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AI in the Bay: How Shop Owners Are Building Custom Bots That Actually Work

AI in the Bay: How Shop Owners Are Building Custom Bots That Actually Work

Ratchet+Wrench Radio May 13, 2026 26 min
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About this episode

Seth Thorson and the hosts break down how shop owners are building custom AI agents that automate repeatable tasks without replacing employees. The conversation focuses on practical, day-to-day shop use: “putting A.I. in a box” with rubrics, document-grounded answers, and workflows that don’t require constant prompting. They share workshop setup, privacy considerations, and examples like an HR bot, Carfax-based maintenance scheduling, and using NHTSA/service bulletins to catch missed issues.

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Technical Too Afraid to Ask
Concept

retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)

"I've also trained it on five or six different online resources and databases and how to go to NHTSA and search for any service bulletins that the car has so that if detect types of story ... it will say, hey, did you see there's a service bulletin for this issue?"

This is a way to make an AI use real reference material instead of guessing. It looks up the relevant info (like official car repair notes) and then uses what it found to help answer questions or suggest what to check next.

Term

NHTSA

"I've also trained it on five or six different online resources and databases and how to go to NHTSA and search for any service bulletins that the car has"

NHTSA is a U.S. government agency for vehicle safety. Shops use its website to look up official safety information about cars, like whether there’s a known issue or recall.

Term

service bulletins

"search for any service bulletins that the car has so that if detect types of story and there's a bulletin and he missed it, it will say, hey, did you see there's a service bulletin for this issue?"

A service bulletin is an automaker’s notice to mechanics about a known problem. It tells shops what to look for and how to fix it, so they don’t miss an established repair.

Topic

service writer workflow

"And then we built the service writer one, which is the maintenance and how to overcome objections. And if the customer says this, say this, and we built some sales types controls around it."

A service writer is the person at a shop who talks with customers and turns their concerns into a repair plan. Here, they’re describing an AI that helps that process by prompting the right questions and checks.

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