The Azure cloud helps CarMax access a wide range of generative artificial intelligence–enabled tools. One application allows the company’s software engineers to quickly generate code, or improve existing code, to build new digital products. Another facilitates data structuring and search engine optimization. They use machine learning (ML) capabilities to make sure posted photos show details that matter most to car shoppers, and they use OpenAI’s ChatGPT to curate written content for customer-facing research pages.
A separate feature with AI at its core is an app that allows customers who wish to sell or trade in a car to simply submit a license plate photo to receive an instant offer good for seven days. Since CarMax rolled out the tool in early 2022, the company’s car purchases — essential to its business — have increased drastically.
“Within a few weeks, we became one of the largest, if not the largest, online buyers of cars,” Mohammad says. “That’s something that wouldn’t have been possible without Azure and the power of the cloud.”