TECHNOLOGY

It’ s both the future of business and a huge problem

’ m of two minds regarding Artificial Intelligence. One: I don’ t like today’ s generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini and others, but I’ m finding ways to use them. You can read about that on p. 8, though I don’ t even get into the“ huge problem” aspect of AI’ s electricity needs or the likely investment bubble. Two: I assume that AI agents and machine learning technology have potential to improve people’ s lives and businesses. Because I don’ t know much about this side of AI, I spoke with experts who do.

Sean McLaughlin owns Craig Taylor Equipment, a dealer with four locations in Alaska. He also created Flyntlok, a cloud-based DMS for OPE and tractor dealers, following earlier success in software development. I turned to McLaughlin to learn what AI might do for power-equipment dealers.

OPE +: I want to help dealers know how they can use AI. I have a little bit of an idea, but I really don’ t know anything about this type of AI, so help me understand. Sean McLaughlin: Since I last talked to you, which was literally a year plus ago, it’ s taken shape. Back then, AI was this conceptual thing that we were chatting and spitballing on; now we’ re going to be releasing an AI tool we’ re calling Yosemite Sam. Every AI you kind of give a persona to. We’ re coming out with Yosemite Sam in the second half of this year.

What we’ re working on for customers falls into two camps. One that’ s sexier and one that’ s less sexy. I tend to like the less sexy one. The sexier one is what people want to talk about. Basically there’ s a revenue side and what AI can do to help you grow revenues. And then there’ s the cost-cutting side of what AI can do.

On the cost side, it comes down to the use cases; this isn’ t guesswork anymore. The first one is reconciliation and automation of part receiving. Right now receiving parts is kind of a pain in the ass. You order them, the parts come in and you’ re verifying all the pricing, you’ re verifying everything. You get it into your DMS, and then you pay the vendor. In the new world, you’ re going to take your invoice and scan it and drop it in AI Flyntlok. And we’ re going to pull all the data off there about invoice number and when it’ s due and what parts were received and what their cost was and what the fees were. And we’ re going to auto-reconcile it against what we know we’ re receiving. We’ re just going to do the whole thing automatically for you and show it to you and you’ re going to bless it and go. It’ s going to save something like 70 percent of parts receiving time; it already works.

OPE +: You said,“ scan the invoice” and then it’ ll do this and this and this. Do you literally mean the dealer has to take paper and scan it? McLaughlin: Great question. In almost everything in a dealership now, they’ re getting the invoice via email or a portal. They grab the PDF out of one app and drag it into Yosemite Sam. And the AI engine parses out that PDF. It builds the left-hand side of what’ s being received. The

6 OPE + September 2025 www. OPE-Plus. com