The 2026 Modern Retailing Conference (MRC) runs November 15–17 at the Eau Palm Beach Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. It is Pasch Group’s conference for dealership leaders, and it is built differently from a trade show: keynotes, fast flash talks, panels and hands-on workshops, with the emphasis on what dealers are actually doing in their stores rather than on vendor pitches.
One question runs through almost every session on this year’s agenda. AI is no longer a future topic for dealers; it is in the BDC, the website, the service drive and the marketing budget. So what has to be true about a dealership’s data, people and processes for that AI to pay off? Here is what the agenda covers so far, and why the sessions are worth the trip.
AI moves from pilots to production
The main stage opens day two with a provocation. In The Final Boss of Dealership Software, Aharon Horwitz of Fullpath makes the case that a single AI layer could replace much of the dealership tech stack and change how teams work with software and data. Danny Zaslavsky of VINCUE follows with The ROI of AI, on separating hype from AI investments that turn dealership data into better decisions and stronger margins.
The sessions that go deepest on adoption are about people as much as technology:
- Managing the AI Transformation. Liam Golightley and Ross Tinkham of Podium draw on data from 50 dealerships to explain why the exact same AI tool gets very different results, including the “AI champion” role that top-performing stores created to own training, feedback and oversight.
- Balancing AI Efficiency with Meaningful Customer Interactions. Glenn Pasch of PCG Digital leads a panel with Brock Jackson of CallRevu, John Clavadetscher of Impel and Jason Jewert of Better Car People on where AI should move fast and where trust still depends on a person.
- Build or Buy? Brian Pasch and Jim Kosobucki of the Morgan Auto Group weigh building AI agents in-house against buying them, from cost and ownership to liability, support and whether a tool can scale across the dealership.
- AI Is the Interface. In a flash talk, David Solar of Liminal looks at AI that takes action rather than just answering questions, and what that means for the next round of dealership technology.
For the staffing side of the same question, see Pasch Group’s research on AI and dealership staff.
Data first: who owns the customer record?
AI is only as good as the customer data underneath it, and that is the thread running through the data sessions. Mike Morgan of Launch Labs gives the first keynote on day one, Building the Data Foundation for AI Success, on how the right data foundation turns AI from a promising idea into measurable performance.
Two panels then take on the questions dealers keep asking about the CRM, the CDP and the DMS:
- Who Controls the Customer Conversation? Tom Moore of the Morgan Auto Group and Brian Pasch on who owns the conversation after the first lead, call, text or service visit.
- Relationships and Data: Who Is the System of Record? Angelica Jeffreys of Equifax, Travis Hafer of Gubagoo and Brian Pasch on which platform should hold the master record for each customer, and how cleaner, connected data improves follow-up and outreach after the first sale.
Clarivoy’s Yuriy Demidko adds a flash talk with a memorable title, We Built a Beautiful Dashboard. You May Never Open It., on using AI and MCP connections to put data inside the tools dealers already use. Scott Knupfer of Solera’s workshop, The Future of Automotive, covers connected technology and unified customer data as the foundation for AI. Pasch Group’s research on why dealership CRMs must evolve is useful background for all of these sessions.
Marketing and websites that have to prove themselves
The marketing sessions share a skeptical streak. Zach Billings, CEO of Wikimotive, has a keynote on AI search with a blunt title and a simple aim: test the industry’s assumptions against data. Drawing on tens of thousands of data points across dealerships, he’ll show how much traffic ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude actually send to dealer websites, what influences whether a dealership appears in AI answers, and which supposed AI search ranking factors don’t seem to matter.
Streaming gets two sessions, which fits the questions raised in Pasch Group’s streaming accountability research:
- The Streaming Reset. Owen Moon of Dealer Stream on turning streaming from an awareness tactic into a measurable performance channel.
- Build It, Measure It, Prove It. Kelly Byrnes and Tara Rego of Spectrum Reach on the questions every CTV buyer should ask, AI-informed planning, and measurement tied to vehicle sales.
Dena Denman and Jeff Kaufman of L2T’s mini-workshop, From Data to Dollars, covers using AI and first-party customer data to tie marketing to measurable ROI.
On the website itself, Brian Pasch’s mini-workshop The Secret to Increasing Website Conversion Rates starts from a simple premise: stop buying more traffic until the website converts the shoppers it already has. It works through five levers dealers control: website speed, traffic quality, CTA performance, merchandising and shopper experience, and analytics and measurement. That includes the scripts and GTM clutter covered in Pasch Group’s dealer website data audit. A panel on Building a Modern Retail Website Experience with AI and First-Party Data then brings together Ben Hadley of Auto Genius, Jon Sederstrom of J.D. Power, Jorge de Castro of Protomiq, Mike Salicco of On.Page and Brian Pasch. They look at how websites and the tools on them, from chat to payments and trade-in, change as AI agents start shopping on customers’ behalf.
Inventory, fixed ops and the rest of the P&L
Not every session is about AI. Some of the most practical ones are about margin:
- Inventory Health: The Next Competitive Advantage. Lance Schafer of Lotlinx on using VIN-level insight to spot inventory risk sooner and protect used-vehicle margins.
- The Used EV Wave. Ryan Osten of Lyteflo on how leading EV dealers use battery certificates to build buyer confidence in used EVs.
- Finding Opportunity in the Conversion Gap. Eric DeMont of Urban Science and Kate Howell of Mullinax on what buyer defections reveal about lost sales and market share. It’s a theme worth exploring before the conference; see why dealers should talk to the customers they lost.
- The Service Opportunities Playbook. Brad Paschal and Josh Overbeck of DriveCentric on turning service visits into sales opportunities with connected workflows.
- Which Staff Behaviors Show Up in Dollars per RO? Cuyler Owens of Widewail shares a study matching six months of customer reviews at 350+ franchise dealerships against repair-order revenue. Some staff behaviors show up clearly in dollars per RO; being friendly, on its own, does not.
- One Vehicle, One Connected Process. Amber Starr of iPacket on connecting the vehicle workflow from reconditioning and pricing through merchandising.
- Money In, Money Out: Who’s Really Watching Retail Spend? Glenn Pasch and Lindsey Roller of PCG Digital turn attention from revenue to spending: vendor overlap, unchecked contracts and the budget waste that erodes margin.
On day three, Jade Terreberry, Mo Zahabi and Noah Lee of Cox Automotive deliver Reimagining Retail, on the emerging technologies reshaping vehicle sales and where dealers are seeing real gains.
Hands-on before the main stage: the training labs
Day one starts with three-hour training labs for people who want to build, not just listen. They have limited capacity and need a separate sign-up when buying a ticket:
- Building Autonomous Retail Workflows with Claude. Gray Scott of The Digerati Group walks attendees through building, deploying and launching a live dealership AI assistant in two hours.
- Building Database Applications with Claude and Supabase. For intermediate Claude users, Brian Pasch builds a complete B2B lead generation platform for a dealership from the ground up.
- AutoTech Founders Lab. Investor and advisor David Metter of Kenektr runs a session for automotive technology founders and executives on building companies that last: positioning, retention, revenue concentration and the right kind of growth capital.
Brian has written about why dealer AI education is good for the whole industry, vendors included: Dealer AI Education Is Not a Threat to Automotive Vendors.
The Built on the Lot AI Showdown
The newest part of MRC is a competition for the people inside the store. The Built on the Lot AI Showdown is looking for the best AI solution built by a dealership’s own team. No vendors, no agencies and no white-labeled products. The winner takes home a $5,000 cash prize and a trophy.
- Who can enter: anyone at a dealership or dealer group whose own team built the solution. Building on a public AI platform is fine, as long as the dealership did the building.
- What qualifies: working tools in active use, back-office (inventory, accounting, service scheduling, reporting) or customer-facing (chat, follow-up, appointment setting). Concepts, prototypes and vendor products don’t qualify, however customized.
- What to send: a 500–700 word explanation of what the solution does, the problem it solves, who built it and what changed at the store, plus a 2–2.5 minute video of it working. Production quality isn’t judged; a screen recording with a voiceover is fine.
- Deadline: October 20, 2026. There’s no limit on entries; each solution needs its own write-up and video.
- How it’s judged: Brian Pasch and Gray Scott review every entry and name the finalists in late October. Finalists’ videos play during the conference, attendees vote live, and the winner is crowned on the main stage. Finalists need to be at MRC in Palm Beach for the vote.
It is a fitting addition to a conference about putting AI to work. Some of the most useful AI in automotive retail is being built by dealership employees who saw a problem and solved it themselves.
Who should go
MRC is designed for dealership professionals: dealer principals and executives, general managers and general sales managers, sales and BDC leaders, fixed operations directors, and marketing and digital retail leaders. The agenda is still filling in, with more day two and day three sessions to be announced.
See the full MRC 2026 agenda, and all of Pasch Group’s conferences and workshops on the events page.
