Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA plans to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to further adapt to the industry’s “online evolution,” newly appointed Vice President of Sales and Operations Mark Lovely told Auto Finance News.
Though traditional auto finance will remain a part of the business, Lovely is on the lookout for “new and exciting developments that potentially will revolutionize the way we operate,” he said.
Already, digitalization is playing a “big part” in the way the captive develops and delivers services to customers, said Lovely, who was appointed to this new role last month.
MBFS launched an AI-powered virtual assistant — called “Mercedes” — at the end of 2018. “Mercedes” is a chatbot with machine-learning capabilities that communicate through text in response to accountholder queries submitted through the captive’s website. “We see this as an efficient way to give our customers immediate service when they need it, and one that will also allow our customers to spend less time on the phone or computer managing their account,” he said.
Lovely replaced longtime executive Mark Ingram, who retired after 36 years at the captive, and reports to MBFS USA Vice President Geoff Robinson.
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