What We Heard at the NCM Clients & Friends Digital Success Workshop 2026

The automotive retail landscape continues to change quickly. Still, one thing was clear at the 2026 NCM Clients & Friends Digital Success Workshop: dealers are focused on turning their data, technology, and marketing investments into measurable business outcomes.

As a sponsor and exhibitor, PureCars had the opportunity to connect with dealership leaders, OEM partners, and industry experts throughout the event. From conversations on the show floor to Lauren Donalson's session, several themes came up repeatedly, reflecting the questions dealers are asking about how to compete more effectively in today's digital marketplace.

1. How Can Dealers Get More Value From the Data They Already Have?

Dealerships have no shortage of customer data. The challenge is making that data accurate, connected, and actionable.

A major topic throughout the workshop was the importance of creating a complete view of the customer. A Customer Data Platform (CDP) can bring information together from multiple sources, helping dealerships create a cleaner, more accurate customer profile.

The opportunity goes beyond simply organizing data. When dealerships can connect sales, service, website, and engagement information, they have a stronger foundation for identifying what customers are likely to do next.

2. Where Are the Opportunities Hidden in Dealer Data?

Another recurring conversation was data mining and the ability to identify opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked.

Once customer data is unified and enriched, dealerships can look for signals such as:

• Purchase and upgrade intent
• Trade-in opportunities
• Service needs
• Unsold shopper opportunities
• Lapsed customer re-engagement
• Customers approaching their next vehicle purchase

The takeaway: the data a dealership already owns can be one of its most valuable sources of opportunity when it knows what to look for.

3. Can Better Data Make Advertising More Efficient?

Marketing efficiency was another major theme throughout the workshop.

Rather than treating every customer or shopper the same, dealers can use clean first-party data and intelligent audience strategies to identify the people most likely to take action. That creates opportunities to make advertising more relevant while reducing wasted spend.

This is where AI is increasingly becoming part of the conversation. AI-driven audiences and predictive buyer signals can help dealerships identify patterns and prioritize customers based on the likelihood of future behavior.

The goal isn't simply to use more technology. It's to use better intelligence to make marketing decisions.

4. How Do You Connect Marketing to the Full Customer Lifecycle?

Lauren's session also reinforced an important shift in how dealerships should think about customer engagement: the opportunity doesn't end when a vehicle is sold.

The same customer may represent multiple opportunities across the lifecycle, from initial research and purchase to service, trade-in, upgrade, and repurchase.

Connecting customer insights across these stages allows dealerships to create more relevant engagement while helping sales and service teams focus on the customers who need attention most.

AI-driven workflows can further support this process by helping dealerships respond to signals and engage customers at the right moments.

5. Where Does AI Actually Fit Into the Dealership?

Perhaps the biggest question surrounding all of these conversations was not whether dealers should be using AI, but where AI can create meaningful value.

The discussions at NCM highlighted a practical approach: AI should support better decisions, more relevant engagement, and greater efficiency rather than simply become another technology layer.

For dealerships, that can mean using AI to:

• Identify predictive buyer signals
• Build more precise audiences
• Surface opportunities within customer data
• Automate repetitive marketing workflows
• Personalize customer engagement
• Optimize campaigns based on performance signals

When AI is connected to clean customer data, it becomes much more useful. Instead of operating independently, intelligence can inform the decisions dealerships are already making across marketing, sales, and service.

The Bigger Takeaway: Connect the Pieces

Across conversations at the NCM Clients & Friends Digital Success Workshop, one theme continued to emerge: the biggest opportunity isn't another disconnected tool. It's connecting the data, intelligence, marketing, and customer engagement strategies dealers already have.

Dealerships have the data. They have the marketing channels. They have increasingly sophisticated technology.

The opportunity is bringing those pieces together so customer insights can drive action.

That was at the heart of the conversations PureCars had throughout the event and the ideas Lauren Donalson shared during her session. With a stronger data foundation, intelligent insights, and AI-enabled activation, dealers can spend less time trying to find opportunities and more time acting on the ones that matter.

From Conversations to Action

The NCM Clients & Friends Digital Success Workshop provided a valuable opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and talk about what is actually working for dealers today.

For PureCars, the conversations reinforced a simple idea: better data should lead to better decisions, and better decisions should lead to better retail outcomes.

We're proud to have been part of the event and look forward to continuing to help dealers turn customer data and intelligence into measurable performance.

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