AI a Tool and a Risk

A recent survey of U.S. auto dealers shows widespread use of artificial intelligence at the dealership but an accompanying concern about the cybersecurity risk.

The CDK poll of more than 200 dealers found 87% are using AI in their operations, up dramatically year-over-year from 39%. But just 6% indicated they’ve established solid governance for it. And 61% said AI has elevated their anxiety about hacking risk.

CDK’s own dealer software systems were hacked in 2024, putting thousands of dealers back on analog back-end operations. Its 2026 survey of a small subset of dealers found those whose businesses had been hacked over the past year fell from 21% to 17%.

A report by Reynolds and Reynolds company Proton Dealership IT and Cybersecurity released in September, though, said dealership hacking activity was up nearly 1,000% from before the CDK incident in a wave it said AI has helped enable.

CDK’s survey found most dealers recognize AI-powered phishing activity as an elevated risk, and 76% peg it as their top AI-related security concern, particularly phishing via email.

Meanwhile, 87% of the CDK poll respondents said they use AI in their operations, but 24% said they have no formal policy for its use, while an additional 15% said they didn’t know if they had one.

In a positive sign of change, the percentage of survey respondents saying they’ve introduced hacking-prevention training in their stores rose from 70% to 76%. Also, dealers indicated they’d spent 10% more on cybersecurity, CDK reported.