--- title: "Car Dealerships Are Replacing Phone Staff With AI Voice Agents" description: "The next time you call your car dealership to schedule a tune-up, the voice on the other end may not belong to a human." date: "2025-06-08" modified: "2025-06-08" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/car-dealerships-ai-voice" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "agentic ai" - "ai voice" - "ai workers" - "automation" --- # Car Dealerships Are Replacing Phone Staff With AI Voice Agents ![The next time you call your car dealership to schedule a tune-up, the voice on the other end may not belong to a human.]() *Successful cooperation between the buyer and seller \Image: milorad kravic / Getty Images\* The next time you call a car dealership, the voice on the other end may not belong to a human. As [*TechCrunch* reports](), the founders of Toma, an AI voice agent startup, pivoted from pitching to healthcare and finance companies to fielding calls from automotive salespeople desperate to offload some of their labor to AI agents. To hone their product, founders Monik Pamecha and Anthony Krivonos visited a dozen dealerships in the states of Oklahoma and Mississippi — no word on why they chose those specific locales — to get up close and personal with potential clients. Along with racking up folksy anecdotes about being fed home-cooked dinners and getting car grease on their clothes, *TechCrunch* reports that the learnings from the tour ended up attracting $17 million during its Andreessen Horowitz-led fundraising round for its software, which handles customer sales calls, schedules repair appointments, and takes parts orders. "We invest in a lot of the next-generation of vertical AI companies, a lot of the best founders have just lived and breathed with these customers to understand what’s going on under the hood," a16z partner Seema Amble told the site. "No pun intended." Described [by the venture capital firm]() as a "fully integrated, AI-powered software suite designed to help dealerships operate more efficiently," Toma's product offering differs from the countless [AI voice agent startups]() cropping up primarily because of its automotive focus. The company has some competition. According to a study [commissioned last year by Fullpath](), a sales data platform, 80 percent of the 200 dealerships contacted said they were already using AI — and fully 100 percent of those who use the technology said they saw increasing revenues after doing so. Notably, that study didn't break down *how* those dealerships were using AI, and Toma appears to be filling a specific hole that call centers across the world have already sought to plug: replacing human agents with AI. Yossi Levi, an automotive influencer who runs the "Car Dealership Guy" website — and who also invested in Toma — suggested that AI voice agents may be better equipped to handle the "ebbs and flows" of call volumes. "Sometimes you’re overwhelmed with demand," Levi told *TechCrunch*. "Other times there’s not enough demand, and matching staffing and properly training that staff for a consistent experience is just not an easy thing to do." The dealership dude insisted that Toma helps car dealers "standardize that process, and deliver a richer customer experience that is consistent." We can't say for sure how speaking to an AI affects the satisfaction of the customers on the other line — or whether its product has the same propensity for [getting it wrong]() as other AI agents. A cautionary tale for anyone rolling it out, though: remember the Chevy dealership that deployed an AI, only to [become alarmed when a customer]() talked it into selling new vehicle for just $1? **More on agentic AI:** [*Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely With AI Agents, and You'll Never Guess What Happened*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()