INSIGHTS
One Workshop for 17 General Managers Started an AI Transformation Across a National Dealership Network
A workshop for 17 GMs kicked off a national automotive group's AI journey. Coaching, agent development, and 85%+ satisfaction later, the network is expanding.
It started with 17 general managers in one room.
This is a national automotive retail group operating dealerships across Canada for some of the world's most recognized brands. The GMs run independent P&Ls, manage their own teams, and make their own decisions about technology adoption. Getting 17 of them aligned on anything is a project in itself.
The workshop was introductory — AI fundamentals, what's real, what's hype, and where the technology is already changing how dealerships operate. No pressure to adopt. Just clarity on what's possible and an honest conversation about what it takes to get there.
That day kicked off their GenAI journey.
Within weeks, we were coaching and running deeper workshops with their most AI-forward dealership — a BMW store that consistently ranks at the top of its brand nationally. The sales and service teams got involved. Not executives in a boardroom, but the people doing the work.
Together, we developed AI agents inside Microsoft 365 that addressed real, high-friction workflow problems the teams were dealing with every day. Not theoretical use cases pulled from a slide deck — actual pain points the sales and service staff identified themselves. Schedule coordination, customer follow-up sequencing, service intake processing. The kind of work that eats hours when done manually and takes minutes when an agent handles it.
The team satisfaction score: over 85%, with specific feedback on the value relative to time invested. In a dealership environment where every hour a GM or sales lead spends away from the floor has a measurable cost, that score means something.
The program is expanding. More dealerships in the network are committed, and the first full AI development program — building on what the pilot dealership proved — is on deck for September.
This is how AI adoption actually works in a distributed organization. You don't mandate it from corporate. You prove it at one location with the people who do the work, get results they can see, and let the network pull it forward. The 17 GMs who sat in that first workshop are now watching one of their peers move faster and produce more. That's not a mandate. That's gravity.
