As part of its technology modernization strategy, Hertz has begun developing low-code applications and agents with Power Platform.
Apps built on Power Platform include a schedule planning app for employees and an AI-driven agent used by the customer service team to support customers seeking roadside assistance.
An early pilot of its agent, built on Copilot Studio has already reduced the time to resolve customer issues by over 15%.
The Hertz Corporation is one of the world’s leading car rental and mobility solutions providers. Its subsidiaries and licensees operate the Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, and Firefly vehicle rental brands, with more than 11,000 rental locations in 160 countries.
Over 26,000 employees manage a fleet of over 560,000 vehicles around the globe. They also operate the Hertz Car Sales brand, which offers a range of quality, competitively priced used cars for sale online and at locations across the United States, and the Hertz 24/7 car-sharing business in Europe.
To maintain its position as one of the most successful and recognized car companies in the world, Hertz launched a technology modernization strategy aimed at better serving both customers and employees. A rapidly emerging part of that strategy has been the development of low-code applications and agents using Power Platform.
“We have literally hundreds of processes that could benefit from automation and AI, and we see Power Platform as a fast, efficient way to develop solutions that deliver those benefits,” says Zac Cadi, Director, Strategic Technology Initiative and who leads the AI enablement team at Hertz.
One of the many reasons Cadi likes Power Platform is its tight integration with other Microsoft technologies and applications. “We like how well Power Platform integrates with the Microsoft technologies we already use,” says Cadi.
One such application is Microsoft Shifts, available with Microsoft Teams. With Teams and Shifts, employees can view and manage their shifts all from one location. This includes the option to easily swap or offer a shift to a teammate—a process that previously required multiple approval channels. Using Power Apps, Hertz developed a “Start My Day” app that brings Shifts data together with work-related data from other platforms, creating a highly efficient planning tool for employees.
“We like how well Power Platform integrates with the Microsoft technologies we already use.”
Zac Cadi, Director, Strategic Technology Initiative, Hertz
The app also brings in reports called “huddle sheets”. These reports provide employees with upcoming car rental activity for their specific locations, such as the number of cars being picked up and returned that day. This information is key to informing frontline teams about just how busy they are going to be at any given time. The problem was that, previously, these reports were put together daily in Excel and were not easy to update and maintain. Today, the data sources for these huddle sheets are directly integrated into the app.
Along with greater convenience and efficiency for employees, the app has improved management processes. Previously, when shifts were changed, these updates would need to be manually entered into the company’s ADP payroll management system. Now, updates are automatically uploaded directly to the system.
Power Platform is also becoming a key driver for AI-related initiatives. For Hertz, the success of AI is all about striking an effective balance between enablement and governance. Power Platform tools like Microsoft Copilot Studio are helping the company achieve that goal.
“Microsoft Copilot Studio enables our team to start building agentic solutions while also providing just the right number of guardrails," says Cadi. "In this way, it’s more like a protected wilderness park than a zoo—a platform where our makers are free to roam, but also where we can maintain control of data and development. Microsoft Copilot Studio gives us the confidence to effectively explore and realize the potential of AI at Hertz.”
An excellent example of this kind of development is a new, AI-driven agent used to support customers seeking roadside assistance. When a customer calls Hertz for technical support, a customer service representative often has to search through vehicle manuals on an internal SharePoint site.
With the agent, this search can be simplified down to one, natural language query using generative AI. The query can cover just about anything related to a customer’s vehicle: How do I get the convertible top to go down? How do I activate the lane assist? What does the ECO mode do to a particular kind of car?
Initially, the team experimented with the agent by simply connecting to a browser. They quickly discovered that performance could be dramatically improved by linking directly to the websites of the specific vehicle manufacturers in the fleet. Later, the team added a link to a government site that enables users to get vehicle information based on vehicle identification numbers. The agent can also access online video platforms for links to instructional videos which reps can then share with customers.
To help maintain accuracy, the team limits the number of knowledge sources to just a few trusted sites. The agent was also refined with specific instructions, using simple, natural language instructions inside Copilot Studio.
“Copilot Studio gives us the confidence to effectively explore and realize the potential of AI at Hertz.”
Zac Cadi, Director, Strategic Technology Initiative, Hertz
Hertz is currently piloting the agent—which it calls Manny—at one location, where it has already reduced the time to resolve customer issues by over 15%. User feedback has been equally positive. As one employee said: “Manny is great! I entered a complicated question about setting up a car's Wi-Fi hotspot. I really didn’t expect to get a good answer back. Not only did Manny answer the question, but it also provided detailed, step-by-step instructions that were easy to understand.”
Based on the early success of the pilot, Hertz is planning to roll the agent out to more locations soon, with the agent expected to generate significant time and cost savings, while also freeing employee time for more complex customer queries.
What’s equally important to note is that the agent was created by an employee with no previous agentic experience. “This is actually the first agent that I’ve created,” says Brian Call, Platform Developer at Hertz. “Even if I could do this with custom code, it would have taken a lot longer to create the topics and prompts needed to deliver the level of performance we have now.”
Given how easy it was to develop and refine the roadside assistance agent, Cadi’s team is excited to expand its functionality.
One concept the team is exploring involves image recognition in Copilot Studio. Customers could send a photo of a car dash, for example, and the agent could instantly analyze the image and suggest fixes. There’s also interest in using multi-agent orchestration in Copilot Studio to link other agents to cover other customer service tasks.
“Power Platform makes it easy to bring really innovative automation and AI concepts to life and that makes it even easier to demonstrate the possibilities to both our employees and management,” says Cadi. “We’re at the beginning of a very exciting journey with Power Platform.”
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