The monthly Techwatch feature by Automotive Management outlines some of the last month’s highlights in motor retail technological developments.
By Alex Wright
Pinewood.AI has expanded its Business Intelligence platform with two new embedded modules focused on dealership financial performance and customer journey analysis.
The new Accounting and Finance and Customer modules are now available within the Pinewood Automotive Intelligence platform and are designed to provide dealers and OEMs with live operational insight and automated reporting tools.
The additions follow the launch of Pinewood.AI’s Sales and Stock insight module earlier this year and complete the company’s Core Insights tier within its broader business intelligence suite.
Pinewood.AI said that the new modules are designed to help retailers move away from manual spreadsheet-based reporting towards live operational data that supports faster decision-making.
The Accounting and Finance module provides reporting across profit and loss, balance sheets, budgeting, working capital and margin analysis through integrated dashboards.
Pinewood.AI said that the system is designed to surface “enterprise-accurate, fully reconciled financial data” in a consistent format without the need for manual report building, potentially saving dealerships up to 10 hours a week.
The business added that centrally governed metrics are intended to reduce inconsistencies between spreadsheets, manual reports and different interpretations of dealership performance.
The Customer module focuses on the end-to-end customer journey, combining lead management, conversion performance, customer satisfaction and database quality tracking within a single reporting environment.
Pinewood.AI said that the module combines operational and CRM-style data to help dealers identify customer friction points and improve performance across sales and retention activity.
Jason Gregory, data and analytics director at Pinewood.AI, said: “This marks an important step forward in Pinewood.AI delivering a fully rounded, customer-facing analytics platform, giving dealers and OEMs insight across all four core operational areas.
“Completing Core BI is a major milestone for us in providing customers with enterprise-wide insight across accounting, customer, sales and aftersales, all on one platform, one database, one version of the truth.”
The company said that its Business Intelligence solution is now available across three tiers: Core Insights, Enhanced Insights and Strategic Insights, ranging from operational reporting tools through to bespoke analytics services.
Mad Devs has expanded its Connect technology platform with the launch of Connect Video, a new integrated video communication tool designed to help dealers respond faster and more effectively to customer enquiries.
The new functionality enables retailers to create and send personalised vehicle videos directly from within iTrackLEADS and & iConvert, helping dealers streamline communication and improve response times throughout the sales process.
Industry research suggests that landing pages featuring video can increase conversions by as much as 80%, while around 68% of consumers prefer learning about products through video rather than text. Marketing studies have also shown that video content can significantly increase purchase intent and sales compared with static imagery alone.
Mad Devs believes that those changing consumer expectations are increasingly shaping automotive retail, particularly as more buyers move towards a digital-first purchasing journey. According to EY research, 66% of car buyers would now be comfortable completing the entire vehicle purchase process online.
Connect Video enables dealers to record and send personalised vehicle walkarounds, respond to enquiries via video, and maintain customer engagement through a faster, more seamless communication journey. The system also gives sales teams access to a shared video inventory, allowing dealerships across multiple locations to reuse approved vehicle videos without recreating content each time.
Mad Devs said that the integration was designed to simplify creating professional-quality video content while reducing the time spent communicating with buyers.
Dan Rea, sales director at Mad Devs, said: “Video has become an essential part of modern vehicle retailing because customers increasingly expect faster, more personal communication. Dealers are under pressure to respond quickly, stand out online and create a smoother digital experience, and video helps achieve all three.
“By integrating Connect Video directly into Connect, we are making it much easier for dealers to respond instantly with professional, personalised content that improves engagement and helps move customers through the buying journey more efficiently.”
The broader Connect platform was launched to give retailers greater control over every stage of the customer journey through a modular software ecosystem that integrates lead management, digital documentation, compliance tools, remote selling and customer communication into a single workflow.
Mad Devs said that Connect has been developed by a UK-based team with decades of automotive retail software experience and is designed to help dealers improve efficiency, maintain compliance and enhance customer experience without adding operational complexity.
Mad Devs is also expanding its Connect technology platform with the launch of Connect Video, a new integrated communication tool designed to help dealers respond faster and more effectively to customer enquiries.
The new functionality allows retailers to create and send personalised vehicle videos directly from within iTrackLeads and iConvert, helping dealerships streamline communication and improve response times throughout the sales process.
The business said that the launch reflects the growing role of video within digital retailing as dealers adapt to increasingly online-led customer journeys.
iVendi has launched a new tool designed to help dealers navigate the complexity of funding value-added products (VAPs), automatically applying lender-specific rules during finance applications.
The feature is included free within the latest update to the company’s Showroom platform and aims to remove the need for dealerships to manually track differing lender policies on products such as warranties, paint protection and tyre insurance.
According to iVendi, funding VAPs alongside vehicle finance has become complicated because lenders apply different criteria to the products they will fund.
James Tew, chief executive of iVendi, said: “Funding of VAPs is a minefield for dealers. When they make an application for vehicle funding and bundle in products such as warranties, paint protection and tyre insurance, every lender has different rules.
“Some simply won’t fund VAPs as part of the vehicle finance, others will fund some types of VAPs but not others, while still others will have a limit on the amount of VAP funding they will include.
“To handle this, many dealers operate a spreadsheet explaining all the rules for the different lenders in their panel but keeping track of this is not easy and anyway, the rules tend to change quite often.”
The new tool automatically applies the latest lender requirements at the point of application, removing the need for manual intervention.
Tew said that lender attitudes towards VAP funding are becoming more cautious, partly because of concerns around affordability, loan-to-value ratios and potential regulatory scrutiny.
He said: “The most obvious problem is the average length of car funding is around four years while the average length of warranty is probably half that or less. Consumers end up paying for cover long after it has ended.
“Also, the funding of VAPs on motor finance agreements negatively impacts the loan-to-value position. This could lead to a decline for borderline cases or an increased customer rate from those lenders that operate risk-based pricing products.
“These issues are making motor finance providers increasingly wary and some are questioning whether they can continue to operate in this way without there being an intervention from the FCA in time.
“This is why developments such as our new tool are important. VAPs remain an important source of profit for dealers and, by continuing to make them accessible against a changing lender backdrop, we are helping to preserve that revenue.”
Automotive Insights & Research Services has partnered with Regit to launch a new consumer intelligence platform designed to give OEMs and dealerships deeper insight into motorists based on the vehicles they drive.
The new AutoGraphics tool combines Automotive Insights’ monthly consumer research with Regit’s first-party vehicle ownership data, allowing users to filter survey responses by specific vehicle characteristics rather than relying solely on traditional demographic segmentation.
Automotive Insights has surveyed more than 1,000 motorists each month since January 2025, and responses are now matched directly to vehicle ownership data through Regit’s platform.
The businesses said the platform enables clients to analyse consumer attitudes, buy intent and ownership behaviours using filters including make and model, fuel type, insurance group, mileage and servicing data.
Richard Walker, executive director of research and insights at Automotive Insights, said: “This is a clear demonstration of how we are defining the future of automotive industry insights and research today. This new tool will enable clients to not only utilise demographic data to view, filter and interrogate our proprietary data but to be able to filter by motorists car features and datapoints – such as model, insurance group, vehicle mileage and even the date of next service.”
Regit said that the tool could help businesses better understand motorists facing barriers to electric vehicle adoption and identify more targeted marketing opportunities.
Keyloop is launching an all-new end-to-end sales management solution that improves conversions, reduces cost and maximises operational efficiency throughout the sales process. Developed specifically for vehicle manufacturers and retailers, Sales Hub supports every stage in an omnichannel sales process, establishing new workflows that connect people and processes, as well as customer and vehicle data.
Pilot implementations of the new solution will begin at dealerships across the UK in July with a full UK roll-out scheduled for the second half of 2026. Sales Hub will become the latest major component of Fusion, Keyloop’s Automotive Retail Platform, which streamlines processes and optimises value across the full customer lifecycle, from enquiry through to ownership and retention.
Sales Hub can be used to tailor offers for a customer or prospect, build a deal, manage part-exchanges and finance applications, share quotations via the customer’s preferred channel(s) – including email, SMS, WhatsApp and the dealer’s own sales portal – and capture and then store digital deal signatures.
It also records details, preferences and behaviours to make communications more personalised and relevant, as well as to create actionable insights that can be used to shape offers and campaigns. Predictive analytics and propensity scoring, all powered by intelligent learning models, anticipate customer needs to build campaigns that are more meaningful and productive.
The suite of AI tools built into Sales Hub automate repetitive tasks, freeing sales teams to focus on high-value customer interactions, helped by their own copilot that steers activity and provides on-brand prompts for proactive and reactive communication.
The workflows embedded in Sales Hub help managers cut response times and improve team productivity.
Sales Hub also enables fully paperless document management and delivery, providing secure, easily accessible digital storage that helps retailers maintain OEM compliance, reduce print costs and quickly draw on key information to accelerate deals.
Adrian Nash, chief product officer at Keyloop, said: “We’ve listened to retailers across the UK to truly understand their pain points throughout the sales process and built a solution that addresses the real challenges faced by dealership staff on a daily basis: fragmented systems, limited customer visibility and time-consuming lead management. Sales Hub is a true end-to-end system, with AI built in from the outset to future-proof sales processes and maximise conversions as customer expectations continue to evolve.”
To further streamline sales processes across businesses, Sales Hub integrates with Keyloop’s dealer management system, Acquisition Hub (end-to-end ecommerce) and Vehicle Hub (real-time inventory management).
CitNOW Group has launched DataHub AI, a platform that brings together data from multiple dealership systems into a single environment, enabling retailers to access customer and vehicle information through one interface.
The platform allows users to query dealership data in plain English and receive instant insights, forecasts and recommended actions, helping dealerships and OEMs make faster, data-driven decisions while eliminating the data silos created by traditional supplier systems.
According to CitNOW, a recent survey found that just 26% of dealers believe they are receiving excellent value from their data. However, every respondent agreed that unified customer and vehicle data would directly contribute to revenue growth.
DataHub AI allows users to drill down into performance metrics, run scenarios and compare results against benchmark data from leading dealerships.
The platform is designed to support every department, from sales and marketing teams through to aftersales operations and senior management.
Boris Huard, chief executive of CitNOW Group, said: “The automotive industry has incredible data. However, it lacked a single, trusted layer to unlock its value and make it actionable. DataHub AI is that layer and it’s accessible to everyone.
“CitNOW Group’s vision is to provide the industry with a comprehensive and integrated customer relationship management solution, a modern, flexible, omnichannel user engagement interface, and now the data and insight layer that powers decisive and comprehensive outcomes.
“We’re not just removing data silos, we’re promoting innovation and collaboration amongst technology suppliers to the benefit of customers, dealer groups and OEMs. We are passionate about this agentic-ready, data foundation which will help the industry thrive.”
CitNOW said DataHub AI can be used to analyse historic aftersales performance, forecast enquiry conversion rates and build showroom budgets in minutes.
The system also benchmarks performance against anonymised industry standards drawn from CitNOW Group’s customer base, which the company said includes 95% of the UK’s top 100 franchised dealer groups.
The company added that DataHub AI typically delivers a 10x return on investment across CitNOW data products used by its customer base.