The future of business intelligence isn't about static dashboards—it's about intelligent, autonomous AI Agents that drive action. This shared vision was at the heart of ThoughtSpot’s recent “Meet your New BI A-Team” launch event, featuring a special guest from a company that embodies disruption: Tekion, a disruptor in automotive dealership software.
Tekion's Sr. Director of Product Management, Shiva Somasundaram, joined us to share their vision of AI Agents and why ThoughtSpot is a crucial partner in their journey. With Spotter already in place, Tekion is now eagerly anticipating how the latest team of agents will help them accelerate their own ambitious AI Agent strategy.
Tekion: A Disruptor’s Quest for Scalable Analytics
Tekion is revolutionizing the automotive dealership experience. While legacy systems still rely on clunky, siloed software to manage sales, service, and back-office operations, Tekion delivers a seamless, cloud-first experience designed for speed, simplicity, and modern customer expectations.
Their core offering includes three product lines:
Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC): The comprehensive operating system for everything a dealership needs—parts, service, sales, CRM, accounting, and more.
Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC): Products sold directly to car manufacturers (OEMs), powering experiences like configuring a new vehicle.
Automotive Partner Cloud: An ecosystem platform enabling partners to build on top of Tekion's system.
Tekion quickly discovered that as their customer base and data complexity exploded, their original approach to analytics—building it in-house—couldn't keep up. The engineering team was swamped with dashboard requests, leading to slow product development and frustrated customers.
As Tekion’s Director of Product, Ehsan Hoque, shared in a previous webinar, their need for a robust, scalable analytics layer was paramount to fueling their larger AI vision, which includes launching a suite of AI Agents that support every persona within a car dealership.
The Strategic Choice: Build vs. Buy?
As a company with a strong, engineering-first culture, the decision to look externally for a Business Intelligence (BI) layer was not taken lightly. It came down to a classic strategic question: Build vs. Buy?
Somasundaram crystallized the pivotal realization:
Tekion realized that to deliver maximum value, their engineering talent needed to focus on their core differentiator—the innovative applications—not recreating a best-in-class BI platform.
Why ThoughtSpot Won the Partnership
After evaluating several options, Tekion zeroed in on ThoughtSpot. The final decision came down to two critical factors:
Speed of Execution: Tekion needed a partner who could move at the breakneck pace of a fast-growing tech disruptor.
Culture and Partnership: The alignment between the two companies' visions and the quality of the ThoughtSpot team stood out.
"It came down to who will be able to execute at the speed at which we were moving and who will be a good partner for us to work with," said Somasundaram. "With both of those, I think ThoughtSpot came out on top, and we were glad we made that decision."
Beyond execution supporting Tekion’s long-term visioning, Tekion’s Director of Product Ehsan Hoque has shared previously how Tekion has successfully integrated ThoughtSpot to accelerate their product roadmap.
Tekion’s Vision for AI Agents and the Power of Spotter
Tekion isn't just talking about AI Agents; they’re actively launching and monetizing them, with over 75-80% of their customers already paying for these autonomous tools.
Tekion views AI Agents as virtual entities of every persona inside a car dealership—from the service manager to the sales representative—designed to enable them to do their jobs more efficiently.
This persona-based approach aligns perfectly with how we’ve built our team of agents with specialized skills for each step in the data-to-insight workflow:
ThoughtSpot’s team of agents:
SpotterModel: Builds governed semantic models in minutes, not days
SpotterViz: Assembles complete, on-brand Liveboards from a single prompt
SpotterCode: Generates embedded analytics implementations in seconds
Spotter: ThoughtSpot’s core intelligence engine acts as a true analytical partner that reasons and validates its work automatically
Tekion sees the collaboration potential in the analytical layer these agents require. They are looking beyond traditional "hindsight analytics" towards predictive, future-looking insights:
"Anything that Spotter and the AI agents ThoughtSpot launches, which will help customers have that insight into the future, is going to be a great place for us to collaborate in. The persona-based approach will definitely unlock some of the things that Tekion is looking for."
📺 See the latest AI agents like Spotter in action - watch the launch here to meet your new BI team.
Practical Advice for Your Own Build vs. Buy Decision
For other technology leaders facing the same "build vs. buy" dilemma, Somasundaram offered sharp, actionable advice:
"End of the day, these decisions should be driven by business, but they should be grounded in tech."
His key takeaway? Prioritize a vendor whose core technology is architected for success and can scale at the speed of your growth. Features can always be added and discussed, but if the foundational tech stack can't handle your future demands, the long-term partnership will fail.
Tekion’s journey with ThoughtSpot is a powerful example in how disruptive companies can strategically leverage external partners to fuel internal innovation. By offloading the complexity of scalable BI, Tekion is free to focus on its vision: empowering every person in the automotive ecosystem with intelligent, action-driving AI Agents.
💡Get your own practical Build vs. Buy framework to accelerate innovation and reduce costs - download the guide now.
Ready to Meet Your New BI A-Team?
Tekion has seen the power of AI-powered analytics to transform its product and delight its customers. Are you ready to stop building dashboards and start deploying AI agents that drive real business outcomes?
Get your personalized demo of ThoughtSpot to see how Spotter and our new AI agent ecosystem can give your team the future insights they need, today.
