How is AI reshaping automotive retail?
Automated video software is breaking new ground with AI-powered upscaling, explains Patrick Kämpe
The future of automated videos is an exciting one. Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing at a terrific rate as ever more powerful computers and gaming engines are developed to run increasingly complex algorithms.
From Auto Trader and Ebay to Facebook to TikTok, classified sites have different requirements for image and video content: landscape or portrait, aspect ratio, branded, unbranded, resolution. AI can tailor the output of every video and the still images for each vehicle on a dealers’ forecourt to perfectly hit the requirements of the specific platform. This process ensures the sales process is optimised to sell vehicles with zero manual input by the user, increasing sales and speeding up stock turn over.
Yet, many of the images uploaded by dealers to create automated videos are compressed and too low-res to showcase the vehicles in the best possible way. Automated video software is breaking new ground with AI-powered upscaling, a method of digitally enhancing the images by filling in the missing pixels to create accurate high-resolution version of the original. This ground-breaking innovation will enable state-of-the-art video software to upscale images by up to 400%. This is achieved by training the AI with thousands of existing images so it can repair and fill in the missing pixels.
In the near future AI software will be able to write the script for video adverts, provide lifelike voice overs and optimise itself based on the most successful ads that convert viewers into buyers. The leading video technology developers are also working on advanced machine learning to help users take better images of vehicles on their forecourts. AI knows precisely which angles work best and drive sales, and small refinements can make a big difference.
AI can tailor the output of every video and the still images for each vehicle on a dealers’ forecourt to perfectly hit the requirements of the specific platform
Further innovations include AI-powered 3D human presenters to deliver the sales pitch whilst placing the vehicle in a 3D virtual showroom. This is a hugely challenging process to achieve automatically from a photograph. To get the perfect scale of the car in the room the AI will mathematically calculate the position of the car from its wheels and wing mirrors, before cutting out the background, stripping out reflections in the bodywork and windows before placing it precisely in a 3D digital showroom.
And AI will soon be able to do all of this without any human involvement. Vehicles will be shown blemish free, without distracting shadows or clutter in the foreground. The technology can already seamlessly remove image backgrounds and give vehicles a realistic drop shadow to create a clean and on-brand video.
The role of AI in automotive retail is growing, as it is across many content development industries. Soon it will be writing the scripts, creating the 3D avatars and generating music tracks bespoke to the dealer and type of car for a hyper-targeted marketing campaign to attract buyers.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
Patrick Kämpe is Chief Technology Officer at Phyron
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