Think about when people actually look at your cars, because that is when the AI website assistant does its work.
Not at ten on a Tuesday morning, when you are on the forecourt and the phone is staffed. They look at eleven at night, on the sofa, on their phone, after the children are in bed. They scroll your stock, open a few cars, and have a question. Have you got anything automatic under fifteen grand? Is this one low mileage for its age?
There is nobody to ask. Some will fill in a form and wait. Most will close the tab and look at another dealer's site instead.
The AI website assistant is there for that moment. It is a chat on your Vehiso website that knows your stock.
What it does
Visitors type a question the way they would ask a salesperson. "An automatic SUV under £15k." "Does this one have low mileage?"
The assistant searches your live stock, exactly the cars your website lists as it is right now, and shows the matches as cards that link to each vehicle page. The visitor taps through to the car, not to a search results page they have to work through again.
It also knows which car page the visitor is on. So when someone looking at a Qashqai asks about "this one", the answer is about that Qashqai.
And whenever the visitor wants to talk to a person, they can ask for a call back.
Here is what a chat looks like
An illustrative example:
Visitor: Have you got an automatic SUV under £15k?
Assistant: I found 2 automatic SUVs under £15,000 in stock right now: a 2019 Nissan Qashqai 1.3 DIG-T N-Connecta, automatic, £14,495, 38,000 miles, and a 2018 Kia Sportage 1.6 T-GDi GT-Line, automatic, £13,995, 45,000 miles.
Each car appears as a card with a link to its page. Real answers come from your own stock and details, so the cars and figures will be yours.
It answers from your data, or says it does not know
The first thing any dealer should ask about a chat assistant is whether it will make things up. A made-up answer about a car is a problem waiting for you on the forecourt.
Every answer comes from your real details: your stock, prices and mileage, and your branch addresses, phone numbers and opening hours. The assistant will not quote a price or mileage it was not given, and every price and mileage in a reply is checked against the figures it was given before the visitor sees it.
When it cannot answer, it says so and offers to put the visitor in touch with your team. Ask it whether a particular car has had its cambelt changed, and if it does not have the service history, you get something like this:
I don't have the service history for this car, so I can't tell you. Would you like the team to call you back and check for you?
That is the answer you would want a new member of staff to give. Honest, and still moving the buyer towards a conversation.
Call back requests arrive as enquiries
At any point in the chat, a visitor can ask for a call back. They leave:
- their name
- an email address or phone number
- how and when they would like to be contacted
- an optional note, such as "I would like to see the Qashqai on Saturday"
They also choose separately whether to receive marketing by email and by SMS.
The request arrives in your dealer management system as a normal website enquiry, with the chat transcript attached. Your team knows exactly what was asked before they pick up the phone, and the enquiry sits with all your others in test drive and enquiry management, not in a separate chat inbox.
Because it is a normal website enquiry, your team can answer it with AI lead replies like any other, and if the buyer then goes quiet, the AI follow-up agent can keep it warm, provided they agreed to receive marketing. Those separate email and SMS opt-ins are what make that possible.
Off until you switch it on
Nothing appears on your website until you decide it should.
Off by default. Switch it on from the AI features page in your DMS settings, or in one click from the card on your dashboard. Switch it off again at any time.
One page for every AI feature. The same settings page switches the website assistant, the AI Concierge, AI recommendations and insights, AI agents, AI lead replies and follow-ups on and off individually.
Your website's language. The assistant replies in the language of your dealer website.
Limits for each visitor. Up to 15 messages in a chat and 5 chats per visitor a day, to stop abuse and protect your allowance.
Never seen failing. If your monthly allowance is used up, the assistant is hidden from your website until it resets, so visitors never see it break.
Out of the way while you edit. It hides itself in the editing preview, so it never covers the page you are working on in the website editor.
A few honest limits
It does not book test drives or give finance quotes in the chat. It finds cars in your stock, answers questions from your data and takes call back requests. A test drive, a finance quote or a part-exchange valuation is for your team to pick up.
It only knows what you have told it. Service history, previous owners, that small mark on the rear bumper: if it is not in the details it was given, it will say it does not know and offer a call back. Fuller stock records mean more questions answered in the chat. Our guide to vehicle stock pages that convert covers what is worth recording.
It is capped per visitor. 15 messages a chat and 5 chats a day per visitor. Enough for a real buyer, not enough for someone trying to use up your allowance.
When the allowance runs out, it disappears until the reset. Visitors never see it fail, but they will not see it at all until the next month's allowance starts.
Which plan it is on
The AI website assistant is included in every paid plan at no extra cost. It is not a paid add-on, and each plan comes with a monthly allowance of conversations:
- Starter: 100 conversations a month
- Growth: 250 conversations a month
- Business: 500 conversations a month
- Ultra: 1,000 conversations a month
A free trial includes 15 conversations for the whole trial, whichever plan you are trying. When a month's allowance is used up, the assistant is hidden from your website and comes back automatically when the allowance resets.
The Free plan does not include the AI website assistant. Paid plans start at £49 a month, and you can try any of them free for 7 days with no credit card required. The full comparison is on the pricing page.
Your website is open all night even when you are not. If you would like it to answer buyers while they are still browsing, switch on the AI website assistant and see what your visitors ask it.
