In an AI-awestruck world, the most powerful thing you can do is show up, writes Jacqui Barker, Keyloop’s global engagement vice president.
Last month, I wrote about AI search and what it means for dealerships. We examined how the way customers find and evaluate your brand and your inventory is shifting faster than most of the industry has had time to react to.
If you missed it, the short version is: your visibility in AI-generated results is no longer optional, and the businesses that ignore it are already falling behind.
But here’s what I didn’t say. And attending Brighton SEO, alongside a number of automotive industry events last month made it impossible to ignore.
Connection is king in an influx of information
In a room full of the sharpest digital minds in the country, people who build the tools, run the experiments, and write the playbooks that the rest of us eventually follow, the conversation that kept coming up wasn’t about algorithms or automation.
It was about community. Authenticity. Trust.
The organisers have built something genuinely remarkable there: an event that draws thousands of attendees who aren’t just there to fill a seat, but to connect, to challenge each other, to leave with something they didn’t arrive with. That energy is real, and it’s not accidental.
It reminded me of what I see every time I walk into events like AM Live, or, or MOVE (for which The Drivetime Podcast will be the official Media Partner sponsor in 2026).
People are hungry to be in the room. Not because they can’t find information online; they can find more information now than they’ll ever need. They show up because information isn’t the scarce resource anymore. Connection is.
Building community through industry events
My role takes me into a lot of different rooms. Some are quite corporate, some are technical, some are deeply operational. But the events that have stayed with me – the ones where I’ve come away genuinely energised by fresh perspectives and new ideas, are the ones that have created genuine inclusion.
Empowering Auto is a brilliant example of that. An event that makes space for people who don’t always see themselves reflected in the industry’s bigger stages. The conversations there aren’t just good for the individuals in the room; they’re good for the whole sector. That kind of community builds something durable.
And I think the automotive industry, more than most, understands this instinctively.
Proper personalisation requires proper human connection
We’ve been talking about personalisation for years. Often in ways that have been more aspirational than real. Now we have the data infrastructure and the AI capability to genuinely deliver it at scale.
That’s not nothing; it matters enormously. But let’s be clear about what AI personalisation actually is: it’s a starting point. Data tells you who someone might be. AI helps you reach them at the right moment, with the right message.
But the moment that actually converts, the moment that builds loyalty, that earns a second sale, that generates a referral, that moment is almost always human.
The dealer principal who calls a customer by name and remembers they were torn between two models. The sales executive who texts to say the car they were waiting for has just landed. The finance manager who takes the time to explain, not just process. These aren’t inefficiencies waiting to be automated. They are the product.
On EVs, this is even more acute. We’re still in a period where many buyers are making their first electric vehicle purchase, and anxiety (range, charging, the unknown) is real. The transition to electrification isn’t just a technology shift; it’s a trust exercise. And trust is built between people.
None of this is an argument against technology.
I’d be a hypocrite to make it. I spend a significant part of my working life helping the industry navigate exactly these digital shifts. The point is that the businesses who will win aren’t the ones who automate the most. They’re the ones who are precise about what they automate, and remain fiercely protective of the interactions that only humans can deliver.
Brighton SEO gave me a lot to think about technically. But the thing that has stayed with me most is simpler than any of it: we are all, right now, clamouring to connect on a human level. Professionals across every sector are seeking out the rooms, the events, the relationships that remind them why they do what they do.
That’s not a reaction against AI; it’s a reminder of what AI cannot replace.
As we Keyloopers look forward to Fusion Live in London I’m genuinely grateful to work in an industry that gets this.
Automotive has always been, at its core, a people business. The product changes; from combustion to electric, from forecourt to digital, but the relationship between a customer and someone they trust to guide one of the largest purchases of their life? That doesn’t change. It never will.
The technology should serve that relationship. Not the other way around.
Author: Jacqui Barker is Keyloop’s global engagement vice president.
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