Vendors, staff and buyers use AI words loosely, and dealership terms get mixed in. This glossary explains 55 of them in plain words, with a dealership example where it helps and a link to the page that goes deeper. For the big picture, start with our guide to AI for car dealerships.
A
AI (artificial intelligence)
Software that does tasks that normally need human judgment, such as writing, answering questions or spotting patterns. At a dealership, AI writes vehicle descriptions, answers buyers' messages and sorts leads.
AI agent
An AI that carries out a task in several steps instead of answering one question. For example: answering a buyer, asking qualifying questions, then booking a test drive. See how DriveGood AI works.
Algorithm
A set of rules a computer follows to reach a result. Facebook and Google use algorithms to decide which listings and ads people see.
Attribution
Working out which channel or ad brought a lead or a sale, so you know where your budget works. AI sales insights show which vehicles and channels bring leads and sales.
Automation
Letting software do a repeated task on its own, such as sending a follow-up text on day 3 or taking a sold vehicle off your listings. Rules-based automation does the same thing every time; AI can adapt to what a buyer actually wrote. See all DriveGood AI features.
Automotive Inventory Ads
Meta's official name for ads that automatically show vehicles from a dealer's vehicle catalogue, using Meta's signals about who is shopping for a vehicle. Drive Good runs ads on Facebook and Instagram for dealers.
B
BDC (business development centre)
The team that answers leads, follows up and books appointments so salespeople can focus on buyers at the dealership. Some dealers let AI handle first replies and routine follow-up, and keep people for the rest. See the AI BDC for car dealers.
Bias
When an AI's answers lean one way because of the data it learned from. It's one reason to keep a person in charge of decisions that affect a buyer, such as financing.
C
CASL
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation. According to the CRTC, commercial emails and texts need consent, identification of the sender and an unsubscribe mechanism. See our guide to AI and privacy at Canadian dealerships.
Chatbot
Software that answers messages in a conversation. Older chatbots follow fixed scripts; AI chatbots understand free-form questions like "Does it have heated seats?" See the AI chatbot for car dealers and how to choose one.
Consent
A person's agreement to how you use their information or to receiving your messages. Under CASL, consent to commercial messages is express or implied; Quebec's private-sector privacy law requires consent to be clear, free and informed.
Context window
How much text an AI model can take into account at once, including your instructions and the conversation so far. When a conversation or a pasted document goes past it, the AI can lose track of earlier details.
Conversational AI
AI that holds a back-and-forth conversation in everyday language. A buyer can ask three questions in one message and get a single, sensible answer.
CRM (customer relationship management)
The system that keeps your leads and customers, with their conversations, follow-ups and appointments. See Drive Good's car dealer CRM.
D
DMS (dealer management system)
The software a dealership runs on: vehicles, deals, customers and, often, leads. DriveGood AI saves every buyer conversation with the lead in the DMS. See the Drive Good DMS.
F
Fine-tuning
Extra training that adapts a general AI model to a specific job or style, using examples. A model fine-tuned on dealership conversations knows what a trade-in or a stock number is.
Follow-up
Contacting a lead again after the first conversation, until they buy, say no or stop answering. See AI lead follow-up and our guide on how to follow up with car buyers.
G
General AI assistant
A chat tool built for everyone and every task, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Meta AI. It only knows what you give it and doesn't see your DMS or your Messenger inbox on its own. See DriveGood AI vs a general AI assistant.
Generative AI
AI that creates new content, such as text, images or video, from instructions. Writing a vehicle description or a review reply is generative AI at work.
Google Business Profile
Your dealership's listing on Google Search and Maps, with hours, photos, posts and reviews. Your replies to reviews appear there too.
Google vehicle ads
Google's ads that show a vehicle's photo, make, model, price and mileage in Google search results, built from a vehicle feed. Google lists Canada among the countries where they're fully available. See Drive Good's Google vehicle ads.
Guardrails
Rules that limit what an AI may do or say. DriveGood AI has two it never breaks: it never negotiates a price and never shares private information. See responsible AI.
H
Hallucination
When an AI states something false with confidence, such as a sunroof the vehicle doesn't have. The fix is to give it the real details and check its work before anything is posted.
Handoff
The moment a conversation passes from the AI to a person, for example when a buyer wants to talk price. With DriveGood AI, replies can come from the AI, from a person, or both.
Human in the loop
A setup where a person reviews or decides at key points. At a dealership, price negotiation, trade-in values and credit decisions stay with people.
I
Intent
What a buyer is trying to do with a message: check availability, book a test drive, ask about financing. Reading intent correctly is how AI picks the right reply.
K
Knowledge base
The facts an AI can look up to answer questions, such as your hours, address, policies and vehicle details. An AI with a good knowledge base answers from facts instead of guessing.
L
Large language model (LLM)
The kind of AI model behind ChatGPT and similar tools, trained on very large amounts of text to read and write language. It writes fluently but only knows your vehicles if you give it the details.
Law 25
The Quebec law, adopted in 2021, that made significant changes to Quebec's privacy laws, according to the Commission d'accès à l'information. Among other things, a business must tell people when a decision about them is based exclusively on automated processing. See our privacy guide for dealers.
Lead
A potential buyer who has shown interest: a Marketplace message, a website form, a call or a walk-in.
Lead qualification
Finding out how ready a lead is by asking about trade-in, financing, budget and timing. See AI lead qualification.
Lead response time
How long it takes your dealership to answer a new lead, also called speed to lead. Read Drive Good's guide on dealer lead response time.
M
Machine learning
The way most AI learns: finding patterns in examples instead of following hand-written rules.
Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace, where buyers browse vehicles and message sellers. "Is this still available?" is the classic first message. See our guide to AI replies to Marketplace messages.
Messenger
Meta's messaging app, where conversations from Marketplace and your Facebook page take place. DriveGood AI answers buyers in Messenger, on Marketplace and on your Facebook page.
Multilingual AI
AI that understands and replies in more than one language. DriveGood AI answers buyers in English, French or Spanish, in the buyer's language. See multilingual AI for dealers.
N
Natural language
Everyday human language, as opposed to commands or code. "Got anything under 100,000 km for a family of five?" is natural language.
Natural language processing (NLP)
The part of AI that reads and makes sense of natural language, so software can understand a buyer's message the way a salesperson would.
P
Personal information
Information about an identifiable person, such as a name, phone number, address or credit details. Privacy laws decide how you collect, use and protect it.
PIPEDA
Canada's federal private-sector privacy law. According to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, it applies to organizations that collect, use or disclose personal information in commercial activity; Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec have their own private-sector laws.
Prompt
The instruction you type into an AI tool. Good prompts give the details, the length and what not to invent. See our 30 AI prompts for car dealers.
R
Reputation management
Getting, answering and monitoring reviews so buyers see a fair picture of your dealership. See Drive Good's reputation management.
Responsible AI
Using AI with clear limits, honesty about what it is, and people in charge of the decisions that matter. See responsible AI at DriveGood AI.
Review reply
Your dealership's public answer to a Google review. A calm reply to every review, negative ones included, shows buyers how you treat customers. See AI review replies.
S
Sentiment
The feeling behind a message or review: positive, negative or neutral. AI reads sentiment to spot an unhappy buyer and adjust the tone of its reply.
Syndication
Sending your vehicles to several places from one set of vehicle details, so a price change or a sale shows up everywhere. DriveGood AI posts vehicles to Facebook Marketplace, Facebook groups, Instagram, TikTok, Google and your website. See AI vehicle listings.
T
Test drive booking
Setting a time for a buyer to drive a vehicle and putting it in your calendar. See AI test drive booking.
Token
A small chunk of text, often part of a word, that AI models read and write. Limits on how much an AI can read at once are counted in tokens.
Trade-in
The vehicle a buyer gives the dealership as part of a purchase. Asking about it early helps your team prepare; the value itself is set by a person.
Training data
The text, images or other examples an AI model learned from. A general model's training data doesn't include your vehicles or your dealership's policies.
V
Vehicle description
The text of a listing: trim, kilometres, features, condition and why the vehicle is worth a visit. See AI vehicle descriptions.
Vehicle feed
A file listing your vehicles and their details that listing sites and ad platforms read automatically. Google vehicle ads, for example, are built from one.
Vehicle video
A short video of a vehicle for Marketplace, Instagram or TikTok. AI can create one from your photos or your own footage. See AI car videos.
Virtual assistant
Another name for software that answers questions and handles simple tasks, for your team or for your buyers. The term often covers AI chat tools that answer buyers' messages.
W
Walkaround video
A video that walks around a vehicle, outside and in, to show its condition and features. Read Drive Good's tips on shooting a walkaround video with a phone.
