Numa calls itself "The AI Operating System for Car Dealerships": it answers inbound calls, runs text campaigns and reads conversations for customer satisfaction with LiveCSI. Lokam is a post-visit follow-up tool for dealerships. Numa says LiveCSI reads the texts, calls and voicemails in its inbox, and a dealer quoted by Numa mentions Numa’s follow-up texts. With Lokam, your store calls the customer the day after the repair order closes, using Lokam's AI assistant, and an unhappy customer goes to the people on your store's escalation list. The difference is the channel, and who at the store ends up owning the unhappy customer.
What is Numa AI?
Numa's own pages describe a set of products a service manager will recognize.
- Voice AI for inbound calls. Numa says its voice AI answers callers in natural voices, Spanish included: "Spanish-speaking callers hear a voice that sounds like someone who works at your dealership too."
- Writing back to the . Numa says it "resolves the request and writes it back to the DMS".
- Smart Inbox. Numa describes Smart Inbox as one inbox for the whole dealership's communications.
- Opportunities. Numa says outreach on declined and unsold work starts as a text campaign, and its AI picks up the thread when the customer replies: "The first text came from the campaign. ... Numa replies when they answer."
- follow-up texts. On Numa's page, a dealer quoted by Numa mentions turning on "Numa’s CSI follow-up texts".
- LiveCSI. Numa says LiveCSI "reads each text, call transcript, and voicemail transcript, predicts how satisfied the customer is" and flags heat cases.
- Callback queues for your staff. A Numa case study says "advisors and managers see open repair orders with queues for callbacks, text-backs, and status updates".
Numa is also plain about what LiveCSI is for. Asked whether LiveCSI replaces the survey, Numa says it does not: "The OEM survey still sets your score."
So the picture Numa paints is a system that sits on the phone lines and text threads your store already runs, plus its own outbound text campaigns and CSI follow-up texts.
Takeaway
List the phone lines and text threads your store runs today. You'll see which conversations Numa would read and which happen outside its inbox.
Where does an unhappy customer show up?
Take the customer whose loaner wasn't ready and whose car came back with the same rattle. That frustration can surface in several places, and each place has a different owner in your store.
How to read it: each row is a way the frustration can surface, what each tool does with it, and who in your store picks it up.
| Where it shows up | What Numa says it reads | What Lokam does after the visit | Who in the store owns it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calls the store angry | Numa says its voice AI answers the call and LiveCSI reads the call transcript | Lokam is not an inbound answering bot | Service manager, same day |
| Says nothing and doesn't come back | Numa's pages mention follow-up texts; LiveCSI reads any reply. A customer who doesn't reply leaves nothing to read | Your store's follow-up call with Lokam's AI assistant, the day after the closes, asks how the visit went and for a 0-10 score; the escalation list gets the customer, a short summary and the main issue | Service manager reviews; calls back or assigns it |
What it tells you: the row for the customer who says nothing is where the tools differ, because a customer who says nothing leaves nothing to read.
Numa says LiveCSI reads texts, call transcripts and voicemail transcripts, so its signal comes from conversations the customer starts or answers, including replies to Numa's CSI follow-up texts. If the customer never replies to anything, there is nothing for LiveCSI to score. The same holds on the Lokam side. Your store makes up to three call attempts with Lokam's AI assistant, and customers who can't be reached get one short text asking how the visit went. A customer who answers neither still leaves nothing to read.
With Lokam, your store calls customers after the visit, using Lokam's AI assistant, to ask how it went. The assistant asks for a 0-10 score and flags unhappy customers from what they say. After the call, the people on your store's escalation list get the customer, a short summary and the main issue. Neither tool is a stand-in for the survey. Numa says so about LiveCSI, and Lokam is not a replacement for your OEM survey either.
Takeaway
Pull last month's and check how many of those customers ever started a conversation with the store. You'll know how many unhappy customers any tool that reads your inbox would see.
When to choose Numa
Numa is a sensible pick in these situations, going by what Numa says about itself.
- Your phones are the leak. If calls to the drive ring out or get bounced between departments, Numa says its voice AI answers them, Spanish included, and says it "resolves the request and writes it back to the ".
- You want a satisfaction read on conversations you already have. Numa says LiveCSI reads each text, call transcript and voicemail transcript and predicts how satisfied the customer is. A service manager who wants heat cases flagged from the inbox gets that, by Numa's description.
- You want text campaigns on declined and unsold work, with AI picking up the replies.
- You run a or Ford store. Numa says it is a "GM iMR Approved Turnkey Vendor" and "Available through the FordDirect program", and that it "is available in GM’s Dealer Digital Solution program". Ask your program contact what that means for how your store buys.
- Your stack is on Numa's list. Numa says it runs on Reynolds, CDK, Tekion, Dealertrack, PBS and DealerBuilt, and on the Xtime, DealerFX and WiAdvisor schedulers.
If unanswered calls are what your customers complain about, fix that problem before anything else. Post-visit follow-up can wait until the phones are under control.
Takeaway
If phones are your gap, ask Numa to show a Spanish-language inbound call written back to your DMS in the demo.
When to add Lokam, or run both
These tools start in different places, so the useful question is which gap your store has. If the phones are covered and you still hear about bad visits late, from a or from a customer who stops booking, the gap is after the visit.
A workable split: Numa on the inbound phone and the text inbox, and Lokam on the post-visit follow-up calls your store makes with Lokam's AI assistant. Before go-live, decide who owns each alert, so a LiveCSI heat case and a Lokam escalation don't land on separate desks with nobody closing them.
Ask both vendors the same questions in the demo:
- Which does it read from? Numa lists its stack; Lokam reads closed repair orders from your DMS, usually through a data integration provider. Tell us your DMS and we'll confirm.
- Which languages does it handle? Numa says Spanish; Lokam's calls are held in English.
- What exactly does the manager see when a customer is unhappy? Numa describes LiveCSI scores and heat cases; with Lokam, the escalation list gets the customer, a short summary and the main issue, and each open issue sits on the store's dashboard with an owner, notes and a status.
- Who works the follow-up, and by what channel?
Whichever tools you run, call within your store's calling hours, check your store's do-not-call list before dialing, and text only customers who agreed to texts. Which customers your store may call, and how, is a question for your store's own counsel.
If you're also weighing vendors that place outbound voice calls, read Lokam vs STELLA(/lokam-vs-stella). For a texting-platform view, see our texting comparison. And if your survey returns are thin, our piece on service survey response rates covers what a drive can control. For Lokam's own details, see the Lokam facts page.
Takeaway
Take these questions into both demos and write the answers side by side. Before go-live you'll know whose desk each alert lands on.
Where Lokam fits
Cut churn at the source: fix the problems before customers leave. Lokam is post-visit follow-up for US dealerships. When a customer on the call wants to talk to someone, the AI assistant passes the request to your team, who call back. A monthly summary of top issues and positive mentions goes to the managers you choose.
FAQ
Does Numa make outbound calls?
Numa says its Opportunities outreach starts with a text campaign, a dealer quoted by Numa mentions turning on "Numa’s follow-up texts", and a Numa case study describes advisors and managers working "queues for callbacks, text-backs, and status updates". Outbound AI voice calls are not stated on the Numa pages we archived on 27 Oct 2026. Ask the vendor directly if that matters to you.
What is Numa LiveCSI?
Numa says LiveCSI "reads each text, call transcript, and voicemail transcript, predicts how satisfied the customer is" and flags heat cases for follow-up. It works on conversations already in Numa's inbox.
Does Numa replace the survey?
Numa says no: "The OEM survey still sets your score."
Does Numa integrate with CDK?
Numa lists CDK among the systems it runs on, with Reynolds, Tekion, Dealertrack, PBS and DealerBuilt. Lokam reads closed repair orders from your , usually through a data integration provider. Tell us your DMS and we'll confirm.
How much does Numa cost?
Numa's pages archived on 27 Oct 2026 show no public price or trial; the site offers "Get a demo". Ask for a quote for your rooftop count.
What are the alternatives to Numa?
It depends on the gap in your store. If it is inbound calls, STELLA says its Reception product answers calls on the first ring(/lokam-vs-stella). If it is texting, see our texting comparison. If the gap is after the visit, that is post-visit follow-up: your store calls customers after the visit using Lokam's AI assistant.
Before you go
What you can do with this
- Find out how many of your unhappy customers never start a conversation.
- Give each alert a single owner before go-live.
- Fix the phones before you add follow-up, if calls are what customers complain about.
Where Lokam helps
- Cut churn at the source: fix the problems before customers leave.
- Every open issue has an owner, and a reminder when it sits.
- Free your team from the follow-up list: they call back the customers who need it.
Sources
Competitor facts on this page come from each vendor's own website, retrieved 27 Oct 2026.
- https://numa.com/ (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://numa.com/voice (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://numa.com/opportunities (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://numa.com/gm (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://numa.com/livecsi (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://numa.com/casestudies/dyer-automotive-group-gives-ai-a-second-shot (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)
- https://numa.com/ford (retrieved 27 Oct 2026)