AI Writing Assistant for Texts and Emails

One button in the composer drafts the message, the merge fields fill in the customer and the car, and the salesperson reads it once and sends it while the lead is still warm.

The AI Writing Assistant drafts a text or an email for the lead a salesperson is looking at, inside the composer he is already typing in, so the reply that would have taken four minutes of staring at a blank box takes twenty seconds of reading and one tap. That is the one sentence version. It is a button in the composer, labelled AI Writing Assistant, and while it works the box reads AI is writing your message, then the draft appears where the salesperson can change a word, add a detail or delete it and try again.

Two companions ride with it. AI merge fields let a message reference the customer, the vehicle and the store's own links without anyone typing them; the composer shows the available merge fields, and one of them drops in the SecureWebX credit application link so a rep never has to hunt for it. And a microphone button, Dictate with microphone, takes a spoken message and puts it in the box, which is how a salesperson on the lot replies to a text with a car in front of him and a customer beside him.

It is a writing tool for the rep, not a bot that answers customers on its own. That job belongs to the Texting Chatbots and the automations, and the texting chatbots page covers it. The full features list shows where the assistant sits among the rest of the communications tools, and the auto dealer software CRM page covers the wider picture.

A lead comes in at 9:15: a shopper asking whether the store will take a trade with negative equity on a three year old crossover. The salesperson opens the lead, reads the inquiry and the notes, and opens the text composer. He has answered this question a hundred times and still does not want to type it a hundred and first. He taps AI Writing Assistant. The box reads AI is writing your message, and a draft appears: a warm, short reply that acknowledges the trade, says the store works with negative equity every week, and offers a quick appraisal. He changes one phrase to sound more like himself, adds the booking link, and sends. Elapsed time, under a minute, and the lead is answered while the shopper is still holding the phone.

At noon he is walking a customer to a pre-owned truck when a different lead texts to ask about financing. He does not stop walking. He opens the thread in the mobile app, taps the microphone, says the store's answer out loud, and the words land in the box. He reads them once, adds the credit application merge field so the apply link goes with it, and sends. The customer beside him never noticed.

At four, the BDC manager is writing the email for Thursday's aged inventory blast. She opens the email composer, taps the assistant, and gets a draft to work from instead of a blank page. She rewrites the opening, keeps the middle, and drops the merge fields for the customer's name and the vehicle they inquired about, so a blast to ninety people reads like ninety emails. The Bulk Email page covers where that send goes from there.

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In every composer. On desktop, the SMS inbox under the Messaging menu has the AI Writing Assistant button in the reply box of an open thread and in the new message box, next to the attachment button and the vehicle insert button. The email composer under the Email menu has its own assistant button that drafts an email rather than a text, because a text and an email want different lengths and different openings. The dictation button sits in the same row.

On the phone, the LeadLocate mobile app carries the same composer with the same buttons, which is where the dictation earns its keep. A rep on the lot or in the service drive talks instead of thumbs, and the message reads the way he would have typed it if he had a desk.

The merge fields are listed inside the composer under Available merge fields, so a rep sees what he can drop in without memorizing codes. Jax, the AI assistant in the taskbar, is a different tool for a different job: a rep asks Jax a question about the CRM or the lead and gets an answer in English or Spanish, whichever he spoke. The Jax page covers that, and the two are built to be used together: ask Jax what to say, then let the writing assistant say it.

Merge fields are why the assistant's drafts do not read like a template. A field for the customer's name, a field for the vehicle, a field for the credit application link, and the message that goes out is about this customer and this car, with the store's own apply link in it, without the rep pasting anything. The credit application field is the one stores use most, because the apply link is long and a rep who has to find it will often skip it, while a rep who can type one short field never does. The apply links page covers what happens after the customer taps it.

Dictation is why the assistant works away from a desk. The microphone button turns speech into text in the composer, and the rep edits the result by hand before sending, which matters: a dictated message is a draft, not a send, and the rep stays in control of what leaves. On a lot, in a service drive, or in a car on a test drive with a customer waiting for an answer to a text, speaking a reply is the difference between answering now and answering later.

Together the three pieces cover the three reasons a reply does not go out: nothing to say, no time to type, and a link that is too much trouble to find. Take those away and the reply goes out, and a reply that goes out in a minute is worth more than a better reply that goes out in an hour.

The direct replacement is a separate writing tool in another browser tab, where a rep would type the situation, copy the answer and paste it into the CRM, losing the customer's name and the car in the copy. Nobody does that from a phone, so the real replacement is the blank box and the delay it causes. Reps do not avoid replying because they are lazy. They avoid it because the first sentence is hard, and a lead that gets no first sentence for an hour has usually heard from another store by then.

The cost shows up in the numbers a manager already watches: response time on new leads, reply rate on texts, and the share of leads that get a second touch at all. An assistant that removes the blank box moves all three, not by writing better than the rep but by writing first, so the rep is editing instead of starting. And a merge field that drops the apply link into every financing conversation moves the number of completed credit applications, which is the number the finance office watches.

The AI Writing Assistant, merge fields and dictation are part of every LeadLocate plan, from CRM Only at $199 a month to the lead plans, with no per message charge. The pricing page lists what each plan includes.

The assistant drafts; a person sends. That order is the whole compliance story, and it is deliberate. Every message that leaves the composer was read and approved by the rep whose name is on the lead, which means the store is never in the position of explaining a message nobody at the store wrote or saw. The draft can be edited, shortened or thrown away, and the merge fields only ever pull from the lead record and the store's own links.

The record is the same as for any text or email from the CRM. The communications log on the lead records the message, the time and the user; delivery status shows on every text bubble; opt outs and the DNC Blacklist apply to the message the same way they apply to one typed by hand. A dictated message goes through the same path. When a customer later asks what they were told about a trade or a payment, the thread shows the exact words the rep sent. Texting consent has its own rules, covered on the do not call scrub and blacklist page.

One habit is worth setting on day one: read the draft. The assistant writes a plausible reply from what is on the lead, and if the lead's notes are wrong, the draft will be wrong in the same way. The rep who reads before sending catches that; the rep who taps send blind does not. It is a tool for going faster, not for looking away.

There is nothing to turn on. The AI Writing Assistant button is in the text and email composers in LeadLocate CRM from the day the account is created, on desktop and in the mobile app, for every user. The merge fields are listed in the composer, and the dictation button uses the microphone the browser or the phone already has, so the first use is a tap. Managers who want the store's voice in the drafts usually spend an hour with the first few, editing until the tone is right, and reps pick it up from there.

If a store wants to see it work before signing up, the pre-recorded live demo shows a lead coming in, the assistant drafting the reply and the text going out. And if a store has a specific way it wants drafts to read, our team puts it in production for your dealership on request.

Pair it with the vehicle insert button in the same composer, so the message the assistant drafts goes out with the unit's photo and price attached; the send vehicles by text page covers that button. Pair it with trackable short links, which shorten the apply link or the deal page the merge field dropped in and report back when the customer taps it. Pair it with the Follow Up Processes and Automated Templates when a manager is writing the steps of a drip, because a sequence drafted with help and edited by a person reads better than one typed from scratch at the end of a long day.

Pair it with Jax for the moment before the draft, when a rep does not know what to say and needs a question answered first. Pair it with the mobile app, where dictation turns a walk across the lot into a reply. And pair it with the Reports dashboard on the dock, where response time and text activity by user show whether the blank box is gone. Everything here is part of the same subscription, which is why the assistant is a button in the composer and not a separate product.

Does the AI Writing Assistant reply to customers by itself?

No. It drafts a message in the composer for the rep to read, edit and send. Automatic replies are a different tool: Texting Chatbots and the automations under Marketing Tools and Billing and Admin.

Does it work for email as well as text?

Yes. The SMS composer has an assistant that drafts a text and the email composer has one that drafts an email, because the two channels want different lengths and openings. Both use the same merge fields.

What are AI merge fields?

Placeholders listed in the composer that fill in from the lead record and the store's own links, such as the customer's name, the vehicle and the SecureWebX credit application link, so a draft is about this customer and this car without any pasting.

Can I dictate a message instead of typing it?

Yes. The Dictate with microphone button in the composer turns speech into text in the box, on desktop and in the mobile app. The rep edits the result before sending.

Is the writing assistant the same thing as Jax?

No. Jax is the AI assistant in the taskbar that answers a rep's questions in English or Spanish. The writing assistant drafts the message in the composer. They work well together: ask Jax, then let the assistant write it.

Is there a charge per message?

No. The AI Writing Assistant, merge fields and dictation are part of every LeadLocate plan, from CRM Only up.

The AI Writing Assistant is part of every LeadLocate plan, month to month. See a lead come in, a draft appear in the composer and the text go out.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.