Infiniti Leads the 2026 Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness® Study
Dealership performance in digital sales responsiveness reached new highs in the 2026 Pied Piper PSI® Internet Lead Effectiveness® (ILE®) Auto Industry Study, with Infiniti dealerships earning the top overall ranking. Conducted annually by Pied Piper, the study evaluates how effectively dealerships respond to online sales inquiries submitted through their websites. Now in its fifteenth year, the 2026 edition assessed 3,290 dealership websites representing every major automotive brand in the United States. Infiniti dealers achieved an average ILE score of 82 out of 100, significantly outperforming the overall industry average of 71. Both Infiniti and the broader industry improved compared with the prior year, gaining nine and six points respectively. Following Infiniti in this year’s rankings were Cadillac, Honda, Acura, Subaru, and Toyota, all of which demonstrated strong digital engagement practices and consistent follow-up with prospective buyers
Industrywide Gains Driven by Proactive Multichannel Outreach
The 2026 study revealed measurable improvement across much of the automotive retail landscape. Of the 33 brands evaluated, 26 posted higher scores compared with the prior year, six declined, and three achieved gains exceeding 10 points. Chevrolet recorded the most significant year-over-year increase, improving its average dealership score by 14 points to reach 74. These advances were primarily fueled by more proactive, multichannel outreach strategies and expanded use of AI-powered automation to handle routine customer inquiries. Dealers increasingly combined email, text messaging, and phone calls to ensure customers received timely and complete responses. As a result, 51% of dealerships delivered what Pied Piper defines as a “perfect response,” meaning the customer’s question was answered quickly and through multiple communication paths. This represents double the rate observed five years ago, underscoring how digital retail expectations have reshaped dealership operations
Texting and Phone Outreach Become Standard Practice
One of the most significant behavioral changes observed in the 2026 study was the widespread adoption of text messaging as a customer engagement tool. Dealerships used texting to answer customer questions 54% of the time, a dramatic rise from 38% the previous year. Texting has proven effective in reaching customers who may ignore phone calls or miss emails filtered into spam folders. Phone outreach also increased meaningfully. Three-quarters of online shoppers in this year’s evaluation received a phone call from the dealership, compared with roughly two-thirds in the prior year. Additionally, 62% of dealerships both responded digitally through email or text and followed up with a phone call, up from 49% last year. This integrated communication strategy improves the probability of meaningful customer contact and strengthens conversion potential by addressing inquiries across multiple channels
AI Automation Lifts Averages but Introduces Hidden Risks
Artificial intelligence tools have become a central component of dealership lead management systems, contributing to faster response times and improved handling of simple inquiries. However, the 2026 study highlights two major risk areas associated with overreliance on automation. The first involves system-to-system breakdowns. When dealership management systems, websites, CRM platforms, AI chatbots, and outbound communication tools fail to integrate seamlessly, customer inquiries can become misrouted or partially processed. Even if a response is technically triggered, incomplete data transfer or communication errors may prevent the shopper’s actual question from being answered. The second risk arises when AI escalates complex inquiries to human staff. In cases requiring “Human Help,” average scores were nine points lower, and customers were twice as likely to receive no personal follow-up. These breakdowns often remain invisible in traditional dashboards because systems may log activity despite the absence of a meaningful customer response
The Importance of Managing Digital Handoffs
According to Cameron O’Hagan, Vice President of Metrics and Analytics at Pied Piper, automation has undoubtedly improved dealer responsiveness, yet the most significant vulnerabilities lie in digital handoffs. Breakdowns can occur either between integrated systems or when responsibility shifts from AI to dealership personnel. Teams may assume the automated system is handling the inquiry or that another staff member will intervene if needed. When neither occurs, the customer experience suffers silently. Independent measurement tools like ILE help uncover these hidden failures before they translate into lost sales opportunities and diminished brand trust. As digital retail channels continue expanding, ensuring seamless coordination between technology and human teams has become a competitive necessity
Measuring Dealership Visibility in AI-Driven Search
Recognizing the growing role of AI-driven search tools in vehicle shopping journeys, Pied Piper introduced a new measurement component in 2026. With consumers increasingly turning to platforms like ChatGPT as a first step in researching vehicles, the study evaluated how prominently dealerships appear in AI-generated local search results. For a representative sample, evaluators prompted ChatGPT as if they were local shoppers from a dealership’s zip code, asking about a specific vehicle confirmed to be in inventory. The results revealed notable visibility gaps. ChatGPT listed the target dealership first 77% of the time. In 14% of cases, the dealership appeared but was not ranked first. In 9% of evaluations, the dealership was not mentioned at all despite having the requested vehicle and being geographically closest to the shopper
Gaps in Inventory Presentation and Information Completeness
Beyond ranking visibility, the study also assessed how completely AI tools presented dealership inventory details. ChatGPT confirmed that the requested vehicle was in stock 70% of the time. However, availability for a test drive was confirmed only 36% of the time, and just 30% of responses included a direct link to the exact vehicle listing on the dealership’s website. These findings introduce a new dimension of digital performance risk for OEMs and dealer groups. Even dealerships with strong inventory positions and convenient locations may be digitally invisible if their website data is not structured in a machine-readable format that AI systems can interpret accurately. Strengthening structured content, improving metadata, and ensuring clear inventory descriptions are emerging best practices for maintaining AI-era discoverability
Persistent Execution Gaps at the Dealership Level
Although industry averages improved, execution gaps remain prevalent at individual dealership levels. The study identifies three recurring challenges: inconsistent human follow-through when AI systems require assistance, incomplete multichannel outreach, and uneven AI search visibility. Dealerships answered typical web inquiries within 24 hours 78% of the time on average, often using automated tools. However, that rate dropped sharply to 51% when customers posed more complex questions requiring thoughtful human engagement. Automation effectively addresses routine requests, but conversion success depends heavily on trained staff prepared to intervene when AI reaches its functional limits
Multichannel Communication as a Conversion Multiplier
Using email, text, and phone together significantly enhances the likelihood of establishing contact with potential buyers. Despite progress, multichannel outreach occurred only 62% of the time industrywide, leaving nearly four in ten inquiries vulnerable to communication breakdowns. Spam filters, ignored calls, or overlooked emails can derail a sale if dealerships rely on a single communication method. Consistent multichannel execution helps mitigate these external variables and ensures that customer questions receive timely attention
Brand Performance Comparisons in 2026
The 2026 study also evaluated brand-level performance across several behavioral categories. In the “Answered Question” category, which measures how often dealerships emailed or texted an answer to a website inquiry, Infiniti, Cadillac, and Honda exceeded 85% on average. At the lower end, Buick, Mitsubishi, Fiat, Jaguar, and Alfa Romeo averaged below 65%. In the “Phoned Customer” category, Infiniti, Subaru, Honda, Lincoln, and Toyota exceeded 80%, while Mazda, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo, Genesis, and Jaguar fell below 60%. For the “Did Both” metric, combining digital response and phone outreach, Infiniti, Subaru, and MINI exceeded 70%, whereas Genesis, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo, and Jaguar remained under 45%. In the “Did Both Fast” category, defined as completing both responses within 15 minutes, Infiniti, Acura, and Hyundai surpassed 55%, while Genesis, Fiat, Jaguar, and Audi trailed below 35%. Regarding complete non-response rates, Infiniti, Acura, Toyota, and Chevrolet maintained failure rates under 3%, whereas Audi, Mazda, Alfa Romeo, Mitsubishi, and Jaguar exceeded 10%
Why ILE Scores Matter for Sales Performance
Each brand’s ILE score represents the average of individual dealership performances within that brand, capturing both top performers and underperformers on a 0 to 100 scale. The business implications are substantial. Historical analysis indicates that dealerships improving their ILE performance from below 40 to above 80 typically increase sales volume from the same number of internet leads by approximately 50%. In 2026, 51% of dealerships scored above 80, delivering quick and comprehensive personal responses. Meanwhile, 14% scored below 40, indicating failure to personally respond to website customers. Compared with last year, the share of dealerships scoring above 80 increased by 11 percentage points, while those below 40 declined by five points. Over a five-year period, the improvement is even more pronounced, with the high-performing segment expanding by 25 points and the lowest-performing segment shrinking by 21 points
Study Methodology and Evaluation Process
To conduct the 2026 evaluation, Pied Piper submitted individual vehicle inquiries to 3,290 dealership websites during normal business hours. Each inquiry referenced a specific vehicle verified to be in inventory and included a unique customer name, email address, and telephone number. Dealership responses were measured over a 24-hour period across all available communication channels, including email, phone, chat, and text messaging. Each ILE assessment incorporated more than 20 weighted metrics aligned with best practices statistically linked to higher sales conversion rates. These measurements collectively generated an overall ILE score for each dealership, which was then averaged at the brand level. By combining speed, thoroughness, personalization, and multichannel execution into a single standardized score, the study provides automotive retailers and OEMs with a clear benchmark for digital retail performance in an increasingly AI-driven marketplace
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