The questions AI poses to the automotive industry

Today, AI is rarely far from the front pages of newspapers and rolling headlines of broadcasters. The million-dollar question on everyone’s lips is ‘what will the technology mean for us all?’. The automotive industry, in which Armtek Group sits, is no exception to this. Cars are perhaps the area where AI’s impact will be most starkly seen and felt, making what can often seem an abstract technology both real and tangible.  

Take driverless vehicles. Removing the driver from behind the wheel of a car is perhaps the biggest revolution in automobiles since the internal combustion engine. London, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Abu Dhabi are amongst some of the major cities set to have driverless cars on the road by the end of this year. By the end of this decade, they could be as engrained in our day-to-day lives as the ride hailing app is now.  

This major leap forward in automotive AI triggers significant questions for the industry, as well as wider society. First, driving is a major profession, employing millions of people across the globe. What will society and governments need to do to support those who may find themselves replaced by an AI alternative? Right now there are some significant psychological and cultural barriers to overcome regarding driverless cars, but these will disappear in time.  

Second, for Armtek’s industry of after sale auto parts, driverless cars and the broader role of AI in cars will trigger a fundamental shift in how we do business. A lack of driver will change how those vehicles need to be serviced, removing human error or misuse as a major factor. Even with a driver behind the car, smarter AI systems embedded into newer cars will change the timescales and nature of the ‘wear and tear’ of individual car parts.  

AI itself can offer part of the solution – and not just in the vehicles themselves but across the entire aftermarket supply chain. The opportunities for auto parts distributors willing to embrace the technology are significant and, in some cases, already here.  

Consider predictive demand. A modern connected vehicle generates roughly 25 gigabytes of data per hour, from engine diagnostics to brake wear sensors. AI systems can now analyse anonymised telematics and on-board diagnostic data to predict which components are likely to fail – often weeks before the vehicle owner notices a problem. For a distributor like Armtek, this is transformative. Instead of reacting to orders as they arrive, we can pre-position the right parts in the right warehouses ahead of demand. The shift from a reactive to a predictive supply chain is not a distant prospect; fleets and insurers are already sharing sensor data with aftermarket partners in pilot programmes across Europe and North America.  

Then there is the physical infrastructure of distribution itself. AI-powered ‘digital twins’ – virtual replicas of real-world warehouses – allow companies to simulate changes to layout, pick routes, and staffing levels before implementing them on the warehouse floor. DHL has reported efficiency gains of up to 25 per cent using this approach. For an auto parts distributor handling tens of thousands of SKUs across multiple locations, a digital twin can test in minutes what would take months to trial in the real world. It is the kind of competitive advantage that separates those who merely stock parts from those who deliver them faster, cheaper and more reliably than anyone else.  

AI also has a critical role to play in trust and safety. Counterfeit automotive parts are a global problem estimated to be worth 45 billion dollars annually, and the consequences range from premature wear to fatal failure. Computer vision systems, trained on authentic components, can now scan incoming inventory and flag discrepancies in geometry, finish, and packaging that a human inspector would miss. For distributors, deploying this technology protects both reputation and, ultimately, the lives of the people driving the cars we help maintain. These are concrete, practical applications of AI that our industry should be pursuing with urgency.  

Perhaps more concerning for all those involved in building, maintaining, operating, insuring and repairing cars is the question of who is responsible if something goes wrong? Historically, we have always understood the answer to this. Whilst it may be contentious, we generally understood that responsibility lies somewhere between the driver, manufacturer, those who maintain the car and those who maintain the infrastructure within which the car operates.  

However, AI has added a new, entirely non-human element to this equation. When an algorithm is driving your car, who is responsible if it malfunctions? It is easy to foresee situations where, simply because nobody is behind the wheel, the ‘other side’ blames the machine gone wrong as the ‘easy way out’. More disturbingly, what if instigating a crash is the ‘best solution’ in terms of avoid a greater harm?  

These are the kind of ethical questions that nobody in our industry will resolve overnight. However, we must devote time and attention to grappling with an acceptable, workable answer to them. As an auto parts provider, Armtek must consider how the question of responsibility will affect our business, particularly if we are increasingly providing parts to cars being driven by an AI algorithm rather than a human.  

The rise of Chinese vehicles on European roads adds another layer to this issue. In 2025, sales of China-made vehicles in the EU rose 99% year-on-year, representing approximately 6% of all new car sales in the bloc. This is despite tariffs of up to 40% on some vehicles. The direction of travel for Chinese cars on European road is clear. Up.  

These cars, as with all new build cars, embedded AI technology into how they operate. The challenge lies in how to resolves issues arising from AI technology in Chinese cars. Simply put, the manufacturers are opaque and reluctant to share technical information about how their vehicles run. This is standard practice for Chinese manufacturers exporting to the West. Yet how are aftermarket providers supposed to maintain and repair these vehicles, both AI and non-AI related issues, if we have little technical information to go on? Again, there is no simple or straightforward answer.  

The automotive sector, both in Europe and elsewhere, faces arguably its greatest challenge with the increasingly dominant role AI will play. The question of what the technology can do has largely been resolved. Instead, our industry faces the bigger, more philosophical question of how to handle the fallout from increasingly autonomous, automated cars on the road. Yet alongside these challenges lie extraordinary opportunities. Companies like Armtek that harness AI to predict demand, optimise operations and safeguard quality will not merely survive this transformation – they will define it. The global automotive aftermarket is projected to reach 550 billion dollars by 2028. The companies that will capture the greatest share of that market are those investing in AI today.