Australia’s most popular vehicle-selling platform has declared it sees big things for artificial intelligence after posting double-digit revenue and earnings growth.
CAR Group, which operates Carsales.com and other vehicle-selling marketplaces in nine countries including the US and China, made $626 million in revenue in the six months to December 31, up 13 per cent in constant currency terms.
Its adjusted net profit after tax rose 12 per cent to $177 million, leading CAR Group to raise its interim dividend by 10 per cent to 42.5 cents per share.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Wei-Weng Chen said it was a “largely uneventful” set of results, but in light of its large underperformance to the market, traders would likely consider it a win and move on.
CAR Group shares were up 10.7 per cent to $27.11 going into lunchtime on Monday, but the stock was still down 29.3 per cent over the past 12 months.
Chief executive William Elliot told analysts on a conference call CAR Group was using advanced technology, particularly AI, to lift its performance across the group.
“We’re driving efficiencies that enable us to invest in new growth opportunities whilst also sustaining high margins,” he said.
A new “conversational voice” search function recently rolled out to its iOS audience had made searching for a new vehicle intuitive and natural, Mr Elliot said, adding the technology would be coming to Android soon.
“This is just the beginning in terms of our use of voice-based conversational search, and we see it as a significant opportunity to improve the customer experience,” he said.
It is also using AI to provide dealers with insights into pricing trends, inventory velocity and buyer behaviour, he said.
In Korea, its using AI to cut inspection times in half, from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, he said.
While Mr Elliot said it was hard to isolate his company’s spending on AI, it was a growing share of its $120 million annual investment in software development.
The company has opened an AI hub in Brazil, where there is a “strong pipeline of amazing talent”, to build AI agents and deploy them across the company’s global marketplaces.
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