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Sector · Automotive

Automotive: AI takes the call. Your rules decide what it may promise.

Early Customer Program

Last reviewed: 25 October 2026

The phone at a dealership or a workshop carries more money than most. Callers ask what their car is worth, whether there is something off the price, what it would cost per month, whether the car will be ready tomorrow. Each answer can become the customer's expectation, and a figure said on the phone is hard to take back. With Audact, an AI agent takes those calls (inbound, after hours, call-backs the customer asked for), and supported replies are checked against the business rules you set before the caller hears them. Trade-in values, discounts, finance and lease figures and repair prices stay with your people or within what you approved; anything outside that goes to a person you name, with the request already written down. The decision is recorded on a tamper-evident receipt.

What the law requires

A person interacting with an AI system must be told so, unless it is obvious from the circumstances.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 50(1)
Breaching Article 50 carries a ceiling of €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover; for SMEs and start-ups it is the lower of the two.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 99(4)(g) and Art. 99(6)
A price indicated to a consumer for a product must be the selling price: the final price including VAT and all other taxes, unambiguous and easily identifiable.
Directive 98/6/EC, Art. 2(a), Art. 3(1) and Art. 4(1)
Before a consumer is bound, the trader must state the total price inclusive of taxes and the time by which it undertakes to perform the service, unless that is already clear from the context.
Directive 2011/83/EU, Art. 5(1)(c) and (d)
Credit advertising that states an interest rate or any figure on the cost of credit must give standard information in a representative example, including the annual percentage rate of charge.
Directive 2008/48/EC, Art. 4; replaced from 20 November 2026 by Directive (EU) 2023/2225
An AI system intended to evaluate the creditworthiness of natural persons or to establish their credit score is high-risk, unless it is used to detect financial fraud.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 6(2) and Annex III, point 5(b)
A person has the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that produces legal effects for them or similarly significantly affects them.
Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Art. 22(1)

What Audact does about it

Business rules checked before the caller hears the reply: a supported reply with a trade-in value, a discount, a finance or lease figure, a repair price or a completion time outside what you approved is replaced by a fallback reply that promises nothing, patent-pending (UK IPO).
In controlled testing
The check covers supported replies and runs within an evaluation window. If it does not answer in time, the original reply is released unchanged and a FAIL_OPEN event records the miss.
In controlled testing
A hand-over to a person you name: the caller hears who will come back to them, and the request is passed on with the details already taken.
In controlled testing
Call-backs the customer asked for, such as a web enquiry: before the line opens, the call is checked against the consent and opt-out status you hold and the contact rules of that country.
In controlled testing · Germany: national policy layer active. Netherlands: in development. Belgium and Austria: planned.
The Article 50 disclosure at the start of the call, in the caller's language.
In controlled testing
A tamper-evident receipt per governed interaction: whether the reply was allowed, modified or blocked, with the input and the output as hashes. It carries an authentication code, not a signature.
Working today
The same business rules for AI chat replies.
In controlled testing
The same business rules for what an AI-written email commits to, before it is sent.
In controlled testing
Early Customer Program intake.
Netherlands and Flanders (BE): intake open. Germany and Austria: intake is a conversation and not a start date. Applications from Germany and Austria are welcome and answered, but onboarding there is not open yet.

The calls that cost money

Five questions a dealership agent will get, and should not settle on its own.

“What will you give me for my car?” “Can you do something on the price?” “What would that be per month?” “Will it be ready tomorrow?” “Is my car part of the recall?” A general-purpose assistant answers all five, because answering is what it is built for. Each answer is a figure or a promise your team has not made yet.

With Audact, that line is not a sentence in a prompt. A supported reply is checked against your rules before it is spoken. Within them, the agent answers. Outside them, the caller hears a useful reply that promises nothing (“we value every car in person, and I have passed your details to our used-car team”), and the request goes to the person you named. The caller keeps the conversation; you keep the price.

Your rules

The business rules Audact checks before the caller hears a reply.

You set the rules; Audact checks the replies against them. A few examples for a dealership and a workshop:

  • The caller asks
    What will you give me for my car?
    Your rule
    No trade-in figure by phone; a valuation needs the car.
    What the caller hears
    “We value every car in person. I have noted the model and mileage for our used-car team.”
  • The caller asks
    Is there anything off the price?
    Your rule
    Only the offers you published; any other discount is a salesperson's decision.
    What the caller hears
    “The current offer on this model is the one on our website. For anything beyond that, I will put you through to sales.”
  • The caller asks
    What would that be per month?
    Your rule
    No rates, instalments or other credit figures from the agent.
    What the caller hears
    “Our finance team prepares that for you with all the details. Shall I ask them to call you back?”
  • The caller asks
    Will it be ready tomorrow?
    Your rule
    No completion time and no repair price unless the workshop has confirmed it.
    What the caller hears
    “I will check with the workshop, and we will confirm the time to you.”
  • The caller asks
    Is my car part of the recall?
    Your rule
    Recall and safety questions go to the service team.
    What the caller hears
    “Our service team checks that for your vehicle. I am passing your details on now.”

Illustrative rules. Your organisation sets its own; Audact checks the supported replies against them before they are spoken.

Where it pays off first

Four kinds of call to hand to AI first.

  • Peak hours: opening times, directions and what to bring to a service appointment, with the request written down for your team.
  • After hours: an answer within your rules instead of voicemail, and the request recorded for your team.
  • Call-backs on web enquiries: the customer asked for a call; the agent calls back, takes the details and passes a test-drive request to sales.
  • Service and test-drive requests: the car, the preferred day and the contact details in one call. Which of your systems the agent reaches is agreed per deployment.

What goes to a person

Where the agent hands over, by rule.

You decide where the line sits. A starting set for a dealership and a workshop:

  • A trade-in value, and any discount beyond the offers you published.
  • Finance and lease figures, and every question about credit.
  • A repair price or a completion time the workshop has not confirmed.
  • Recall and safety questions.
  • Complaints, disputes about an invoice, and any caller who asks for a person.

The record

A record of each decision, not a transcript.

Every check that answers in time leaves a receipt: whether the reply was allowed, modified or blocked, with the input and the output stored as hashes rather than words.

The receipt is tamper-evident. It shows that the record is intact: a later change or reordering is detectable by recomputation against a retained commitment. It carries an HMAC-SHA256 code under a symmetric key held by Audact, so whoever can check it can also produce it: an authentication code, not a signature. It does not establish who issued it, and whether the underlying event is true. Three of its values can be recomputed without a key: the input hash, the output hash and the hash of the preceding evidence event.

Whether a test drive or a workshop visit was then confirmed, or took place, is for your calendar or your dealer system to confirm, not for the receipt. You can recompute a sample receipt in your own browser.

The law, in short

Article 50 already applies. The price and credit rules were there before the AI.

Article 50 of the AI Act has applied since 2 August 2026: a caller must be told they are speaking to an AI system. It is a transparency duty, not a ban.

The rules that matter most in this sector are older than the AI. A price given to a consumer has to be the final price, taxes included; a promised completion time is part of what the trader undertakes; and a finance offer comes with information duties under consumer-credit law. An AI system that evaluates a person's creditworthiness is high-risk under the AI Act. That is why the rules on this page keep figures, credit and promises with your people. General information, not legal advice.

Questions

Can the agent quote prices and discounts?
Within what you approved, yes: the published offers, the list prices and the wording you set. A supported reply with a figure outside your rules is replaced by a fallback reply before it is spoken, and the request goes to your sales team.
Can it give finance or lease figures?
That is your decision, and the law gives reasons to keep it with a person: credit advertising that names a rate or a cost figure carries standard information duties, and an AI system that evaluates creditworthiness is high-risk under the AI Act (Annex III, point 5(b)). The rule this page assumes: the agent takes the interest and the contact details, and your finance team makes the offer.
How do we start?
With one workflow, such as after-hours calls or call-backs on web enquiries, scoped and tested with you before production. The Early Customer Program is open to a limited number of external agencies. Terms and figures are in the price book.
Does the caller have to be told it is an AI?
Yes. Article 50 of the AI Act has applied since 2 August 2026: the caller is told at the start of the call that they are speaking to an AI system. It is a transparency duty, not a ban; once the caller has been told, the call carries on.

The check sits between the draft and the caller

See how Governed Voice AI checks a supported reply against your rules before it is spoken, and what each call leaves behind.

See Governed Voice AI

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