Best AI phone agents for car dealerships (2026): an honest comparison
Last updated October 18, 2026
Written by the DealersThink team. Published October 18, 2026.
The useful way to compare AI phone agents for car dealerships in 2026 is a short list of sourced facts: who books Xtime, who connects to CDK, who states Spanish, who includes a human handoff, and whether the product is service, sales, or both. This guide includes DealersThink. We wrote it. Cells say “not stated” when the page we retrieved did not say.
How we evaluated
This guide is written by DealersThink, a vendor in the list, and it does not award a first place. The criteria are ones a director can check without a login: Xtime or DMS booking, Spanish, a human handoff, sales versus service, and any go-live time the vendor printed. A fact needs a link. Retrieval date is October 17, 2026 unless the source names its own date. This site does not list a price.
| Criterion | What counts | What does not count |
|---|---|---|
| Xtime or DMS booking | The vendor or a dated article says the appointment is written to a named system. | “Integrates with your DMS” with no name. |
| Spanish | The vendor states Spanish, or a broader language claim we quote. | Our guess from a demo video. |
| Human handoff | A stated warm transfer, a stated in-product desk, or a stated live team. | A chatbot that emails a manager. |
| Sales vs service | The vendor’s own label. | A label we inferred from a logo. |
| Go-live | A time the vendor printed. | A time we wish were true. We do not print one for ourselves. |
DealersThink
Read this paragraph as a disclosure. Riley answers service calls 24/7, in English and in Spanish when the store turns Spanish on, and books, moves, and cancels in Xtime. The certified CDK integration reads customer, vehicle, and repair-order history for caller lookup and BDC Customers. It does not write the appointment into CDK. The BDC desk is the store’s staff. Casey answers after-hours sales and works from your vAuto inventory. Wholesale units are not offered. CDK and Xtime certification was confirmed on October 17, 2026. We do not publish a go-live time or a booking rate.
Toma
Toma’s help center says Toma integrates with Xtime via an Xtime partner invitation code, and lists Affinitiv, CDK, Dealer-FX, myKaarma, PBS, Tekion, and Xtime as supported integrations. Toma is listed on xtime.com/integrations. As of October 17, 2026, toma.com served an “Applied Research” page, so the citations are the help center: the Xtime article and the integrations list. Spanish, a human desk, and a go-live time are not stated there. Toma is a reasonable short list for a buyer who wants directory proof and a written Xtime invitation path.
Flai
Flai covers service and sales and calls itself an “AI-Native Service CRM.” Its blog describes a $27 million Series A led by Base10. TechCrunch, on October 6, 2026, describes the software as booking 50,000 appointments per month. Flai’s site says most dealerships go live within 7 days and that it supports all major languages. Xtime and CDK are not stated on the pages we used. Those volume and go-live lines are Flai’s and TechCrunch’s, not ours. Flai is a fit when you want service and sales in one CRM story and a published language claim.
Numa
Numa calls itself “The AI Operating System for Car Dealerships,” says it is “Trusted by 1,500+ dealerships,” cites an “80%+ appointment booking rate,” and says go-live is “2–3 weeks.” Xtime, CDK, Spanish, and a human desk are not stated in those lines. The booking rate is Numa’s claim, not a figure we measured.
Matador
Matador describes five AI agents, 1,500+ rooftops, playable service and sales call demos, and a sales-lead focus. Xtime, CDK, and Spanish are not stated in that description.
Podium
Podium’s automotive page says “6,000+ dealerships trust Podium” and describes Jerry, an AI employee for sales and service. Xtime, CDK, and Spanish are not stated there.
Impel
Impel says it is “Trusted by 8,000 Dealers and OEMs in 50+ Countries,” describes a lifecycle and marketing platform, and cites SOC 2 Type II. Xtime booking, CDK, Spanish, and a BDC desk are not stated in those lines. Impel fits a lifecycle project, not a service-phone project. We do not claim their footprint or their audit.
Stella
Stella describes agents for reception, sales, service, outbound, recall, and more, and the site claims “Certified integrations.” AutoSuccess, on January 2, 2024, reported a read-write Xtime integration. CDK and Spanish are not stated in those two sources. “Certified integrations” without a system name is not recorded here as a CDK certification. Stella fits a store that wants that breadth of agents and a dated Xtime announcement in the file.
Car Wars Cari
Cari Phone Assist is described as a 24/7 AI receptionist and service scheduler with warm transfers. Car Wars, on October 10, 2025, announced a CDK integration through the Fortellis Marketplace, and also names Auto/Mate, Dealer-FX, and myKaarma. Xtime and Spanish are not stated in those sources. Cari is a fair service-line candidate, especially if you do not schedule in Xtime. Warm transfer is not the same fact as a store-staffed desk, so we do not write it as one.
CDK AIVA
AIVA books service 24/7 across phone, web chat, and text into the scheduler, supports multiple languages, and is “Included in the Fixed Operations Suite.” The word on the page is “the scheduler,” not Xtime. A human desk is not stated. AIVA is the fair choice when the assistant should arrive inside CDK’s suite. DealersThink is the fair choice when the appointment has to be in Xtime and the desk has to be yours. Those can both be true at different stores in one group.
Brooke.ai
Xtime’s site promotes Brooke.ai, a digital voice assistant from Proactive Dealer Solutions, with “seamless integration with Xtime Schedule.” Spanish and French were announced in August 2024 in a LinkedIn post by PDS staff. CDK and a human desk are not stated there. Brooke.ai has something DealersThink could not show on October 17, 2026: a page on Xtime’s own domain. That public listing matters. Our certification is confirmed by us and described on our integration pages. It is not the same artifact as a directory listing.
Which fits your store
If you schedule in Xtime and need CDK history, start with vendors whose sources name those systems: Toma and Brooke.ai for Xtime, Toma, Cari, and AIVA for CDK, Stella for the 2024 Xtime announcement, and DealersThink for certified versions of both plus a desk you staff. Sales leads point to Matador’s demos. Lifecycle marketing points to Impel. An AI employee inside a tool you already use points to Podium. A published go-live and a language claim, in the vendor’s words, point to Flai, with Xtime and CDK left as demo questions because they were not stated. Ask each vendor to show the cell in the system. If a cell here is wrong, the date at the top is how to tell us.
Book a demo.
See Riley on the service line and Casey on after-hours sales. Contact us on the form.
FAQ
Are your integrations certified?
Yes. DealersThink has certified CDK and Xtime integrations. That certification was confirmed on October 17, 2026. The integration pages describe each one.
Does it book directly into Xtime, or just take a message?
Riley books, moves, and cancels appointments in Xtime through a certified Xtime integration. The appointment is written in Xtime. It is not left as a message for someone to type in later.
Does it work with CDK?
Yes. DealersThink has a certified CDK integration. It reads customer, vehicle, and repair-order history from CDK. When a service call comes in, caller lookup uses that history to show who is calling, which vehicles are on those repair orders, and what was done. BDC Customers searches the same history by name, phone, or vehicle. Riley books the appointment in Xtime. The CDK read does not write the appointment into CDK.
What does it cost?
Pricing depends on rooftops and products. Book a demo. This page does not list a price.