The nation's largest automotive conference concluded this past week and signaled a strong industry fully prepared to embrace technology and continued evolution.
Let's look at a few key takeaways from the event and how they'll reshape the space in the coming year.
Data is King
A central theme of the event was the growing emphasis on Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) as a mechanism to gather data from various sources and transform it into actionable information. Dealerships sit on an incredible amount of highly valuable customer data that can be processed, cleaned, and leveraged by these CDPs to yield better marketing and advertising activities.
CDPs, augmented with additional data, can provide deep insights into customer behavior, personalize outreach, and overall act with greater precision and timeliness. They will be one of the core components for those dealerships seeking to greatly improve their customer engagement.
AI Will Be Ubiquitous
As is the case with almost any other industry these days, talk of AI is everywhere. On display were AI-powered tools that create look-alike audiences, streamline communications, assist in contextualizing data, glean insights around inventory management, help enhance targeted marketing campaigns, and assist sales teams by nurturing leads. If you can think of a use case for AI, it was probably represented at the event.
Despite this, many of the tools are still in their nascency. AI can be sensibly used in every function of business, but which ones deliver the highest ROI remains to be seen.
Dealers Expect More from Providers
Automotive dealers are a resilient bunch. With the industry being as competitive as it is with near ever-changing market dynamics, they understand the necessity to remain competitive. As a result, they expect their tech providers to be cutting-edge.
Where others might show reticence to innovate, dealers are more than willing to adopt new technology if it means gaining an edge. Although, given the widespread acceptance of tech, these adoptions are more about not getting left behind.
The Future Looks Bright
NADA Show 2025 highlighted the industry's forward-thinking approach, with a strong focus on leveraging data and AI to meet evolving customer needs.
The overall sentiment at the event was optimistic, with industry leaders projecting a potential growth of 5% this year. Given the remarkable speed of innovation on the part of the tech providers and the willingness to adapt on the part of the dealers, it’s tough not to share in the excitement for where the industry is headed.
Ⓒ 2025 TangoCode
