Bavarian automaker BMW is expanding its digital offering by opening access to its own vehicle configurator directly through OpenAI chatbota ChatGPT. Using the new BMW plugin, users can now have a natural conversation with the popular tool to configure their desired car. This technology combines the dialog capabilities of generative artificial intelligence with BMW’s knowledge base of products and configurations, and is available on mobile devices and desktop computers.
Dialog instead of menu
Instead of step-by-step navigation through complicated menus and submenus, users describe their requirements in the BMW plugin in natural language – for example, they tell it what they want in terms of space, height from the ground, drive system or purpose of the vehicle. Based on this information, the system suggests appropriate models and configurations, which also facilitates the comparison of different variants. Recommendations can be adjusted and further directed within the conversation itself at any time.
During the consultation, factors such as maintenance costs, driving dynamics, color, model or all-wheel drive can be taken into account. Intuitive interaction makes it easier to define complex specifications, after which the desired configuration can be opened in the official BMW configurator. Customers are also able to view pre-manufactured vehicles in stock that have similar specifications.
Direct access to the database
All recommendations that ChatGPT gives in this case are based on the latest data from the BMW configurator. If questions arise that go beyond the scope of that database, the tool can also access the latest information from the Internet, to the extent that the relevant functions are available and enabled.
Access to this tool is integrated directly into ChatGPT. On the chatgpt.com website, the plug-in is accessed via the “Plugins” item in the menu and by searching for the term “BMW”. On mobile devices, the access is identical after logging in, by selecting the “Plugins” option in the main menu.
