Boats Group Debuts Internal AI Customer Support Agent to Deliver Faster, More Consistent Help for Dealers and YachtCloser Users
MIAMI, June 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Boats Group today announced the launch of its new Customer Support Agent, an internal AI-powered tool that helps the company's account management and support teams deliver faster, more consistent assistance to dealers, brokers, and OEMs across its marketplaces—including YachtWorld, Boat Trader, boats.com, and transaction platform YachtCloser.
The AI Customer Support Agent provides Boats Group employees with instant, step-by-step instructions—complete with screenshots—for the most frequently asked customer questions. This includes everything from managing inventory listings to navigating reporting dashboards and using YachtCloser.
'Our goal is to be more responsive without sacrificing quality,' said John Barrile, Chief Technology Officer at Boats Group. 'AI Customer Support Agent doesn't replace the personal touch—it reinforces it by giving our team better tools to deliver clear, reliable help.'
Designed specifically to support human agents, the AI Customer Support Agent is not a chatbot or automated responder. Instead, it enhances the team's ability to assist customers quickly and accurately, particularly when solving repetitive or technical tasks. The result is a more efficient, more dependable support experience for Boats Group clients, without losing the relationship-first approach the company is known for.
This launch is part of a broader AI strategy focused on real-world usefulness over buzzword adoption. By developing tools in collaboration with beta users and frontline support teams, Boats Group ensures each AI feature is built for the practical workflows of the marine industry.
'While many companies are racing to launch AI features, we're focused on building the ones that truly help our customers succeed,' said Mike Grabowski, Chief Product Officer at Boats Group. 'AI Customer Support Agent is the kind of tool that doesn't just save time—it improves the overall experience.'
Boats Group's investment in AI is centered around enabling its team and partners to work smarter, not replacing people. With more AI-driven features planned in 2025 and beyond, Boats Group remains committed to developing tools that support both human expertise and customer expectations.
For more information about AI Customer Support Agent and Boats Group's approach to AI, visit boatsgroup.com.
About Boats Group
Boats Group operates the world's most trusted and widely used online marketplaces for buying and selling boats, including Boat Trader, YachtWorld, and boats.com. For over 30 years, Boats Group has led the marine industry's transformation, consistently setting the standard for how boats are discovered, marketed, and sold online. Today, the company reaches more than 200 million boat shoppers annually and is powering the next generation of recreational boating commerce with AI-enabled tools, data-driven marketing solutions, financing services, and actionable insights. Backed by the largest inventory and audience in the industry, Boats Group helps OEMs, dealers, and brokers grow their business and connect with buyers more efficiently than any other source.
Media Contact: Courtney Chalmers
VP of Marketing, Boats Group
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1-877-354-4069
View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boats-group-debuts-internal-ai-customer-support-agent-to-deliver-faster-more-consistent-help-for-dealers-and-yachtcloser-users-302472935.html
SOURCE Boats Group, LLC
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Forbes
7 minutes ago
- Forbes
Overcoming AI Impostor Syndrome: How Leaders Can Support Their Teams
John Schneider, CMO at Betterworks, drives business growth through large-scale transformations, market positioning and innovation. Are you old enough to remember when a calculator in math class felt like cheating? Move forward a few decades, and no one bats an eye at someone using Excel to perform calculations. Spell check was also once thought of as a cheat, but now it's integrated into most software tools. AI tools represent a similar technological leap, but in a more expansive way. Given the constant change, why do people put caveats on their AI-assisted accomplishments? I recently heard someone sheepishly say, 'Well, I used ChatGPT!' Using ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or any other AI tool isn't cheating. It's the evolution of technology and human usage and adaptation, and it's nothing to apologize for. An Intelligence Extension Many professionals who want to communicate with clarity and impact feel AI usage is a black mark on their capabilities. That's impostor syndrome, a psychological pattern in which individuals doubt their accomplishments and fear being exposed as a fraud, despite evidence of their competence. Generative AI (GenAI) isn't a replacement for our wit, creativity and drive—and its output certainly must be checked for accuracy. Oftentimes, though, it's a great starter dough. We provide the inputs and parameters, but AI tools correlate the data. They enhance our creativity, offering content ideas or different approaches to help solve problems. Data from Betterworks' recent 'State of Performance Enablement Report' supports AI's workplace benefits, noting 87% of users report improved accuracy, speed, quality and creativity because of AI. My teams at Betterworks use AI to brainstorm ideas and develop concise content. They can build a blog structure or case study outline with a large language model (LLM) and, with some revising, get a draft that meets our standards. With AI prompts, we get a rewrite or polishing that speeds the process, so the team can accomplish more creatively. Remember that sales prospect from a year ago? AI does. And not just their name, but why they went with another vendor, that they had a daughter headed to Stanford and a dog named Baxter. People's memories are fleeting and fallible, but GenAI can recall and polish our thinking, bringing our best selves to any conversation, analysis or recommendation. Reframing AI Business Success With AI, the important question is the implications of its usage, not whether it will become ubiquitous or secondhand. We remain the sentient being that applies intelligence to the AI; we shouldn't feel we defer to it. AI removes redundant and tedious work. However, if employees and leaders just let it run in a 'set and forget' mode, they're missing the point. It's a system that makes mistakes because it's only as smart as the person inputting prompts and delivers outputs based on pattern detection. It can't mimic individual intelligence, experience or creativity—at least not yet. I'm proud that my team continually discovers new uses for AI, as they see where it can take them and the company, while remaining in charge. Employees want to feel a measure of control and understanding with AI. Unfortunately, according to a Wiley Workplace Intelligence Report, 96% of workers feel stressed due to change at work, with AI being a major cause. Also, 75% say they lack confidence in utilizing AI. With AI as a co-pilot, managers and employees can quickly craft performance and stretch goals grounded in past feedback, progress and priorities—goals that are sharper, more impactful and aligned to business outcomes. What once took hours now takes minutes. Add a bit of human finesse, and the ideal goal is ready to go—without the heavy lifting Leaders must reframe AI business success by approaching AI as a strategic partner, not a tool. A calculator is a tool that handles repeatable tasks. GenAI rides any wave you are surfing by framing the wave, helping you stand and ride it and then advising you on the best place to jump off. Changing The Narrative You can use AI to conduct stock research, code for a new microsite, write a sci-fi story and list the five best barbecue joints in Memphis. This broad capability is similar to the smartphone, which replaced answering machines, GPS devices and a host of other gadgets and tools. People adapted to this usage, and some tech leaders like Sam Altman want to replace the smartphone with a ChatGPT device, so innovation continues unabated. I agree with him on this topic, that we'll have an AI smartphone that will eliminate and unify many current apps. Using a phone to check your email or calendar are secondhand actions for workers, done without any stigma. AI tools need to reach this acceptance point, which means framing AI as a collaborative workplace partner. Leaders can 'flip the script' to change narratives over time. If staff members frequently say with a deflated tone, 'I created the report with AI,' take another perspective. Encourage instances of 'I didn't spin my wheels because I had a creative sounding board that gave fresh ideas without feeling drained.' Ask your teams what they did or will do with the time they saved through AI-driven productivity. The world is changing because we can get much of our jobs done in a fraction of the time, so proactively help teams manage this change. AI can present new pathways for thought, and workers have the autonomy to run down those paths or create their own twists and turns. AI is the colleague who doesn't tire, the advisor who's always available and the trusted colleague who remembers all the key details but judges nothing. More Than A Feeling Worry about AI usage and authenticity isn't just about feelings; it impacts business results. When employees downplay their output and productivity due to AI usage, they might not innovate or act confidently, which can hurt their company's fortunes. Imposter syndrome ignores the truth: that proper AI usage requires humans who understand context and embrace creativity. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?


Forbes
42 minutes ago
- Forbes
From Cost Per Click To Cost Per Outcome: How AI Flips Optimization
Sergii Denysenko, CEO at MGID. Today's advertisers care about one thing: outcomes. As budgets tighten, media fragments and brand loyalty wanes, advertising channels must prove their ability to uplift tangible business metrics. However, optimizing toward outcomes is notoriously challenging, with a huge number of variables affecting whether spending on an ad achieves its desired result. Optimizing for outcomes requires the ability to predict the future—an impossibility, until now. Cause And Effect? Try Effect And Cause AI-powered bidding strategies reverse typical programmatic inputs and outputs. Instead of adjusting costs and hoping for conversions, machine learning models begin with the desired conversion and work backward to identify the optimal bidding strategy. This is made possible through the predictive capabilities of machine learning models. These models ingest and analyze signals from hundreds of sources—from ad placement and local time of day to device type, audience behaviors and contextual relevance—to identify complex patterns of cause and effect that can be used to gauge the likelihood of a conversion. Whereas traditional cost-per-click (CPC) models treat every impression or click as equal until proven otherwise, AI-powered cost-per-acquisition (CPA) models dynamically weigh the value of each opportunity in real time. If the model determines that a particular user, at a particular moment, is significantly more likely to convert, it will automatically adjust the bid upward, even if that click costs more. You might worry that such upward revisions would rapidly exhaust budgets, but such models balance out instances of increased spend by, conversely, devaluing or stripping out low-probability impressions. This way, budgets are preserved while efficiency is significantly boosted. This real-time recalibration allows for automated, high-frequency optimization at a scale that no human team could feasibly manage. Not that humans are—or ever should be—removed entirely from the process. You as the advertiser still remain in control of all the cost and key performance indicator levers that are important to you, while engineers work behind the scenes to monitor the algorithm's performance and correct for edge cases. After all, no model is 100% accurate in 100% of situations. The end goal of such technological developments is not to remove human oversight and strategy from the process, but to significantly expand the reach and effectiveness of human decisions. AI without people steering its course is like an orchestra without a conductor. For all the revolutionary technology chugging away in the back end, the user experience is largely unchanged. You're still billed on a CPC basis and can set the same thresholds you're used to, while the underlying engine makes decisions based on conversion potential. It's as much a mindset evolution as a technical one: Trust the model, feed it accurate data and it will reward you with better outcomes and less manual tinkering. Outcome Optimization Ripples Across The Open Web Should it achieve its full potential, AI-driven optimization will fundamentally alter the bloated, top-heavy digital advertising ecosystem of recent years. For one, AI levels the playing field. Advanced algorithmic optimization techniques were the domain of big tech giants such as Google and Meta, which had a massive advantage due to the reams of data exclusive to their walled gardens, derived from platforms meticulously designed to extract as many user signals as possible. Now, we all can tap into similarly sophisticated predictive technologies across the connected world, diversifying our channel distribution and reach without inflating our budgets. Smaller brands and advertisers without sprawling analytics departments can pursue outcome-based advertising with precision and scalability on whichever channels they choose, rather than default to the path of least resistance offered by big tech. Over time, this will redefine the concept of value in media buying. Under CPC regimes, cheap inventory could still be an attractive gamble, even if it doesn't convert. With CPA models in control, low-quality placements will wither from lack of spend, clearing a path for high-quality publishers whose audiences are more engaged and conversion-prone. Outcome optimization serves as a filter, reallocating spend away from made-for-advertising (MFA) sites and toward genuinely valuable environments. There are challenges and limitations, of course. AI models require both sufficient data and time to learn. You must set realistic CPA targets—despite appearances, AI is not magic—and give campaigns room to breathe. Impatient tweaking or overly aggressive benchmarks can 'confuse' the model, leading to misfires or underdelivery. But these are bumps in the road that will eventually be smoothed out. As more campaigns feed these algorithms, the systems will grow more resilient and their benefits will become more widely accessible. AI's capacity to evolve is perhaps what's most exciting about it. Digital advertising often feels like laying the tracks in front of a speeding train that veers wildly through market fluctuations. With AI's ability to adapt incredibly quickly, advertisers can step back and gain a wider perspective. At a time of rapid and tumultuous change in digital media (ironically, much of it caused by AI itself), it's more important than ever to be able to look to the horizon rather than be bogged down by busywork. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?


Forbes
42 minutes ago
- Forbes
The ROI Of AI In B2B Sales
Alyssa Merwin is Vice President of Global Sales Solutions at LinkedIn. If you lead a sales team today, then you know the game has changed. Cold outreach is getting colder. Buyers expect relevance, speed and trust from the start. The sellers who succeed are the ones who show up informed, prepared and real, not just persuasive. And yet, teams are under constant pressure to do more with less. Quotas are climbing, but headcount might not be. And sales representatives are spending only 10 hours a week actually selling. As a sales leader, I've come to understand that my job isn't just to drive revenue—it's to remove barriers to selling. That's where AI can play a transformational role, giving your team the tools to prioritize better, personalize faster and spend more time doing what actually moves the needle: building relationships and closing deals. Sales organizations that have been early adopters of AI are already seeing the upside. We know this from studying what top sellers do differently—and increasingly, we're seeing AI as a major differentiator. According to our global study with Ipsos, sellers who exceed their quota are 2.5 times more likely to be using AI every day, and 68% of sales organizations investing in AI say it's already helping them close more deals. But with AI showing up in every corner of the tech stack, the real question becomes: Where does it drive the most value, and how can you make sure it's delivering ROI? 3 Areas Where AI Is Moving The Needle Two years after generative AI burst onto the scene, we're seeing a dividing line between teams that are experimenting and those that are transforming. From both our research and my conversations with sales leaders across industries, three use cases stand out: We've all felt how much harder it's become to identify the right buyers. Buying committees are larger, buyer roles are dynamic and one wrong assumption can mean a deal lost before it begins. AI helps surface the right people sooner—mapping stakeholders, surfacing job changes and recommending decision makers based on real-time signals. The result? Sellers who use AI for research reports save 1.5 hours per week and generate higher-quality leads. It's not all about saving time—it's about having elevated conversations with the people that matter. We know that personalization works, but it's historically been time-consuming. AI changes that. Generative tools can craft messages tailored to a buyer's role, company news and even shared connections. Our data shows that sellers using AI to personalize outreach report a 28% increase in response rates. And that's not just better email—it's better pipeline. No rep gets into sales to spend six hours a week updating records. AI-enabled CRM integrations can now handle that lift automatically, updating data, flagging gaps and offering real-time insights that help sellers stay focused and deals stay on track. On average, we found that AI can shave a full week off the sales cycle. That translates to a serious competitive advantage. The Time To Lead Is Now We're still at the beginning of this AI transformation. According to our research, 98% of sales execs say they plan to increase investment in AI this year. That's encouraging. But tech investment without a clear strategy—and high-quality data—won't get us far. Sales leaders need to think not just about tools but about how AI becomes part of the daily workflow. How do we support our teams in building AI fluency? And how can we use AI to strengthen—not replace—the human connection that makes great selling possible? If there's one thing I'd say to every sales leader right now, it's this: Start with trust. Build your AI strategy on a data foundation that's accurate, real time and truly representative of your buyers. That's where the ROI lives—and that's how we set our teams up to win. Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify?