CallRevu delivers real-time insights for auto dealerships with Azure AI Foundry

As car dealerships modernize to meet changing customer expectations, digital transformation is reshaping every part of the business. One of the most critical moments still happens on the phone. More than 60% of buyers call after doing their homework online, and what happens next can make or break the sale. CallRevu helps dealerships turn calls into conversions with its AI-powered software platform. It analyzes conversations, tracks performance, and delivers real-time coaching to improve call handling, follow-up, and customer experience. More than 5,000 dealership locations across North America rely on CallRevu to capture more leads, reduce missed opportunities, and build stronger customer relationships. But as the company grew, its manual review process became a barrier to scale, consistency, and deeper insight.

How real-time data reshaped operations

CallRevu needed a faster, more scalable way to monitor conversations and extract insights. Human reviewers had to listen to every call, log key details like appointment times and vehicle types, and summarize the interaction, and that manual process couldn’t keep up with volume. “There were inevitably calls we just couldn’t monitor,” explains Brian Sutliffe, Vice President of Engineering at CallRevu. “It was time-consuming and impossible to scale.” The team had previously modernized its data platform by moving from on-premises Microsoft SQL Server to the fully managed, Azure SQL Managed Instance, gaining flexibility and reduced overhead. With reporting dashboards already running in Microsoft Power BI, extending into Azure AI Foundry was a natural next step. “We knew from the start that AI would solve our scalability problem, but the timing wasn’t right until Azure OpenAI became available,” says Jeff DePascale, Chief Technology Officer at CallRevu. “That opened the door for real-time call summaries and insights we couldn’t achieve with people alone.”

CallRevu built an orchestration layer that blends frontier models from Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models for high-value tasks with smaller open-weight models (publicly available models they can run and fine-tune themselves), such as those used for basic data extraction, running on GPUs in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This hybrid setup provides fast response times and cost efficiency. It also gives the team the flexibility to scale and fine-tune models as usage grows, without disrupting production workflows. “Azure Kubernetes Service gives us the control and cost efficiency we need,” says Sutliffe. “We can scale GPU resources based on call volume and test new models without touching production.”

Transcriptions are stored in Azure SQL Managed Instance, and the data flows into Microsoft Fabric for replication and warehousing. Fabric powers both internal and customer-facing Power BI reports, with dedicated dashboards designed by CallRevu’s data team. From there, Power BI dashboards surface real-time insights on call performance, lead response times, and marketing attribution. Dealership teams rely on these insights to coach staff, manage resources, and strengthen customer relationships. Executives track performance across dealerships, sales managers identify bottlenecks in lead follow-up, and service departments address delays that impact satisfaction.

The combination of AKS, Azure SQL, and Power BI has streamlined reporting, cut missed opportunities, and given dealerships a clear link between marketing efforts and call outcomes. For example, sales teams now get real-time alerts when follow-up calls are overdue or leads are mishandled—issues that previously went unnoticed “We’re not just identifying problems anymore,” says DePascale. “With Microsoft technology, we’re helping dealerships act on insights faster and with more confidence.”

CallRevu also developed and launched TestTrack, its own voice-based AI simulator built on Azure services to help dealerships train employees. “We built TestTrack with Azure OpenAI to transform onboarding,” says DePascale. “Now a new agent can run through 20 AI-generated call scenarios in an hour.”  Scenarios include real-life, common customer interactions like scheduling service, asking about financing, or requesting a test drive. The simulator uses Azure AI Speech for natural-sounding voice interaction and Azure OpenAI for summarization and analysis. The system provides feedback on tone, clarity, and whether the agent followed dealership playbooks. This helps teams improve performance before they ever speak to a real customer.

The business impact of better insights

CallRevu is already seeing strong results from its shift to Azure AI Foundry. Dealerships using the platform report an average  increase of 15% in lead conversion and 20% fewer missed sales opportunities. Customer satisfaction scores have improved by 10%, driven by faster follow-up and more consistent interactions. AI-powered assistants now triage calls, generate summaries, and surface insights in real time, so dealership staff spend less time sorting through data and more time engaging with customers. “We’ve gone from surfacing problems to helping dealerships actually fix them, and Azure OpenAI is a big part of that shift,” says DePascale. CallRevu estimates the automation saves up to $500,000 annually in labor costs across all dealerships using its platform. 

Automating call analysis with AI has also improved how CallRevu stores and works with data internally. With structured insights now flowing into Azure SQL Managed Instance instead of relying on manual review, the team has more flexibility in how they manage and scale development. “Azure SQL Managed Instance gives us the flexibility we need, and Azure Kubernetes Service helps us scale fast when we test and deploy new models,” notes Sutliffe. “That combination has changed how quickly we can move.”

Azure gives CallRevu the flexibility to scale across dealerships, launch new services like AI-driven training, and prepare for next-generation tools such as multi-agent systems. With Azure supporting analytics, training, and operations, CallRevu is redefining what modern dealerships can do with data, speed, and AI at the core.

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