New Cox Automotive research finds 63% of vehicle shoppers plan to use AI, while only 29% of dealers say they are adjusting for AI-powered search

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CarLocal.io is expanding its automotive AI answer engine and dealership visibility infrastructure as artificial intelligence becomes a more important starting point in the vehicle-shopping journey.

The shift is already showing up in industry research. According to Cox Automotive's Q2 2026 AI in Auto Retail Tracker, 63% of in-market vehicle shoppers say they definitely or probably will use AI during their next vehicle purchase. AI tools are now used as a vehicle research channel by 36% of shoppers, nearly level with automotive-specific websites at 38%.

Dealer adoption, however, has not moved at the same pace. Cox reports that only 29% of dealers say they are actively adjusting or in the process of adjusting for AI-powered search.

That creates a new challenge for automotive retailers: When a shopper asks an AI platform what vehicle to buy, where to buy it, how much it should cost or where to have it serviced, will that dealership be part of the answer?

"The biggest change isn't simply that consumers are using AI," said Chris J. Martinez, founder of CarLocal.io. "It's that the starting point of the shopping journey can now be a question instead of a traditional search. Dealers have spent years competing to rank on Google. The next challenge is making sure their dealership, inventory and local expertise can be understood and surfaced when consumers ask AI for an answer."

CarLocal.io is building around that shift.

The platform combines automotive AI search, answer engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), structured dealership information, local automotive intent coverage and technical website infrastructure designed to make dealership information easier for search engines and AI systems to discover, interpret and connect.

The consumer-facing CarLocal experience is being developed to answer natural-language automotive questions, while the underlying infrastructure helps organize and connect dealership information across traditional search, answer engines and emerging AI interfaces.

The goal is straightforward: help local dealerships become part of the answer as automotive discovery moves from searching to asking.

How Vehicle Discovery Is Changing

The change is visible in the types of questions consumers can now ask conversational systems. Instead of searching only for a dealership or vehicle model, a shopper can ask which three-row SUV fits a specific budget, whether leasing or financing makes more sense for a particular situation, what to consider before buying a used electric vehicle, or where to service a vehicle locally.

Cox Automotive reported that among shoppers using AI, 26% use it to generate questions to ask dealers and 24% say it helps them feel more prepared when working with a dealership. Avoiding dealership staff was the least-cited dealer-relationship benefit at 17%, suggesting AI is often being used to prepare for the dealership interaction rather than eliminate it.

"The important change is not simply that consumers are using AI," said Chris J. Martinez, founder of CarLocal.io. "It is that the starting point can now be a question instead of a website. That changes what information needs to be available, how it needs to be structured and how a local dealership can become part of the answer."

What CarLocal Is Building

CarLocal is developing an automotive AI answer engine and dealership visibility platform around the shift from keyword search toward conversational discovery. The consumer-facing experience is designed to address natural-language automotive questions, while the underlying infrastructure organizes dealership information so it can be more readily interpreted across traditional search, answer engines and emerging AI interfaces.

What CarLocal Is Finding on Dealership Websites

CarLocal's internal analysis of automotive retail websites has identified recurring technical and content issues that can complicate machine discovery. These include orphaned content with weak or missing internal pathways, conflicting canonical signals, sitemap gaps, inconsistent dealership information and promotional language that cannot be tied to a current verified offer.

In a recent quality initiative across CarLocal's dealership network, the platform corrected more than 11,000 promotional claims, removed more than 23,000 unsupported promotional references from page content and resolved 573 canonical conflicts. CarLocal also applied more than 68,000 internal links to strengthen connections between automotive content and reduce orphaned pages.

These figures are internal operational findings from CarLocal's platform work, not an independent industry sample. They are included to show the types and scale of issues CarLocal has encountered within the dealership websites it currently supports and should not be generalized to all U.S. dealerships.

How CarLocal Is Responding

The platform combines traditional search-engine fundamentals with answer engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), structured dealership information and local automotive intent coverage. CarLocal is also developing MCP-ready infrastructure around the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting AI applications with external data sources and tools.

Within CarLocal's architecture, MCP is one component intended to prepare dealership information for a future in which AI assistants and agents may retrieve information, use external tools and help consumers move from research toward action through conversational interfaces. The consumer sees an answer; underneath it is an information layer intended to organize automotive knowledge and connect consumer intent with relevant local resources.

CarLocal separately evaluates whether content is technically accessible, whether it meets internal quality requirements and whether visibility can actually be observed. Publishing or analyzing a page is not counted as proof that an external search engine or AI system has surfaced it.

CarLocal.io Platform Metrics

As of September 2026, CarLocal supports 21 active dealership deployments and has analyzed more than 49,000 live automotive web pages. These figures describe platform deployment and technical analysis activity; they are not presented as independent evidence of consumer adoption, search-ranking gains or AI citation performance.

The quality initiative figures cited above are also internal operational counts. CarLocal reports them separately from third-party market research so readers can distinguish external consumer and dealer trends from observations generated through CarLocal's own platform.

Methodology and Sources

The consumer and dealer market statistics in this release come from Cox Automotive's AI in Auto Retail Tracker. Cox reports that its Q2 2026 wave surveyed 483 franchise and independent dealership decision-makers and 1,502 consumers planning to purchase a vehicle within the next 12 months. The Q2 surveys were fielded in May 2026, and dealership data were weighted by dealership size.

CarLocal platform figures are internal operational counts as of September 2026. They reflect active dealership deployments and pages processed or analyzed by CarLocal systems. They are provided for scale and product context and should not be interpreted as third-party market research.

Sources

Cox Automotive, AI in Auto Retail Tracker (Q1–Q2 2026): https://www.coxautoinc.com/retail/ai-in-auto-retail-tracker/

Cox Automotive, "New Cox Automotive AI in Auto Retail Tracker Finds Growing Gap Between Dealers and AI-Powered Car Shoppers," Aug. 11, 2026: https://www.coxautoinc.com/press-releases/new-cox-automotive-ai-in-auto-retail-tracker/

Cox Automotive, "How AI Is Influencing Vehicle Discovery and What Dealers Can Do About It," Aug. 26, 2026: https://www.coxautoinc.com/insights/how-ai-is-influencing-vehicle-discovery-and-what-dealers-can-do-about-it/

About CarLocal.io

CarLocal.io is an automotive AI answer engine and search visibility platform focused on helping consumers navigate vehicle research and ownership questions while helping local dealerships make accurate information more discoverable across traditional search, answer engines and generative AI. Its technology includes dealership website analysis, AEO, GEO, structured information, local intent coverage, content quality controls and MCP-ready infrastructure.

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SOURCE CarLocal