Infiniti Dealers Rank Highest in 2026 Web Lead Response Study; AI and Automation Drive Industry Improvement

• AI and automation: Customers received “perfect” responses more than half the time, a rate that has doubled in 5 years
• Risks of automation: When AI required human intervention, customer questions were twice as likely to go unanswered
• ChatGPT search results: Local customers for one in four dealers were sent to another dealer instead

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Infiniti dealerships ranked highest in the 2026 Pied Piper PSI^® Internet Lead Effectiveness^® (ILE^®) Auto Industry Study, which measured and ranked responsiveness to sales leads submitted through dealership websites. Now in its fifteenth year, the study measured response to customer inquiries sent to 3,290 dealership websites representing all major auto brands. The average Infiniti dealership achieved a score of 82 out of 100, while the total industry averaged 71, an improvement of nine and six points respectively since last year’s study. Following Infiniti in the rankings were Cadillac, Honda, Acura, Subaru and Toyota.

Key Behaviors Leading Industrywide Improvement

Dealers improved primarily by increasing proactive, multichannel outreach and deploying smarter AI-powered automation for simple inquiries. The study found that 51% of auto dealers industrywide provided a “perfect response” (answered customer’s question fast and through multiple paths - fully utilizing emails, texts, and phone), twice the rate from five years ago.

Of the 33 brands studied this year, 26 improved, six declined, and three improved by more than 10 points. The Chevrolet brand experienced the largest improvement in average dealership ILE score, gaining 14 points over last year with an average score of 74 in 2026.

The following are key behavior differences this year causing the increase in score:

• More Utilization of Texting – Dealerships industrywide used texting to answer the customer’s question 54% of the time, compared to only 38% last year.

• Called More Customers – Three-quarters of online customers in this year’s study received a phone call from the dealership, compared to only two-thirds last year.

• Uptick in “Did Both” – Dealerships “did both,” answered the customer’s question by email and/or text and also phoned the customer, 62% of the time, compared to 49% last year.

AI-Powered Automation Raises Averages — But Hides Failures

Overreliance on AI-powered automation introduces two distinct types of digital handoff risk.

First, system-to-system breakdowns can occur when data fails to pass correctly between a dealership’s DMS, website, CRM, AI tools, and outbound communication systems such as email, texting, or phone platforms. Even when a response is technically “triggered,” incomplete data, misrouted inquiries, or failed communication integrations can prevent the customer’s actual question from being answered.

Second, when AI encounters a complex inquiry and escalates to dealership staff, human follow-through becomes the critical variable. If staff are not prepared to step in, or assume the system is handling the situation, the inquiry can stall without resolution. In this year’s study, evaluations requiring “Human Help” scored nine points lower on average, and customers were twice as likely to receive no personal response. These breakdowns are often invisible to traditional CRM dashboards, since systems may indicate activity even when the customer experience failed.

“Automation and AI have improved dealer responsiveness,” said Cameron O’Hagan, Vice President of Metrics and Analytics at Pied Piper. “But the greatest risk is in the handoffs; between systems and from AI to dealership staff. Teams assume automation is working and that someone will step in if it fails. Too often, no one does. Independent measurement such as ILE reveals those hidden breakdowns before they cost sales and erode brand trust.”

New ILE Measurement: Is ChatGPT Sending Your Shoppers Somewhere Else?

With ChatGPT and other AI-powered search tools rapidly becoming customers’ first stop in the vehicle shopping journey, Pied Piper measured how consistently dealerships appear, and how effectively they are presented, when local shoppers rely on AI as their guide.

To establish a benchmark, Pied Piper added a ChatGPT first step to its standard ILE^® evaluation process for a representative sample of dealerships. For each dealership, ChatGPT was prompted as a local customer from the target dealer’s zip code, asking about a specific vehicle known to be in the dealership’s inventory. The results reveal clear visibility gaps and opportunities for dealerships to track and improve how they appear in AI-driven searches.

• How prominently did ChatGPT rank dealerships?
  ChatGPT listed the target dealership first 77% of the time. The dealership appeared in the results but was not ranked first 14% of the time. In 9% of cases, the dealership was not mentioned at all – despite having the requested vehicle and being the shopper’s closest dealer.

• How complete was dealership’s vehicle information provided by ChatGPT?
  ChatGPT confirmed the vehicle was in inventory 70% of the time. Availability for a test drive was confirmed only 36% of the time. Just 30% of responses included a direct link to the exact vehicle on the dealership’s website.

For OEMs and dealer groups, this introduces a new layer of performance risk: even well-stocked, well-located dealers may be digitally invisible if their information is not structured for AI discovery.

Where Dealership Execution Falls Short — and How to Improve It

AI-powered automation has raised industry averages, with more customers receiving fast, complete responses to routine inquiries. However, the same digital handoff risks identified above continue to surface at the dealership level. Breakdowns between systems and unreliable follow-through when AI escalates to staff can quietly undermine performance. Because these failures are often invisible to traditional dashboards, understanding how AI systems and human teams actually perform together has become critical.

Three recurring execution gaps stand out: unreliable human follow-through when AI requires assistance, inconsistent multichannel follow-up, and uneven visibility in AI-driven search.

• Staff ready to step-in when AI needs help
  Dealers answer a web customer’s “typical” inquiry within 24 hours 78% of the time on average, often through automated AI messages. However, that rate drops to just 51% when customers ask more complex questions requiring thoughtful human engagement. Automation works for simple requests, but conversion depends on having trained staff ready to step in when AI reaches its limit.

• Respond through multiple channels
  Using email, text, and phone together significantly increases the likelihood that a response reaches the customer, overcoming barriers such as spam filters or ignored calls. Today, multichannel outreach occurs only 62% of the time, leaving nearly four in ten inquiries unnecessarily vulnerable to communication breakdowns outside the dealership’s control.

• Strengthen AI search presence
  When customers use ChatGPT to shop for vehicles, 77% of dealerships appear as the first local result, while 9% do not appear at all. Dealers can improve visibility by ensuring inventory, availability, pricing, and next steps are presented in clear, machine-readable website content that AI tools can easily interpret.

2026 Brand Performance Compared:

• “Answered Question” - How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question?
  • More than 85% of the time on average: Infiniti, Cadillac, Honda
  • Less than 65% of the time on average: Buick, Mitsubishi, Fiat, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo

• “Phoned Customer” - How often did the brand’s dealerships respond by phone to a website customer’s inquiry?
  • More than 80% of the time on average: Infiniti, Subaru, Honda, Lincoln, Toyota
  • Less than 60% of the time on average: Mazda, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo, Genesis, Jaguar

• “Did both” - How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question and also phone the customer?
  • More than 70% of the time on average: Infiniti, Subaru, MINI
  • Less than 45% of the time on average: Genesis, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar

• “Did Both Fast” - How often did the brand’s dealerships email or text an answer to a website customer’s question and also phone the customer all within 15 minutes?
  • More than 55% of the time on average: Infiniti, Acura, Hyundai
  • Less than 35% of the time on average: Genesis, Fiat, Jaguar, Audi

• “Failed to Respond” - How often did the website customer fail to receive a response of any type (email, text, or phone call)?
  • Less than 3% of the time on average: Infiniti, Acura, Toyota, Chevrolet
  • More than 10% of the time on average: Audi, Mazda, Alfa Romeo, Mitsubishi, Jaguar

Why Are ILE Scores Valuable to Measure?

Each brand’s ILE score represents an average of web inquiry response behaviors of their individual dealers, including top-performers and poor performers, each with scores ranging from 0-100.

“The effort to improve ILE scores is worth it,” said O’Hagan. “Historically, individual dealers who improve their ILE performance from scoring under 40 to scoring over 80 on average sell 50% more units from the same quantity of internet leads.”

In this year’s study, 51% of all dealerships measured scored above 80 (providing a quick and thorough personal response), while 14% of dealerships scored below 40 (failing to personally respond to their website customers). The “over 80” and “under 40” segments shifted +11% and -5% respectively since last year, and +25% and -21% over the past five years.

How Was This Study Conducted?

For each of the 3,290 ILE^® evaluations completed for this study, Pied Piper visited a dealership’s website during normal business hours and submitted a specific inquiry about a vehicle confirmed to be in inventory. Each inquiry included a unique customer name, email address, and telephone number.

Pied Piper then measured the dealership’s response over the following 24 hours, evaluating both speed and quality across all communication channels — including email, telephone, chat, and text message.

Each ILE evaluation includes more than 20 weighted measurements tied to proven best practices that are mathematically linked to higher sales conversion. These individual measurements combine to generate an overall ILE score ranging from 0 to 100. Brand scores reflect the average of the individual dealership ILE scores within each brand’s sample.

About Pied Piper Management Company, LLC

Austin, Texas based Pied Piper combines artificial intelligence and trained human evaluators into the proprietary Prospect Satisfaction Index^® (PSI^®). PSI^® measures how effectively each retail location follows proven sales and service best practices throughout a new customer's journey, from initial website inquiry or phone call, through follow-up, appointment setting, and the in-store experience.

Manufacturers, franchisors, dealer groups, and other organizations use PSI^® reporting to drive measurable improvement across their retail networks. What do they consistently say? "We just didn't know." PSI^® reports act like a flashlight: As AI systems and human processes increasingly overlap, only ongoing independent measurement ensures customer experience improvements are real, consistent, and sustained.

For more than 15 years, Pied Piper has independently published annual industry studies that rank the omnichannel performance of brands and dealer groups. These studies track how industry performance changes over time and give current and prospective PSI^® clients a benchmark to understand how their own performance compares.

Other recent Pied Piper PSI^® industry studies include:

• 2026 Internet Lead Effectiveness^® (ILE^®) Compact Tractor Industry Study (Kubota ranked first)
• 2025 Service Scheduling Effectiveness^™ (SSE^™) Auto Industry Study measuring both online and phone efforts to schedule service (BMW’s MINI brand ranked first)
• 2025 Service Telephone Effectiveness^™ (SWE^™) Powersports Industry Study (BMW Motorrad ranked first)
• 2025 Telephone Lead Effectiveness^® (TLE^®) Pontoon Boat Industry Study (Bass Pro Shops’ Sun Tracker brand ranked first)

Learn more, request a presentation of industry study results, or request ongoing PSI^® measurement and reporting at www.piedpiperpsi.com.

This press release is provided for editorial use only, and information contained in this release may not be used for advertising or otherwise promoting brands mentioned in this release without specific, written permission from Pied Piper Management Co., LLC.