“This Is the Worst It'll Ever Be” – State of Dealership AI and What Dealers Should Be Asking

Podium CEO Eric Rea returns to the Car Dealership Guy podcast roughly a year after his first appearance to give a mid-2025 state of dealership AI. He explains why about 10% of U.S. franchise dealers are now using Podium's AI BDC, Jerry, even as Podium's broader software reaches close to a third of OEM dealerships, and why dealers will try almost any new AI tool but won't stick with one that stops delivering value. Rea argues service, not sales, is the next big AI opportunity, that Jerry has to be tuned store by store — a Beverly Hills luxury store wants a very different Jerry than a high-volume Toyota store in Atlanta — and that most dealers today are using AI as a co-pilot for their BDC team rather than a full replacement.

His core advice for any dealer evaluating an AI vendor: you are not buying software, you are hiring an AI employee, so interview it the way you would interview a BDC rep — ask what it does with inventory, how it handles edge cases, and who else is already getting results from it.

Key takeaways

• Podium's AI BDC, Jerry, is now used by about 10% of U.S. franchise dealerships, while Podium's broader platform serves closer to 30% of OEM dealers and more than 100,000 businesses across all verticals.

• At one Van Horn dealership, AI lifted lead response times by about 70%, let the system handle eight times more conversations than a top human BDC rep, and raised conversion rates by up to 30%.

• Rea's buying advice: treat an AI BDC evaluation like interviewing a new employee, not a software demo — ask exactly what it says when a car on the website isn't actually on the lot, since a polished demo can hide that gap.