The next time you call a car dealer, the voice at the other end may not belong to a human.
As Techcrunch reportsThe founders of Toma, a startup of Vocal agent of the AI, pivoted pitching to health care and financing companies to calls for desperate car sellers to unload part of their work to AI agents.
To perfect their product, the founders Monik Pamecha and Anthony Krivonos visited a dozen dealers in the Oklahoma and Mississippi states – no word about the reason why they chose these specific localities – to get closer and personal with potential customers.
In addition to entering folk anecdotes about the dinner of dinners at home and obtaining car fat on their clothes, Techcrunch The reports according to which the learning of the tour ended up attracting $ 17 million during its fundraising round-collection round by Andreessen Horowitz for its software, which manages customer sales calls, provides appointments and takes orders for parts.
“We are investing in a large part of the next generation of vertical AI companies, many of the best founders have just lived and breathe with these customers to understand what is happening under the hood,” said a16z Seema Amble partner. “No word play.”
Describe by the venture capital company As “fully integrated software suite designed to help dealerships to operate more efficiently” AI Vocal Agent Startups Mainly arise because of its automotive objective.
The company has a certain competition. According to a study Commanded last year by FullpathA sales data platform, 80% of the 200 dealers contacted said they were already using AI – and entirely 100% of those who use technology said they saw growing income after that.
In particular, this study has not broken down how These dealers used AI, and Toma seems to fill a specific hole that the centers of calls around the world have already sought to connect: replace human agents with AI.
Yossi Levi, an automotive influencer that manages the “Automobile Concessionaire” website – and who also invested in Toma – suggested that IA vocal agents could be better equipped to manage the “flows and flows” of call volumes.
“Sometimes you are overwhelmed by demand,” Levi told Levi Techcrunch. “Other times, there is not enough request, and correspond to the staff and train this staff correctly for a coherent experience is simply not an easy thing to do.”
The concessionaire insisted that Toma helps automobile dealers to “standardize this process and offer a richer customer experience that is consistent”. We cannot say with certainty how to speak to an AI affects customer satisfaction on the other line – or if its product has the same propensity to make a mistake Like other AI agents.
A edifying story for anyone who deploys it, however: remember the Chevy dealer who deployed an AI, only to alarm when a customer has deemed to sell a new vehicle for only $ 1?
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