Early Access begins October 15, helping dealerships engage high-intent sellers with personalized conversations while intent is highest.

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 1, 2026/PRNewswire/ — DriveCentric, the dealer industry’s leading AI Engagement Platform, today announced Acquire Agent, the latest addition to its growing portfolio of native AI Agents. Acquire Agent helps dealerships act on time-sensitive vehicle acquisition opportunities by engaging customers immediately after they receive a trade valuation from the dealership. Like every DriveCentric agent, it is built on the AI the company has developed natively on its own platform for 15 years, and it runs on the same customer data, workflows, and permissions dealership teams already use. Each agent can be trained on the dealership’s own process, coached by its managers, and audited across the store, as DriveCentric continues to evolve the traditional CRM category into a centralized orchestration system connecting data, intelligence, workflows, and customer engagement across the entire dealership. Acquire Agent enters the DriveCentric Early Access program on October 15, with General Availability on December 1, 2026.

Today, most customers at your dealership will complete a trade valuation, signaling their clear intent to sell, but that window closes quickly. Within minutes, those customers may be comparing their valuation with other dealerships or online retailers. Acquire Agent acts instantly before the opportunity moves somewhere else.

“Vehicle acquisition is increasingly a competition for both inventory and customer attention, and speed matters,” said Matt Leone, CEO of DriveCentric. “When a customer requests a valuation, they’re raising their hand and telling the dealership they’re considering selling a vehicle. Acquire Agent gives dealers the ability to recognize that intent and engage immediately with a personalized conversation based on what the customer just did. That’s where AI becomes incredibly powerful, not replacing the dealership team, but making sure valuable customer intent never sits unanswered.”

Built natively inside DriveCentric, Acquire Agent automatically engages incoming trade leads with personalized outreach based on the valuation the customer just received. It does not calculate a new valuation or create a new offer. Instead, it picks up where the customer’s experience left off and moves the conversation toward an appointment. The native DriveCentric platform enables all of its agents to be trained, coached, and audited across your entire dealership operations.

“Acquire Agent is another way to leverage technology to engage the customer faster than your competition and coordinate that engagement into your operations,” said Steve Roessler, Chief Evangelist Officer at DriveCentric. “Agents can leverage the information already in DriveCentric to make those conversations more personal than your typical transactional communication. We’re fulfilling our commitment to helping dealers not just sell more cars, but now acquire them using Agents and stay ahead of the game.”

Acquire Agent is part of a broader strategy to bring purpose-built AI into more dealership workflows.

“Every agent we release runs on AI we’ve been building into DriveCentric for 15 years. Nothing is bolted on; it is all built natively. Acquire Agent works from the same customer record your team does. It can be trained on how your store sells, coached when a manager wants something handled differently, and every conversation it has is visible to the whole team. That’s what native means. Acquire Agent is the next step toward one intelligent engagement platform across the dealership, and there’s more behind it,” said Michael Affronti, Chief Product and Business Officer at DriveCentric.

The vision is taking shape through AI Agents designed for specific moments across the customer lifecycle. Service-to-Sales Agent helps dealerships identify sales opportunities among customers already in the service drive, while Acquire Agent engages customers who signal an intent to sell through an online trade valuation. Each Agent addresses a distinct opportunity, while operating within the same platform and shared customer context.

“We’re building an intelligent engagement platform where AI works alongside dealership teams across Sales, Service and F&I, informed by the customer’s data, conversations and interactions,” said Matt Leone. “When a trade valuation lead flows into DriveCentric today, the opportunity isn’t simply to automate more work. It’s to recognize customer intent earlier, act on it faster, and create better experiences at every stage of the relationship.”

About DriveCentric

DriveCentric is a leading provider of AI-powered CRM and engagement technology designed specifically for dealerships. The platform helps dealerships deliver modern, personalized customer experiences across messaging, digital retailing, and communication channels. With over a decade of automotive data and purpose-built intelligence, DriveCentric enables dealerships to engage customers at every stage of the ownership lifecycle.

Media Contact

Audrey Fusz
DriveCentric, LLC
afusz@drivecentric.com
12900 Maurer Industrial Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63127

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SOURCE DriveCentric