Dassault Systèmes Uses AI to Help Automakers Enhance Customer Retention and Personalization

Each year, India's festive season delivers its familiar spectacle: showrooms brimming with eager families determined to book their dream car before Diwali or Dussehra. This time, the energy feels especially frenzied, supercharged by a series of sweeping GST cuts.The season sees waiting periods stretch to six, eight months, or longer, generating the risk that a wavering customer might slip away to rivals who can deliver sooner. For Dassault Systèmes, a global leader in 3D design software and virtual twin technology, this challenge represents an opportunity to demonstrate how artificial intelligence can transform the customer experience. 

At the company's annual 3DEXPERIENCE FORUM INDIA 2025, held recently in Bengaluru, executives outlined how their AI-powered solutions are helping Indian automakers retain customers, personalize experiences, and accelerate product development. The central challenge Dassault Systèmes addresses is simple: keep customers loyal during extended waiting periods by using AI to understand and appeal to them as individuals. The solution lies in what the company calls surgically personalized communication, powered by its AI engine that enables manufacturers to transform the wait from ordeal to anticipation.

Ravikiran Pothukuchi, who leads enterprise application strategy at Dassault Systemes, recounted the strategy: "A person who is a safety-oriented guy, you know that this is a safety person, he would not switch to other car if I give all the four airbags." Imagine being that customer. Mid-wait, an update arrives, announcing the software-driven addition of rear side airbags to your booking, a change aligned precisely with your primary concern. The upgrade, more than a technical marginal gain, is an emotional salve engineered to keep second thoughts at bay.

Beyond retention during the post-purchase phase, AI is fundamentally restructuring the initial online shopping experience. A prospective buyer’s digital signature, the trails of search history and preference left across the internet are instantly harvested upon their visit to the manufacturer’s website. The website then dynamically generates content tailored to that individual’s known tastes.

For instance, if the AI detects a preference for mountainous landscapes, the vehicle model on the homepage appears with a "mountain backdrop." If the user is known to favor a specific hue, "the car colour is already instantly blue." "This process, enabled by taking core engineering models (often complex CAD designs) and quickly generating "experiential content on the fly," appeals directly to the user’s desires' noted Pothukuchi.

Moreover, the algorithms ensure that this personalized display subtly incorporates competitive intelligence. The model, knowing the customer has browsed competing brands, highlights the differentiators that the OEM possesses while tacitly downplaying any features the competition might emphasize. This entire sequence is an exercise in influencing the consumer across the stages of decision-making. 

Does it work? The research seems to suggest yes. Industry data indicates that the AI sales tools help car dealerships get up to 50% more potential buyers and turn up to 30% more of them into customers when they use smart messages and regular follow-ups. These tools also create personalized messages and use loyalty scores, which can boost how much customers spend over time by up to 40%, and lower the number of people who cancel their purchases or stop coming back. Studies show that dealerships using AI for customer service make customers happier, because people get quicker, more helpful, and more relevant answers at every step before and after they buy a car.

According to Grand View Research, the global AI market in the automotive industry is projected to reach $14.92 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4% from 2025 to 2030. In India, the automotive AI market is expected to grow even faster, with revenue rising from $178.3 million in 2024 to $857.9 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 30.1%, making it the fastest-growing market in Asia Pacific. Dassault Systèmes is positioning itself at the center of this transformation, with key segments including AI-powered manufacturing, battery management, vehicle personalization, autonomous driving, and supply chain optimization.

Expansion of R&D facility

This increasing shift towards Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, is getting reflected in the expanded Research and Development operations of global firms like Dassault Systemes, where the scale and contribution of the Indian teams have become globally significant.

The company’s R&D efforts in India trace back nearly twenty-five years, beginning in the early 2000s, and have since matured into one of the largest such units worldwide, ranking alongside operations in France and the United States. It is deeply engaged in core technological development, particularly in the nascent field of Artificial Intelligence. "None of our products today is without help from India," noted Tanuj Mittal, Sales Director for Dassault Systèmes.

The company recently inaugurated a state-of-the-art facility designed to stimulate creativity among its employees. Furthermore, a 3D experience lab has been established to incubate startups, offering entrepreneurs access to the necessary tools and technologies to refine and test concepts before they are commercially launched. The R&D focus is on creating algorithms capable of generating content that is not subjective but objectively compliant with physical laws, laying the groundwork for a future where engineers may simply prompt a system to design a car that meets highly specific regulatory standards