CONNECT WITH US
Fintech

Fintech

CarMax Lets AI Take the Call, Not the Sale

PYMNTS – Fintech logo

Published on

Add as a preferred source on Google
CarMax Lets AI Take the Call, Not the Sale

CarMax now routes 100% of inbound store and customer experience center calls through AI voice agents built with Sierra. The agents answer questions like store hours and vehicle availability and pass the rest to associates.

CarMax is extending those agents to schedule appraisals, browsing visits and test drives. It already puts more than 45,000 vehicles in front of shoppers through its ChatGPT app.

CEO Keith Barr says every used car is an individual SKU, which makes the final transaction hard for AI to take over. Buyers still want to see, touch and test drive a car before they buy.

A shopper who calls a CarMax store to ask about hours or whether a car is still on the lot now reaches an artificial intelligence agent first. The agent asks clarifying questions, answers what it can and hands the rest to an associate.

Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

CarMax has scaled that AI voice technology to every inbound call. The system now covers “100% of both inbound store and customer experience center calls,” CEO Keith Barr said on the used-car retailer’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call Sept. 29. Customers can resolve requests through the company’s “agentic AI tools or directly connect to the right associate,” he said.

CarMax built the system with Sierra , the AI customer service company led by CEO Bret Taylor . The voice agents went live in May and answer common questions such as store hours and vehicle availability, CarMax said in August.


Source link
Related Topics:Fintech

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We TheMorningPulse.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It's possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.