Artificial intelligence (AI) gets a lot of headlines these days. Both in the trucking space and the business community at large.
Procede Software knows that. The company’s even been one of the headliners on the topic in recent weeks. But as revolutionary as AI could become, Procede knows the technology is still new and, to many dealer and aftermarket businesses, unknown. Which is why Tuesday during the 2025 Procede Software Conference (PSC) in San Diego, the company showcased how it is “walking, not running” into AI implementation with a focus on integrating AI to align with business goals and make Excede users more efficient.
As Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy Lindsay Kramer puts it, Procede Intelligence is about optimizing dealer operations to support its customers. It’s about providing tools that can make some workflows easier and automate others so employees can maximize their time on projects where personal experience, customer relationships and human intuition remain essential to success.
“Think of AI as a power tool in your toolbox,” she says. “For some jobs the hammer and screwdriver are still the right choice, but other times you need a power tool to get the job done faster and with precision.”
Procede’s AI journey has been a multi-year process but really kicked off in 2023 when the company started working groups to begin evaluating where it could fit within Excede and started working with partners like Microsoft to determine how it could be leveraged.
Procede’s Director of Data and Deployment Services Robby Ticknor says AI can provide many tangible wins for the company and its users. Increased productivity for employees and departments is an early victory, with other potential wins coming from faster onboarding and upskilling, quicker solutions to challenging problems and higher quality deliverables. He says the company’s goal isn’t to just make Excede AI enabled, it is to develop a solution that can help inform all facets of a user’s operation and make it easier for decision makers to act on opportunities that can drive business success.
Kramer agrees. She says AI is logic and data at work, “amplifying insights” to create fewer bottlenecks in user operations and make everyone’s jobs easier.
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Procede also shared Tuesday its AI journey has been shaped by close collaboration with customers — through co-designing intelligent solutions that solve real dealer challenges and drive meaningful ROI.
Procede's guidance for user customers on how to integrate AI safely and effectively into their operations.
Procede’s AI integrations into Excede are designed to be seamless and are built with solid security and data privacy firewalls to ensure users can leverage AI resources within the DMS with complete confidence. Embracing AI can be a daunting task, which is why Nicholas Bashenow, operations manager, advises Procede customers to develop an AI strategy to ensure their businesses remain secure and their adoption of AI follows a reasonable, measured path to reduce risk and maximize potential success. He says that starts with research, corporate policies and figuring out where AI tools first make sense.
“AI is about building intentionally one step at a time,” he says.
