It’s only a matter of time before artificial intelligence (AI) is selling cars as effectively as a human salesperson, and could happen as soon as 2025, says Phyron CEO Johan Sundstrand. The speed at which self-learning software is developing and being embraced by retailers means that a fully competent AI-powered sales bot is as close as 18 months away.   

This prediction comes at a time when Phyron, Swedish video tech pioneers, has made a massive leap with its own AI-powered software, by adding bespoke, fully automated voiceover to its studio quality on-brand AI videos. The voiceover functionality is initially available in over 22 languages with options for four male and four female voices in each language. Every characteristic of the voiceover can be adjusted, including the pitch, tone, speed, voice equalizer and the music gain. 

Phyron CEO and co-founder Johan Sundstrand commented: “We know the automotive retail market is more competitive now than ever before. In this environment, anything that gives your business a competitive edge and increases efficiency should be welcomed.  AI-powered videos have proven to sell cars 3 to 5 days faster, and the addition of AI-powered voiceover will only increase impact and efficiency. 

“It’s only a matter of time before the technology advances to a point where the likes of ChatGPT can get very close to how a salesperson sells cars offline. We think this could be as soon as 2025 based on the current speed of AI development and adoption,” added Sundstrand. 

Dealers looking to sell more vehicles, faster can leverage the power of AI and take full control of the custom templates at a customer, campaign or product level. Every variable in the data feed can be utilized to make an engaging voiceover to accompany the video including the intro, outros, the “why us” and the crucial call-to-action sections. Generative AI utilizing Phyron’s own Large Language Model (similar to GPT-4 software) has been specially trained and fine-tuned for the automotive retail sector to produce bespoke manuscripts on a vehicle’s key attributes. The AI can produce the voiceover from existing car ads, marketplace, and technical data. It works with any input, from 5 to 5000 words and can write the manuscript from the OEM copy, the dealers’ website or predefined templates. 

How Phyron’s AI video works

Phyron’s innovative video and AI technology is the world’s first software solution for automated video production and distribution for the global automotive industry. The unique AI software and its algorithms enable Phyron to create videos for car advertisements which can be used on OEM brand or retailer websites, as well as classifieds, across social media channels and targeted email distribution. Not only do automated videos save retailers huge amounts of time and money on video production, especially as there is no need for a salesperson to video any cars on site or prepare a script of key features, they ensure premium quality films of every single car in a firm’s inventory has an engaging video ad attached to it in minutes. 

The innovative process works by Phyron using a data feed from a retailer or car brand, including at least three still images and key product details. The AI then identifies the key properties in the images, including various shot angles, interior elements and exterior highlights, and then strips out the backgrounds and replaces them with a neutral one. The unique software then adds special effects, shadows and overlays the desired product specifics and any customer offers on the relevant images, including price and retailer dealer branding. 

Thanks to state-of-the-art cloud computing, Phyron can process an unlimited number of videos concurrently, taking about 10 minutes to render them all, posting them live on a single retailer or classified online auction site, or scale them across an entire network if needed. If a detail changes, such as price, or promotion, the data feed updates and the video is re-rendered automatically as part of the small video fee.

The team has been working with car retailers and partners since 2019 and now counts over 1,500 customers across Europe equating to 100,000 cars currently carrying a Phyron video in the ads. Since January 2021, its customers’ car videos were viewed more than 250 million times and the firm has also expanded into the North American market.