European Auto OEM reduces repair costs by >€15m p.a. with AI-enabled chatbot making VIN-specific product information accessible

Challenge

A leading European OEM faced growing challenges in its aftermarket operations due to the rising complexity of software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The extensive interdependencies of SDVs leads to complex errors and unique issues that are increasingly difficult to identify, understand and resolve. Resolving these issues frequently requires involvement from OEM experts, leading to manual, time-consuming coordination between workshop technicians and OEM teams. These prolonged repair cycles frustrate customers and drive-up repair costs.

Technicians in workshops must manually search across multiple disconnected systems and documents to find the necessary information. However, this information is rarely VIN-specific, which significantly slows down accurate root cause identification. In many cases, technicians are unable to determine the fault or required fix independently. As a result, issue tickets are escalated to Importer or OEM-level experts, triggering time-intensive investigations. These escalations are managed through manual processes that rely on several tools and platforms to locate, share, and analyze relevant data. The lack of integration and automation across these systems contributes to slow, resource-intensive repairs and delayed ticket resolutions.

Approach

To address these challenges, the OEM introduced SPREAD’s Engineering Intelligence Platform across its European aftermarket network. Over a three-month ramp-up phase, SPREAD ingested wiring harness data, communication matrices, diagnosis specifications, ticket history and more. Following ingestion, the solution was quickly rolled out across the entire European workshop network. The teams gained access to tailored insights – integrated into their daily workflows without requiring tool replacements.

Based on SPREAD’s Platform, the Product Explorer in Aftermarket was deployed:

• VIN-specific product and repair data provisioning, enabling accurate diagnostics and quicker repair steps

• AI-enabled chatbot interface that provides mechanics with natural-language access to diagnostics, suggesting root causes and resolution paths with minimal manual lookup

• Connected knowledge environment with unified product data, ticket history, and repair instructions in one interface – streamlining the troubleshooting process