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rtificial Intelligence has been a buzzword in the automotive industry for years. But while “smart factories” and predictive maintenance systems have attracted significant investment, the commercial side of the business being marketing and sales, has largely been overlooked.
Most AI budgets in the automotive industry still flow into operations and quality assurance, leaving a massive opportunity untapped where it provides still white spots: in driving customer engagement, sales conversion, and revenue growth while cutting costs in marketing & sales.
This imbalance is striking. Less than one-third of AI spend currently goes into customer-facing areas, even though the potential upside is immense. Our Analysis shows that AI could reduce cost per lead by approximately 30 percent—equivalent to roughly €100 per lead—and generate more than €6.2 billion in annual savings for the top twelve global incumbent OEMs. This is because, AI-driven sales engines can deliver 20 to 50 percent higher conversion rates, powered by smarter configurators, predictive pricing tools, and lead-handling bots. What started as an efficiency play has now become the industry’s next growth engine.
AI can reduce lead cost by 30% and thereby unlock €6.2B in global annual cost savings
The use cases are no longer theoretical. Generative AI is already transforming marketing by cutting content production costs by up to 60 percent while enabling hyper-localized, highly personalized campaigns at scale – across all channels and formats.
“Aftersales holds the greatest potential for AIdriven impact – particularly in call center operations, vehicle inspection, and predictive maintenance – combined with AI-driven marketing content generation.”
Chatbots and virtual assistants are proving their value in the mid-funnel, reducing agent handling costs by up to a third while keeping customers engaged around the clock – and in a “private” environment where customers can ask any question. AI-optimized media placement is reshaping how campaigns are run, ensuring every euro flows into the channels that deliver maximum return – also through high degree of personalized addressing enabled through “endless” content pieces. Together, these applications are not just trimming costs—they are reshaping the economics of customer acquisition.
Although the number of AI use cases reported by automotive players has grown twentyfold since 2020, most initiatives remain concentrated in operations. Only about a quarter of AI initiatives touch sales and marketing, despite its outsized potential for margin improvement. The reasons are familiar: fragmented customer data, concerns about time-to-value, scarce AI and digital talent, and brand or legal risks linked to scaling generative tools – in addition the dependency on current workflows where the agency holds the advantage on knowledge on this new technology. As a result, many OEMs remain stuck in pilot purgatory, unable to integrate AI fully into their sales & marketing activities.
“OEMs are still in the learning phase; lessons from current AI implementation pilots are not yet ready to be scaled”
- CEO DE, Volume OEMBreaking through this barrier requires alignment. AI strategies must be tailored to the sales model itself. Direct-to-consumer entrants like Tesla or Rivian can harness AI for immersive digital showrooms, personalized pricing, and configurators that reduce decision complexity. Established OEMs with franchise or hybrid models, by contrast, need to focus on lead efficiency, media optimization, and centralized inventory analytics—areas where AI complements, rather than disrupts, the dealer network. One-size-fits-all simply will not work.
“GenAI is being applied across the business – from enabling faster website journeys, to optimizing social media, to increasing ordering efficiency”.
- CEO USA, Premium OEMThe promise, however, is too large to ignore. By embedding AI into marketing and sales, OEMs can do more than cut costs—they can accelerate electric vehicle adoption by giving customers better information, reassurance, and service throughout the entire journey. From awareness to retention, AI can improve satisfaction, raise Net Promoter Scores, and boost repurchase rates.
The conclusion is clear: AI must graduate from a back-office efficiency lever to a commercial growth engine. For automotive players navigating a fiercely competitive, electrified market, the winners will be those who harness AI not just to save money, but to sell more cars.
Copyright Berylls by AlixPartners