Artificial intelligence can unlock the future of the automotive aftermarket, transforming business operations and boosting profits, according to an industry advisor.
Neury Freitas, partner at Roland Berger explored how AI can revolutionize automotive aftermarket businesses during the MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Vision Conference. Highlighting four key areas, he told attendees about how AI can drive revenue growth, cost savings and quality assurance in the industry.
He started with improving revenue. Can it happen with AI? “We think that yes, you can you can gain market share — if your competitors are not doing the same thing,” Freitas observed.
AI tools enable businesses to better identify customer needs and stay abreast of industry trends, he emphasized.
“You can use AI tools and use cases to be really on top of everything that’s happening in the industry. And that will allow you to create personalized aftersales. You can better serve your customers,” Freitas explained. “And in doing so, you can also understand better the end consumer — why are they really wanting? Why did they are looking for?”
Freitas pointed out that many companies are not optimizing their demand forecasting processes.
“When we talk to a lot of few of you in the room, it’s shocking for us. A lot of companies have a very, very simple process of doing the demand forecast,” he said. “A lot of times [they] use historical data, without any real additional steps or machine learning. [There are] tools that are available right now like additional intelligence for demand forecast. So go and deploy those … they are going to help you there.”
Discussing cost savings, Freitas highlighted the potential of AI in commodity procurement during the session, Profitable Deployment of AI in the Automotive Aftermarket, based on insights from MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers 2024 Landmark Study.
“Can we save some money on our costs? Absolutely,” he said. “So the first thing that a lot of companies are deploying right now is commodity procurement. So you will know when to buy, what to buy [and] what’s happening with the trends. You will be able to track more information than a human is able to. And again, use cases they have been developed — it’s something you could go and deploy right now.”
Quality assurance is another critical area where AI can make a significant impact. “When you are producing parts, you can deploy visual AI tools to help make sure that you have the right parts. And then you can go in, identify if there is a problem, what’s the potential root cause and then go back and solve that,” he said. “So you start having issues and you stop having scrapping of production.”
Freitas acknowledged that not all AI use cases will be relevant for every business but urged attendees to look for areas where it can help.
“But off the bat, there will be a few use cases that you can go and deploy and be able to save some money or be able to capture some additional market,” he said.
Image credit: Depositphotos.com
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