We all know of the growing importance of digital retail, but AI chatbots are already helping the customers of many auto retailers. Through text chat, conversational AI is able to recognise many customer queries and draw from its deep understanding of a business’s operations and systems to produce an answer. This can help free up human customer contact teams to deal with more complex queries.

3) New product testing

Ever updated to the latest version of a piece of software, only to find it riddled with issues? This could soon be a thing of the past. AI is now being used test new updates to software before they go live to the public. It works by first studying and learning normal consumer behaviours using the software, then it carries out typical user activities on the update to discover errors.

4) Vehicle valuations

Producing accurate vehicle valuations is an immensely complex task that requires intimate knowledge of current prices across both wholesale and retail markets. So, AI algorithms are now being used to help make it easier than ever. These programmes can instantly analyse immense volumes of data to develop an accurate view of the market, and the best part is, they are constantly learning and updating as more data comes in.

5) Self-driving cars

Once upon a time, flying cars were to be the mode of transport of transport future. We never did get rid of our four wheels, but self-driving cars have certainly taken over that mantle. The tech already exists, and numerous tests and studies have taken place across the world. Legislation will need to change before we see any on our public roads, but what’s certain is that autonomous cars, driven by AI, will play a part in our futures in some way.

Discover more

If you want to learn more on this topic, then check out our most recent Fuel/talk podcast with Sebastian Fuchs all about AI in remarketing:

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