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Transportation & Mobility
Q&A With ChatGPT: How Generative AI Is Shaping the Future of Automotive

Generative AI is swiftly becoming an integral part of life and business, upending business models, accelerating digital transformation and modernizing organizations all while reimagining the future of work.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot built on a large language model (LLM). It’s a small yet significant part of the current generative AI ecosystem, able to have human-like conversations and assist with certain tasks.

Below, Publicis Sapient “interviewed” ChatGPT (GPT-4) to explore its role in the automotive sector relying on its prompt interface to generate answers, uncovering insights on how automotive companies can use ChatGPT to elevate their customer experience, stay ahead of the competition and drive revenue growth.

We recognize this is not a true form of interview.

Additionally, Publicis Sapient’s industry experts provided commentary on ChatGPT’s outputs and the impact of generative LLM’s on digital organizational transformation.

Prompt: Please define ChatGPT for readers in the automotive industry.

ChatGPT is an advanced AI language model designed by OpenAI. It excels at understanding context, generating human-like text, and answering questions, making it valuable for various applications in the automotive industry, including customer support, content generation, and data analysis.

Prompt: What are ChatGPT’s capabilities and limitations in helping automotive companies with digital business transformation?

ChatGPT can greatly assist automotive companies in digital business transformation by offering conversational AI for customer support, streamlining communication, predicting maintenance needs, and providing data-driven insights. It can also help with design optimization and process automation. However, its limitations include potential biases in output, inability to generate highly creative solutions, and reliance on accurate data input. It's essential for companies to combine ChatGPT's capabilities with human expertise to ensure a successful digital transformation.

ASK THE EXPERT

Steven Silver, managing director, automotive, transportation & mobility for Publicis Sapient and Publicis Groupe: “ChatGPT’s conversational, real-time and analytical capabilities offer tremendous possibilities for engaging customers throughout the automotive, transportation and mobility lifecycle—including shopping, transacting, operating, riding, servicing, returning to market and vehicle disposition.

The key is injecting AI-powered capabilities into moments where the economics of customer lifetime value can be maximized and the cost to serve in real-time at this degree of complexity and scale is not economically viable when powered by humans or business rules alone.

The current limitations ChatGPT self-acknowledges will need to be minimized or eliminated to accelerate adoption of these new capabilities amongst our Transportation & Mobility (T&M) clients. But make no mistake, as the technology improves, rapid client adoption is inevitable.”

Prompt: How can ChatGPT help automotive companies enhance the pre-purchase and purchase experience?

ChatGPT can enhance the pre-purchase and purchase experience in the automotive industry by providing instant, personalized assistance to customers via virtual showrooms or chat platforms. It can answer queries on vehicle specifications, pricing, financing options, and dealership locations, while also offering tailored recommendations based on customer preferences. By streamlining communication and reducing wait times, ChatGPT can improve customer satisfaction and expedite the decision-making process, leading to increased sales and a more engaging customer experience.

ASK THE EXPERT

Matthew Neenan, group creative director, experience design, automotive, transportation & mobility for Publicis Sapient: “There is a ton of friction related to the paradox of choice in consumers' pre-purchase and purchase journeys. 

The complexity and variability the industry places on consumers are fraught with near-term trade-offs and long-term implications. Preferences and options affect availability; financing affects price; price affects choice. Complex in-vehicle technology features, understanding of vehicle electrification charging and autonomous driving assistance complicate their decision-making. 

Generative AI offers an opportunity to leverage intelligence to manage these complexities and reduce the perception of bias and pressure-driven sales tactics.”

An example voice prompt: "What should I know about buying a luxury BEV if I consider between Lexus, Audi, and Cadillac within the next 30 days?"

What can ChatGPT offer that would help automotive companies improve the car ownership experience?

ChatGPT can enhance the automotive ownership experience by offering personalized, real-time customer support, predictive maintenance alerts, and AI-powered voice assistants. It can provide contextual information on vehicle features, troubleshoot issues, and schedule appointments, improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, by analyzing driver habits, ChatGPT can offer tailored safety recommendations and fuel efficiency tips, contributing to a safer, greener driving experience. Overall, ChatGPT empowers automotive companies to deliver a more streamlined, responsive, and satisfying car ownership experience.

ASK THE EXPERT

Matthew Neenan: “Until recently, the vehicle ownership experience has been entirely passive when things are going well and poorly reactive when they aren't. OEMs need to leverage Generative AI to proactively anticipate consumer needs and deliver a more dynamic experience to their physical products. 

The potential for much higher dynamism and personalization through deep customer intelligence offers opportunities to capitalize on data that only the OEMs have. They could use awareness of the consumer's lifestyle preferences and vehicle data to connect drivers with local businesses through voice-enabled search and AI, allowing drivers to make reservations and predictively schedule appointments while on the go.”

An example voice prompt: "Place an order for my favorite pizza place to arrive at my door just after I pull into the driveway from picking up the kids at soccer practice."

What can ChatGPT offer that would help automotive companies enhance their data strategy?

ChatGPT can significantly enhance automotive companies' data strategy by providing valuable insights through natural language processing and advanced analytics. It can analyze vast amounts of unstructured data from customer feedback, social media, and internal documentation to identify trends, customer preferences, and improvement opportunities. Additionally, ChatGPT can optimize knowledge management by answering technical queries, drafting reports, and providing suggestions for product development. Its ability to understand complex language patterns enables efficient communication with customers and team members, resulting in improved customer experience and streamlined internal processes.

ASK THE EXPERT

Steven Silver: “The state of data across T&M enterprises and their dealer partners is diffuse, creating vastly more noise than signal. This causes enormous complexity in companies developing personalized, real-time understanding, insight and action at scale. 

One of the biggest challenges all T&M players face is the variety of personas, roles and contexts that customers, users and vehicles play at all times. Large Language Models (LLM) like ChatGPT can help reduce the fog that prevents the delivery of the “next best” action to every moment that matters.”

Prompt: What can ChatGPT offer that would help automotive companies improve fleet management?

ChatGPT can significantly enhance fleet management in the automotive industry by providing real-time data analysis, predictive maintenance, and route optimization. It helps identify potential vehicle issues, schedule timely maintenance, and avoid breakdowns, thus reducing costs and downtime. Additionally, ChatGPT streamlines communication between drivers and managers, facilitating quick decision-making. By analyzing traffic patterns, weather conditions, and fuel consumption, it offers optimal routing solutions that save time and reduce operational expenses. Overall, ChatGPT offers a smarter, more efficient, and cost-effective approach to fleet management.

ASK THE EXPERT

Steven Silver: “The most important value drivers in fleet management include:

  • Operations and productivity for task completion and cost efficiency
  • Service delivery
  • Driver behavior and performance
  • Vehicle performance

Given the dynamic nature of these drivers, the ability to find, identify and act upon the optimal combination of data and insights to drive outcomes for fleet providers is vastly enhanced with AI-powered solutions like ChatGPT.”

Prompt: In what situations should automotive companies be cautious about using ChatGPT?

Automotive companies should be cautious using ChatGPT in safety-critical applications, sensitive customer data handling, and providing legally binding advice. As an AI language model, ChatGPT may sometimes produce incorrect or misleading information, which could have severe consequences in the automotive context. Additionally, concerns about data privacy and compliance with legal and regulatory standards must be considered before implementing ChatGPT in customer-facing services. It's essential to validate the AI's output and combine it with human oversight to ensure accuracy, reliability, and adherence to industry regulations.

ASK THE EXPERT

Steven Silver: “ChatGPT and the role of Large Language Models (LLMs) are in their infancy. In some cases, the data powering these models are dated (ca. 2021) and the conclusions generated are faulty or based on incorrect or incomplete assumptions. The ability to incorporate private (vs. public) sources of data necessary to provide more precise, higher-fidelity outputs is currently significantly constrained.

Moreover, the skill required to generate prompts that lead to the most relevant responses is very immature as of today.

That said, the journey to improved quality, fidelity and deeper application of ChatGPT and LLMs—especially for T&M enterprises—is marching forward at great speed. Organizations must build their LLM muscles starting now, to avoid the scale, speed and competitive threats from inaction.”

Prompt: How can automotive companies get started with ChatGPT?

Automotive companies can get started with ChatGPT by first identifying key applications where AI language models can provide value, such as customer support, marketing, research, or product development. Next, they should choose an API platform, like OpenAI, to access ChatGPT. Collaborating with AI experts and forming a dedicated team will help integrate and customize the AI model to their specific needs. Regular feedback and iteration will ensure continuous improvement of the ChatGPT implementation, maximizing its potential and effectiveness in the automotive industry.

ASK THE EXPERT

Steven Silver: “Focus on how value is created or eroded in operations, customer experience and vehicle management—in both traditional automotive and transportation business models and in new mobility plays.

And explore where LLMs and ChatGPT can add value, reduce friction or accelerate business outcomes in context, and not as a theoretical science experiment.

The winners in T&M will iteratively test, learn and adapt their understanding and use of AI-powered capabilities, while the laggards will be waiting for the hype to end and the dust to settle. The enemy of learning is waiting.”

Drive business growth with AI and ChatGPT

With AI tools such as ChatGPT, automotive companies can swiftly implement effective solutions to elevate their customer experience, outpace competitors and establish a strong market position through continuous innovation. Learn more about Publicis Sapient’s Data & AI Services.

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Steven Silver
Steven Silver
Managing Director, Automotive, Transportation & Mobility for Publicis Sapient and Publicis Groupe
Matthew Neenan
Matthew Neenan
Group Creative Director, Experience Design, Automotive, Transportation & Mobility for Publicis Sapient

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