In a rapidly evolving automotive market, dealerships, manufacturers and consumers alike are seeking a seamless, integrated experience — and that’s exactly where Tekion steps in. Founded in Silicon Valley, Tekion offers an AI-native, cloud-first platform that brings together every aspect of the automotive retail ecosystem: from OEM branding to dealership operations to the consumer’s purchase and servicing experience.
What Tekion Does
Tekion flagship offering is the Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC), a unified platform that combines dealer management system (DMS), customer relationship management (CRM), digital retail, service, parts and analytics — all built on modern cloud infrastructure.
Key capabilities include:
Real-time, AI-powered workflows for sales, service and parts.
Digital retail that allows a consumer to start a purchase online, continue in-store, or vice versa — with transparency around pricing, taxes and fees.
Open API architecture and integrations so that OEMs, dealers, and technology partners can plug in and extend the experience.
Advanced analytics and AI/ML to derive insights and optimize operations — for example, streamlining service lanes, predicting customer behaviour, or automating workflows.
Why It Matters
The traditional automotive retail system has long been fragmented: separate systems for sales, parts, service; siloed data; inconsistent consumer experiences. Tekion’s approach is disruptive because it unifies these under one cloud-native umbrella — offering speed, agility, and better consumer engagement. From their website: “One AI Platform … seamlessly connecting your entire business.”
Some headline numbers from Tekion’s site: over $43 billion+ transacted, 3 million+ vehicles sold via the platform, 24 million+ vehicles serviced, and 225 million+ parts sold. These indicate scale and growing traction.
Applications & Product Lines
Aside from the core ARC platform, Tekion offers a few other product lines aimed at specific segments:
Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC): for OEMs, enabling a branded → dealer → consumer journey with vehicle configurators, direct-to-consumer retail, online payment and delivery workflows.
Digital Retail Experience: Specifically designed to let consumers transact online or hybrid, with sales/checkout concierge, transparent calculators, live sessions.
DMS + CRM: Their DMS (Dealer Management System) is built in the cloud, with AI-enhanced workflows (sales & F&I, service lane/parts connectivity) and their CRM integrates across functions to manage leads, customer data, etc.
Real-World Partnerships & Impact
Tekion was named an approved CRM provider for Toyota’s SmartPath / MONOGRAM digital retail program in the U.S., meaning Toyota and Lexus dealers can select Tekion as the CRM powering that experience.
They partnered with insurance-marketplace Polly so that dealers using Tekion can quote car insurance to new buyers seamlessly, boosting backend gross for dealers. A recent expansion in India: They opened a large office in Bengaluru and hired 300+ people for product, design, engineering roles — signalling global growth and scale.
Benefits & Value Proposition
For dealerships and OEMs, Tekion offers several clear advantages:
Efficiency gains: With one unified platform, fewer disparate systems, streamlined workflows, less duplication of data.
Better consumer experience: Digital, transparent, consistent whether online or in-store — meets modern expectations.
Scalable operations: Cloud-native means easier updates, lower infrastructure management, faster rollout of features.
Data and intelligence: Unified data means better analytics, insights, possibility of predictive services or targeted engagement.
Ecosystem flexibility: Open APIs allow integration with partner technologies, so the dealership or OEM isn’t locked into monolithic closed systems.
Challenges & Considerations
While the value proposition is strong, there are some considerations for organizations thinking about moving to Tekion:
Implementation and change-management: Switching from legacy systems to a new unified cloud platform can be a major transition — training, data migration, process redesign all matter.
Customization and maturity: As a newer platform compared to some legacy incumbents, there may be workflow gaps or custom feature needs that require additional work.
Support, infrastructure readiness & performance: A cloud platform performs best when network, devices, processes are tuned — some user-feedback suggests that issues around parts workflow or system responsiveness have been areas of frustration. For example:
“Our dealership is seriously considering switching to Tekion … our rep mentioned that they have issues with their parts and wholesale…”
Organizational readiness: Dealers and OEMs need to embrace a modern mindset — digital retail, workflow rethinking, consumer-centric design — rather than simply lifting old processes into a new system.
For Dealers in India / Emerging Markets
Given your location (Airoli, Maharashtra, India) and the growth in automotive retail in India, Tekion could be highly relevant. The fact that Tekion has a major presence in India (Bengaluru office, hiring) means local support may be strengthening.
For Indian dealerships and OEMs:
It’s a good time to evaluate digital-retail readiness: consumers increasingly expect online buying, hybrid experience.
A cloud-native platform could offer cost and operational advantages vs older on-premises systems.
Make sure local adaptations (taxes, compliance, parts/after-sales workflows) are fully supported — ask for regional case studies.
Ensure your network/infrastructure is robust — latency, connectivity, devices matter when you’re dependent on cloud systems.
In summary, Tekion is one of the most modern, ambitious platforms in the automotive retail technology space. By offering a unified, AI-powered, cloud-native system that spans OEM, dealer and consumer touchpoints, it is positioned to reshape how automotive retail works — making it faster, more transparent, more efficient, and more consumer-friendly.
