• by Tanya Gazdik , December 11, 2018

Honda has launched an AI-powered digital assistant on Facebook messenger.

The Honda Bot provides a mobile shopping experience that feels like a conversation with a human automotive expert. The digital assistant guides consumers through the shopping experience normally handled on Shophonda.com.

Carlabs.ai, reportedly the first conversational AI platform for digital automotive sales and customer service via chat, partnered with Honda and its agency RPA to build the smart sales assistant.

Car shoppers can text directly with a virtual Helpful Honda representative to ask questions about products, discuss pricing, estimate payments, learn about special offers, view photos and videos, search inventory and find nearby dealers. Shoppers can do all of this without leaving the Facebook Messenger platform.

Honda aims to drive qualified shopping via the custom web views that live within the bot itself, as well as measuring those who click out to build and price, says Jessica Fini, social media manager, American Honda.

The goal is to improve advertising conversion rates, guide shoppers more quickly and painlessly through the shopping process and secure more qualified sales leads.

“Honda’s development objective was to see if a chat interaction on social would serve as a better converter to qualified shopping actions versus sending in-market shoppers from Facebook placements to the mobile site,” Fini tells Marketing Daily. “Our theory is that targeted shoppers on social may be more likely to engage with the brand via a conversation within Messenger vs. clicking through to the website.”

Carlabs.ai has built similar solutions for Kia Motors America, Kia Motors Mexico and others. 

Honda sister company Acura launched its own chatbot in March with the launch of the 2019 TLX. Starting in January, it will integrate the RDX into the bot experience.

The Acura chatbot enables consumers to build and price the vehicle within the bot (unlike the Honda Chatbot, which offers build and price on a separate site). Acura worked with MullenLowe for creative and Hexagram for development.