Hyundai Capital America has adopted artificial intelligence into its Kia Motor Finance brand with the launch of “Kian,” an AI-powered chatbot that assists consumers with finance-specific questions, Martin Schmitt, chief executive at CarLabs, told AFN. The bot started “living” on Kia Motor Finance’s website last month, Schmitt said, replacing the search bar and serving as a point of contact for consumers who visit the captive’s homepage.
AI-based technology platform CarLabs linked up with HCA in 2018 when it started to work on a car-shopping solution to “capture new-car shoppers, answer their questions, and get them to the qualified contact,” Schmitt said.
In the process of developing the tool, CarLabs created the digital assistant. “When we started, we were getting all this data on users,” Schmitt said. “We realized that more than half of them are users asking questions like, ‘How do I know my lease is up? How can I make a payment?’”
As a result, CarLabs came up with “Kian,” which answers all questions about lease-end, payments, auto pay, and paperless billing. CarLabs is developing AI-powered products for OEMs Acura and Honda, and for captive BMW Financial Services.
Schmitt will join Auto Finance News in a dynamic and engaging fireside chat at the upcoming Auto Finance Innovation Summit on May 15 at the Omni San Diego.
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