Can Shops Use Artificial Intelligence to Improve Their Businesses?
by Abby Bowman
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer the figment of science-fiction writers’ imaginations. It has rapidly become a real part of many people’s daily lives. But does it have a place in auto glass businesses?
While some shop owners and managers say using AI drives customers away, many others report it helps them manage the mundane elements of their business and provide better service.
The Write Way
From emails to contracts, there’s always another document to write or read. Some owners, like Adren Savitch of Titan Auto Glass, use AI to stay on top of paperwork.
Titan has three locations in Plano, Carrollton and Frisco, Texas, so there is plenty for Savitch to review. He uses Google’s AI program, Gemini, to read and summarize contracts, write how-to documents and respond to customer reviews.
Auto Glass Experts’ owner, Zuhair Madanat, says some staff at his two North Carolina locations use AI to help write manuals for vehicle pre-inspections and customer service representative (CSR) training. Madanat says the company’s intern, Joseph Attanucci, is particularly good at using AI.
“As a business major still in college, our intern is much more familiar with AI [than the rest of us],” Madanat says. “Our operations manager, Brent Thompson, is using Attanucci’s time here to enhance his knowledge of AI and how to incorporate it into the business to simplify tasks.”
Madanat uses AI programs like ChatGPT to help write detailed emails to his team and ensure his meaning is clear. AI also allows Madanat to respond to customer reviews, which helps Auto Glass Experts maintain customer relationships and promote their work without taking extra time out of their day.
“I love the time we have gained in using AI for small tasks,” he says. “Less time at the computer and more time with people is always a win for me.”
Jon Styles co-owns an Optic-Kleer franchise in St. Augustine, Florida. Styles recently used AI to get out of a delicate insurance situation.
“I had been waiting over three months to be paid for a windshield replacement job that we completed on April 1,” he says. “After waiting for months with no payment and no helpful communication, I decided to write Safelite Solutions a final notice before contacting the insured. I wanted to make sure it sounded professional.”
Styles detailed the situation to ChatGPT. He told the program the date of the replacement, the insured’s name and the vehicle’s make and model. He also explained that the third-party administrator (TPA) had not paid him and planned to contact GEICO and the insured if he didn’t receive a response from the TPA within a week.
“From there, ChatGPT gave me a perfectly worded draft to send,” Styles says. “I barely had to edit it. It was almost creepy how well it understood the situation.”
ChatGPT used the exact tone he wanted, Styles says, and it saved him a “ton of time and stress.”
“I didn’t have time to sit down and write a letter while I have customers waiting and money to make,” he says. “I chose to use ChatGPT because when running a small business, sometimes you just need backup. It helps word things correctly and makes sure you sound polished when chasing down money that should’ve already been paid.”
Social Media Skills
AI helps some owners with other necessary, but time-consuming, tasks. Ingrid and Gio Pineda of Valley Auto Glass in Lompoc, California, started using ChatGPT and Meta AI to brainstorm social media ideas in January 2025.
“Our first search was ‘January social media advent calendar,’” Gio Pineda says. “The program gave us monthly advent-style calendars for posts. Each day had something different.”
The couple quickly began using AI to help them write the posts and create polls or interactive videos. During a webinar from the Small Business Development Center on marketing and web space creation, they learned how to use AI in their business.
“We have recently used AI to help us with sales and customer service training ideas,” Pineda says. “We have also played around with enhancing company pictures or adding our logo to fun pictures and then sharing them on social media.”
Savitch also uses AI to help with Titan’s social media.
“Soon after [we started to use AI], we started using the Blaze AI program to write and post our social media posts,” he says.
AI programs help Titan respond to customer inquiries, too.
“Last year, we wanted a way to help our customers get quotes, answer frequently asked questions and assist with sales,” Savitch says. “So we implemented Podium, [an AI-based lead conversion program].”
Melissa and Jason Martin run Wisefly Auto Glass in Chipley, Florida. They use NewBizAI, a program specifically developed for the auto glass industry, to help them follow up with customers and keep leads. If no one can answer the phone, Martin says using the program helps them retain the customer anyway.
“People don’t feel like they’re being completely ignored, even if it’s after hours,” she says. “It texts customers back immediately and makes people feel cared for.”
Customers can text their vehicle information to NewBizAI, so Martin says they can start creating a quote before they call the customer back.
Daniel Jaimes runs Supreme Auto Glass in Jurupa Valley, California, alongside his father, Gerardo, and wife, Natalie. They also use NewBizAI to follow up on missed calls. Daniel Jaimes says he’s grateful for the extra support as a three-person team.
“There are times when we’d like to answer the phone, but we’re in the middle of an installation, we’ve just run a urethane bead and we have limited time to set the windshield,” he says. “We know NewBizAI will follow up with them, and we don’t have to worry about forgetting to call them back.”
Like Styles, Jaimes says AI is an ideal tool for small businesses.
“We never miss calls anymore,” he says. “And we make more money.”
The Downsides
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers many benefits and opportunities to help auto glass shops grow and thrive. However, not every company is ready or sold on the technology.
For Melissa Martin of Wisefly Auto Glass, as helpful as AI is, she says some customers still complain about it. “Wisefly Auto Glass is in a more rural area,” she says. “Customers don’t want anything to do with AI. They only want to talk to a person.”
That was her primary concern before using AI to help manage missed calls. Thankfully, she says it’s not too hard to talk most customers out of being upset.
“Once we call and apologize for the AI, they’re fine,” says Martin, explaining that after Wisefly makes that human connection, the less personal initial communication doesn’t bother the customer anymore.
Greg Scott of All Pro Glass Inc. had a similar problem when he tried using Autogenie.ai, a program designed for automotive businesses to communicate with customers after hours.
“To me, the program sounded very good and fielded questions to my satisfaction,” Scott says. “My regular customers did not like the AI and said they would rather text me directly than pick up the phone if I switched to AI. All Pro Glass didn’t use the program beyond the 48-hour demo.”
AI can’t replicate human personality, which Scott says is its biggest drawback.
“Until AI becomes much more adept at emoting, it will be a tough sell on most people looking for actual help, not just a price,” he says.
Agustin Franco of State Auto Glass Inc. in Salem, Oregon, agrees that AI hasn’t progressed enough for him to use it at his business.
“We’re a very small operation and still do a lot of things with phone calls and handshakes [which AI can’t replace],” he says. “I imagine that when AI improves, we will implement it more in our daily operations. Going paperless and using the internet to order parts, look up VINs and send invoices to customers works well.”
AI for Auto Glass
Wisefly Auto Glass and Supreme Auto Glass both use an AI program designed explicitly for the auto glass industry. Daniel Jaimes says Supreme Auto Glass beta tested NewBizAI and helped founder Jeff Mahoney work through bugs.
NewBizAI’s founder allowed AGRR’s editor, Abby Bowman, to test his product. These are snippets of a conversation she had with a real shop’s AI responder.
“Jeff got it figured out with some tweaking,” Jaimes says. “Now it’s as smooth as it could be.”
Mahoney says he didn’t have a particular interest in the auto glass industry until about two years ago when his wife’s windshield cracked. Mahoney was already familiar with a large, national glass company, so he went to that company’s website and entered information for a quote. After doing that, he got a quote or two from an independent glass shop to compare.
“One of the owners responded quickly, but his price was more than double what [the larger company] had given me,” Mahoney says. “I thought he was trying to rip me off.”
The owner explained that his wife’s 2021 Volvo needed to be recalibrated, which would cost extra. Mahoney said he wanted to look into it more. He drove his wife’s car to a large company’s local shop and asked for an accurate quote, including the recalibration cost. The manager gave him the number, which was precisely the same as the independent shop’s quote.
“I thought, ‘Well, at least the other guy was straight from the get-go, so I’m going to go to him,’” Mahoney says.
Mahoney had just left the corporate environment and was thinking of trying something with AI next, he says. He mentioned this while talking with the owner/operator of the small shop as he replaced the Volvo’s windshield.
“He said, ‘We could use something like that in the auto glass industry,’” Mahoney says. “‘If we could just answer the phone all the time, we’d make a million bucks.’”
That comment planted the seed of what is now NewBizAI. According to Mahoney, the program responds immediately by text to missed calls, offering to provide a quote or answer any questions. When potential customers answer, it grabs their information and creates a lead for the shop to follow up on.
Mahoney says the program can answer customer questions, too.
“It’s kind of a scary term, but it ‘scrapes’ the shop’s website for information to answer customer questions,” he says. “If it’s a small website, it can pull information from outside sources.”
Mahoney allowed this editor to test the system. I called the number of a real shop and then immediately hung up. Soon after, I got a text from the shop. Mahoney told me to ask the bot a few questions, so I did. “My windshield has a chip, does it need to be repaired or replaced?” “What happens if I continue driving my car with the chip?” and “Can the chip be repaired if it’s where I look through my windshield?” are some of the questions I asked. The program answered each question thoroughly.
Mahoney showed me the system’s back end, so I watched the program receive my texts and send answers in real time. Business owners can customize responses to whatever tone or persistence they prefer.
Mahoney says the program isn’t meant to replace customer service representatives.
“I have several CSRs that use this program every day,” he says, referring to the CSRs who work for his clients. “They like it because it creates leads overnight, when they’re not working.”
The CSRs can then follow up on those leads the next day.
“The busier the business, the more appreciative the CSRs are,” Mahoney says.
NewBizAI will be at booth 217 at Auto Glass Week™ 2025.
Abby Bowman is the editor of AGRR magazine. Email her at abowman@glass.com and follow her on LinkedIn.
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