- Ford University will use high-quality videos and gamified lessons to teach dealer employees.
- The program will use AI to grade users on their performance, and suggest ways in which they could improve.
- The Blue Oval says that it is reimagining how dealer training is done.
New vehicles are increasingly complex, which means that preparing dealer employees to sell them is more difficult than ever. Ford is now turning to artificial intelligence to train salespeople around the country.
The new program is called Ford University, and it delivers video content and gamified training programs to dealer employees in order to better equip them to talk to customers. The app’s content is being created by producers who have worked on TV shows and films across networks and streaming services.
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In fact, Ford University has been designed to look a bit like YouTube or Netflix, in order to engage salespeople and entice them into using it, Abby Vietor, the automaker’s head of dealer training told Autonews. After they’ve watched a video, the app’s users will be tasked with filming themselves simulating interactions with customers, which will be graded using AI.
The automaker turned to GPT and Microsoft Copilot to power the AI portion of Ford University, and it will be able to tell salespeople if they’re saying “um” or “like” too much, if they’re using key phrases enough, and more. If a user fails a test, they’ll be given tips on how to improve.
Before this all gets too dystopian, Ford promises that dealers whose employees perform poorly on the app will not be punished, nor will there be rewards for stores that do well. However, the automaker suggests that it could share performance data between nearby dealerships to get a little competition going, as long as everyone consents.
The automaker has not revealed how much the development of Ford University cost. For now, the app is targeted towards nontechnical employees, but programming for mechanics is coming by the end of 2024.
“It is very much an opportunity for us to completely reimagine how our dealership training is done today,” said Vietor. “It’s very much meant to be a completely different type of experience, but one where all the activities are geared toward reinforcement of knowledge and really helping the dealership employees translate that knowledge into a customer conversation.”