Tekion held its inaugural customer conference, Tekion One, June 15–17, 2026, in Las Vegas. More than 700 dealers, OEMs, and technology partners filled the sold-out event. Across three days of sessions, live demos, and hallway conversations, a few themes surfaced again and again: Dealers came ready to embrace innovation, but practical enough to ask how new technologies, particularly AI, would fit into their day-to-day operations.

The message GoTo Connect for Automotive brought to the event was, "If your teams aren't thriving, your customers aren't coming back, or your technology can't keep up. There are better options out there," explains David Marcroft, Principal Auto Director at GoTo Connect.

As the number one app in Tekion's marketplace, with communications now running across roughly 570 dealership rooftops on the platform, GoTo Connect had a front-row view of what dealers want next. Across the event, three takeaways emerged.

1. Looking for "a Single Pane of Glass"

Dealers don't need more disconnected tools. They need systems that work together.

The strongest signal from dealer conversations was a demand for simplicity. Dealers wanted to see communications fit naturally into the systems they already run, without piling new complexity onto employees or customers. Through GoTo Connect's deep integration with Tekion's Dealer Management System (DMS), teams work from a single, unified experience instead of bouncing between applications. Calls, texts, and customer interactions connect directly inside existing workflows—the "single pane of glass."

And dealers didn't just want to hear it; they wanted to see it. At the booth, live demos showed how quickly a team can build and adjust call flows—dragging and dropping steps in a visual editor, watching analytics reveal exactly where a caller dropped off, and rewiring the path in minutes rather than waiting weeks for a vendor to make the change. That kind of hands-on control is what turned curiosity into confidence.

The payoff reaches across the whole organization:

• Helping sales teams access complete customer conversations and history in one place
• Helping service advisors respond faster during busy periods and avoid missed inbound opportunities
• Giving dealership leadership better visibility into communication performance and customer engagement

Throughout the event, dealers stopped by simply to watch how communication workflows live directly within Tekion—no toggling, no re-entering data, no gaps between systems.

2. Delivering Guest Experience at Scale

Today's customers don't think in channels.

A customer might call to schedule service, text a quick question, reply to an email, and start a web chat—often all in the same week. They expect the dealership to connect every one of those moments without asking them to start over. When conversations live in separate systems, context gets lost, teams duplicate work, and the experience falls apart.

GoTo Connect unifies voice, text, web chat, and social messaging into one platform, so dealerships maintain continuity across every touchpoint. A shared inbox and connected customer history let any team member pick up a conversation right where it left off.

It also protects something dealers rarely notice until it's gone—their data. On older systems, reps often work from personal phones and personal numbers, so when a rep moves on, the customer relationships and history walk out the door with them. With GoTo Connect, that record stays with the dealership. Shut off the line, and the full history of calls, texts, and contacts remains intact.

The stakes are high. Communication breakdowns don't just frustrate people; they chip away at revenue. Connecting every interaction in one place helps teams respond faster, recover missed opportunities, and deliver a consistent experience across departments.

3. Putting AI to Practical Work

AI was the hottest topic of the event, yet the conversation had shifted.

Dealers weren't asking what AI can do. They were asking what problems it can solve:

• How do I know if my BDC team is handling inbound calls effectively?
• Why are my service appointment no-shows increasing?
• How can I better understand what customers are telling us across thousands of conversations?

These aren't abstract technology questions. They're the operational gaps GoTo Connect was built to close.

The takeaway? Dealers don't want more AI. They want the right AI, connected across every touchpoint. Fragmented tools create fragmented experiences, and fragmented experiences cost dealerships customers.

"We know AI matters. But fragmented AI creates fragmented experiences for dealerships and their customers, and that's the last thing this industry needs. It's time to get practical." David Marcroft, Principal Auto Director at GoTo Connect.

Navigating Change with the Right Partner

Even the most forward-leaning dealers feel the weight of change. Pulling out a core system and replacing it is disruptive, and one dealer with three rooftops cheerfully admitted he was nervous about the switch ahead. That hesitation is never about whether innovation matters. It's about minimizing disruption to employees, protecting customer relationships, and keeping the business moving through the transition.

Which is why "don't settle" carries a second half: make sure your partner walks with you. Too many dealers assume that once they've signed, the vendor disappears. GoTo Connect's approach is the opposite—implementing, training, and optimizing alongside dealers from day one. Period.

Looking Ahead

If Tekion One confirmed one thing, it's that dealers are becoming more selective about the technology they adopt. The goal is no longer to add the most tools, it's to build a connected ecosystem that makes life easier for employees and customers alike.

A special thank you to Tekion for their partnership and for bringing together some of the brightest minds in automotive retail. Events like this are what move the industry forward.

The dealerships that pull ahead won't necessarily have the most technology. They'll have technology that works together, adapts to their needs, and helps them deliver better experiences at every touchpoint.

Ready to see how GoTo Connect helps dealerships simplify communications, improve customer experience, and operate more efficiently?

Schedule an automotive demo today.