Artificial Intelligence and Auto Repair Shop Marketing
During the last few years we have changed how we approach claims by companies that promote their “Artificial Intelligence” products. Back in the Dark Ages (ok, not quite, more like a decade ago), we wrote:
“Mechanic Grid is one of only a handful of marketing agencies in the United States that conducts in-house Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects. AI has become popular recently, mostly due to massive advances in computing power that made it possible to take algorithms invented half a century ago, and to apply them in real time.
Deep Learning, a particularly computationally intensive branch of Artificial Intelligence came into its own only within the last few years, because of virtually unlimited computing power. Expert Systems, on the other hand, have been operational for decades, often embedded in decision support systems. At Mechanic Grid we use artificial intelligence to speed up decision making and streamline operations.
Our AI expertise is also applied when vetting vendors who claim to be using artificial intelligence in their products or services. Marketing folks tend to view the world through rose colored glasses – it is up to us to evaluate their claims, and to find out how “intelligent” is their AI, and does it deliver on its promises. It’s been our experience that some of the marketing claims were, shall we say, somewhat overstated. The good news is that it is the very nature of AI that it can be incrementally improved over time. So next year, or two years from now, these same marketing claims may be perfectly valid, as the AI improves.
While currently we are not aware of a single AI-based marketing product or service that we could wholeheartedly endorse, we expect that over time auto repair marketing will be making considerable use of artificial intelligence. Until then, we will continue developing our own AI programs, and will be watching for any new entrants into the field.”
Well, the times have changed. With the release of the ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) like Gemini or Claude, the promise of AI is finally being fulfilled.
Naturally at Mechanic Grid we have been riding the wave, testing, discarding, comparing value to pricing, and of course using AI for ourselves and for our clients – for some, we have built programs that automate mundane tasks saving owner’s time, in some cases, we have had owners grab the ball and run with it to the point that, on their own, they augmented commercial grade shop management systems with AI-built programs that provide capabilities the original software companies did not.
So yes, a mere decade marks a major shift in AI and its usefulness. Going forward, we will be blogging regularly about AI in auto repair, about AI in auto repair marketing, about programming using AI (no, you don’t need to be a programmer – logical thinking and knowing what you want to achieve is enough), and how to run AI locally on your own computer - if you want to keep your data private for personal or regulatory reasons, or just for the fun of training your own unique AI. We will also talk about AI based products or approaches that we found truly useful. So fasten your seatbelt and come with us for the ride.