AI software promises change to ‘stale' F&I training

Ryan Daniel believes artificial intelligence will bring a spark to finance and insurance training that has become "stagnant, stale and boring."

Daniel, president of Finance Manager Training, will soon unveil software called AI Roleplay Training — ART for short — that he said will "revolutionize" F&I training by offering accessible, adaptive and life-like training.

F&I offices are experiencing a "huge lack of training right now," Daniel said. This is largely because of a lack of adequate money and time on the part of dealerships and a shortage of trainers nationwide, he said. The situation worsened during the pandemic, which further limited training and experience opportunities, he added.

Beyond that, F&I training methods have changed little in recent years.

Combining human and machine learning, the ART software has entered the scene after two years in the making and promises a much-needed shake-up of convention, Daniel said.

When people think about AI and automotive, the first thing that comes to mind for many is autonomous driving. In reality, machine learning is being implemented throughout the industry, from automating transactions at CarMax to helping plan an effective EV charging network.

When using the ART software, finance managers will be able to speak to the AI, and it will speak back to model face-to-face customer interactions. The software will be accessible on both desktops and mobile phones.

Role-play has always been at the core of F&I training and is the key to addressing a growing lack of sales experience, Daniel said.

"We're seeing a lot of employees nowadays, especially the younger employees … who are not as used to interpersonal dialogue," he said.

With ART, F&I training will now be able to mimic speaking to a simulated customer eye to eye.

"Role-play is how people get better at selling," Daniel said.

Employees will be able to use the training at their own convenience and see improvement through 10- to 15-minute sessions a day. The predicted advancements are contingent on consistent engagement, so dealerships will have to ensure their employees are regularly logging on, Daniel said.

"You need to constantly stress your brain to make it smarter," he added.

In future versions of the software, Finance Manager Training hopes dealerships will be able to tailor the AI to model the specific demographics of customers they encounter. For now, that capability remains in planning and development.

With each role-play simulation, ART will add the finance manager's responses to its data set. Finance Manager Training is then able to teach the software how to better object to those responses.

In other words, employees can expect over time the software will adapt and improve its objections to their sales pitches instead of offering the same objections every time, Daniel said. The result is a "circular" model of feedback where the AI is learning alongside users.

"You are going to go from bouncing ideas off of three people in the finance office in a dealership to potentially bouncing ideas off of 20,000 people across 20,000 dealerships," he said.

Throughout development, Finance Manager Training has received pushback from veteran finance managers about the data collection aspect out of fear of replacement or automation of F&I offices.

"That was never a thought in our mind," Daniel said. "We don't have a business without finance managers."

ART will be available to Finance Manager Training members for beta testing in mid-May and will be publicly available in June.

A final cost for the software has not yet been determined, but it will be available through a monthly subscription model.