CARSTAR 2026 Impact Conference

Part 3: Succession, Claims and Artificial Intelligence 

The third and final day of the 2026 CARSTAR Canada Impact Conference in Halifax, began with a Marketing Message from Melissa Kwiatkowski, Vice President, Marketing, Collision for Driven Brands. She talked about CARSTAR’s progress in growing brand awareness across the country, and with Artificial Intelligence the current hot trend, how to leverage AI to deliver impactful and lasting messages. She noted that it was important to view AI as a tool and treat it as such. “We have to continue monitoring it and using it strategically, in the right way,” said Kwiatkowski. Ultimately, she explained, it comes down to the customer and for legacy businesses such as CARSTAR, it’s critical that business at both the corporate and franchise level continues to evolve with the changing needs of customers.  

Increasing adoption

She noted, that increasingly, consumers are using AI tools to shop including 43% of baby boomers and a whopping 93% of Gen Z, with much of the latter engaging with brands via social media. “This a place where we need to play,” said Kwiatkowski, emphasizing that it doesn’t mean focusing less on traditional media sponsorships, but rather engaging with customers who are using these platforms and tools. 

She noted, that in the digital age, the biggest referrals for CARSTAR still come from family and friends. She also noted that when it comes to the vehicle park, we’re seeing a decline in luxury brands and an average age of vehicles on the road that continues to increase. “We need to start looking at the customers in our facilities with these trends in mind,” she said. 

Stressing the importance of really knowing your customer and using some examples, Kwiatkowski also stressed that stores need to understand where they are when it comes to the maturation business cycle. Are they single location operators? Are they MSOs? Are they a newly established operation or a well-established multi-generational family business. Understanding the type of location you operate is key to delivering an effective marketing message and optimizing your processes. “You need to make sure you are always ready,” Kwiatkowski stated, “since you never know when the market will take a downturn. She said that the CARSTAR corporate marketing team is there to help and ensure that individual stores can be in a position where they not only drive growth, revenue and opportunity, but own the markets in which they operate. She also took time to recognize Peter Scheibler and his team at CARSTAR Kenora as 2026 Marketer of the Year within the CARSTAR Canada network. 

Succession planning and exit strategy

The day’s keynote session came from Dr. Tom Deans. An expert on business succession planning and the author of books including Every Family’s Business, Willing Wisdom and The Happy Inheritor. While not the most glamorous subject, succession planning and exit strategy is of paramount importance for business owners. Deans noted that around $300 million is inherited every day and most of that is in illiquid assets such as businesses, real estate, car collections etc. And, if there is no will, the government will step in and divide up the assets, which often, isn’t the best outcome for the businesses or its previous owners. 

Deans talked about the potential problems if children inherit a business as equal partners and if a proper will wasn’t put in place there often isn’t the capital available to buy out those siblings who don’t want to be a part of the business, leading to all kinds of family feuds and legal issues. 

Deans stressed the importance of business owners to start creating a succession plan and transition plan as soon as possible and not to procrastinate, which he says, is a common problem, when plans aren’t put in place until a health issue rears up and then often, it can too late. 

He notes that for some business owners, giving up control and handing it over to the next generation can feel extremely difficult, but it is a necessary part of life and business strategy. He notes that for family businesses, the children often want freedom and independence, but can get frustrated when their parents refuse to relinquish control or keep them in the dark.

Deans said there are a number of strategies business owners can employ to ensure successful transition, including transferring money to your children at an early age, with the specific purpose of building multi-generational wealth. Another is to sell the business to key employees, or make preparations to sell it to a third party if there is no interest or ability from family or key employees to continue operating the business.

He noted that today, with baby boomers aging out of many businesses, there has never been a more critical time to have robust succession plans in place, ones that not only ensure a smooth business transition, but provide the opportunity for a long, expensive retirement while at the same time, ensuring the business lives on and successfully evolves. 

“I cannot stress enough how important this subject is,” said Deans. “Spend 25% of your time on ownership and a plan for transition and if there is one thing you take away from today’s lesson, it is to call a lawyer and book an appointment to create a legal will.”

“You need to make sure you are always ready,” Kwiatkowski stated, “since you never know when the market will take a downturn.”

AI and the right path

Following Deans, and representing the final session of the day, was a panel that focused on Artificial Intelligence and Finding the Right Path. Moderated by David Foster, Senior Vice President, CARSTAR Canada and featuring Brad Green, Director of Operations at CARSTAR Raydar Collision Group—a pioneer in the adoption of AI in the collision repair space—the discussion looked at Raydar Collision Group’s experience with the technology. Green noted that one anecdote, has been to carefully understand where AI tools really provide value and often that begins with the quality of your shop’s own data. He also stressed the importance of knowing who you are working with when it comes to AI implementation, and thatit’s important to emphasize that AI is built by people and to not let AI tools work on your behalf without providing oversight. Green noted that there are cases where people are trying to solving things they shouldn’t be, and often, organizations are making decisions to lay off people before realizing they actually need them.

Green’s sentiments were echoed by two additional panelists that joined the conversation, Ryan Mandell, Vice President of Strategy and Market Intelligence at Mitchell, and Omar Nabil, Vice President of Claims Solutions, Canada at Solera. Mandell noted that organizations who claim they are AI-driven companies are essentially missing the point and instead should be focusing on the value AI can add to your staff, particularly in a relationship driven business like collision repair. 

Nabil added that from a claims perspective, the industry needs to embrace a model of straight-through processing, and a scenario where the First Notice of Loss (FNOL) is understood from beginning to end and information provides opportunities to enhance workflow and optimization with the help of effective AI tools. 

Changing quickly

All the panelists acknowledged that when it comes to AI, things are changing quickly and at present, the best way to navigate it is to be intentional, with a clear purpose on how to leverage AI to enhance the business, improve customer service and deliver better outcomes for staff, stakeholders and customers.

Besides, the keynote sessions, CARSTAR also hosted a range of breakout sessions on days two and three of the conference. These covered everything from ADAS calibrations, to Score Cards and shop performance, SEO and AI intelligence, as well as on site demonstrations from BETAG North America and Keco, plus AI Estimating and updates on CARSTAR Academy and Educational Opportunities.

Following the formal conclusion of the event, attendees had the opportunities to get dressed up in their favourite Great Gatsby/Roaring 20s attire and participate in a charity casino event, followed by the official awards gala ceremony.

Autosphere congratulates each and every award winner as well as the CARSTAR corporate team and all attendees for hosting such a memorable and educational event.

The awards received that night included:

5 Years of Service:

• CARSTAR Montreal-Roxboro

• CARSTAR Goderich

• CARSTAR Gimli

• CARSTAR Maple Ridge (Classic Image)

• CARSTAR Rosemont

• CARSTAR Fort McMurray

• CARSTAR St-Michel

• CARSTAR St-Ferdinand

• CARSTAR Shelburne

• CARSTAR Kitchener Centre

• CARSTAR Brockville South (Ravenhorst)

10 Years of Service:

• CARSTAR Cardston

• CARSTAR St-Félix-de-Valois

• CARSTAR Hamilton Lockwood

• CARSTAR Barrhaven

• CARSTAR Myers Kanata

• CARSTAR Upper Sackville

• CARSTAR Midland

• CARSTAR Ottawa North (Ottawa Honda)

• CARSTAR St-Leonard

• CARSTAR Concord

• CARSTAR Pembroke (Butler)

• CARSTAR Dieppe

• CARSTAR Clarington

15 Years of Service:

• CARSTAR Calgary Fish Creek

• CARSTAR Miramichi

• CARSTAR Beauceville

• CARSTAR La Baie

• CARSTAR Val-Belair

20 Years of Service:

• CARSTAR Sackville

• CARSTAR New Glasgow

25 Years of Service:

• CARSTAR London Centre (Don Mor)

30 Years of Service:

• CARSTAR Red Deer

• CARSTAR Etobicoke North

• CARSTAR Essex

• CARSTAR Winnipeg Henderson

 

• Franchisee of the Year – Jessy Dufresne and Eric Hénault, CARSTAR St-Félix-de-Valois and CARSTAR Rawdon

• Operations Excellence Award – Darryl Hemstreet, CARSTAR Red Deer and CARSTAR Red Deer South

• Rookie of the Year – Tom Siu, CARSTAR Markham

• Customer Experience Award – Blake and Kelly McCay, CARSTAR Campbell River (Rich’s Auto Collision)

• Marketer of the Year – Peter Scheibler, CARSTAR Kenora

• Vanguard Award (1-3 Locations) – Kyle Nimmo and Keith Deptuck, CARSTAR White Rock

• Vanguard Award (MSO 3+ Locations) – Jeff Brown and Don Morton, CARSTAR London Centre (Don Mor)

• Ironman Award – Reginald Brideau, CARSTAR Tracadie

• Larry Jefferies Road Warrior Award – The Manitoba Group, led by Dan Jonsson, Skye Grexton, and Jim Bethune

President’s Club

• East Zone: CARSTAR Miramichi

• Ontario Zone: CARSTAR Alliston

• Quebec Zone: CARSTAR Dorval

• West Zone: CARSTAR Abbotsford (Maximum)

• Small MSO: CARSTAR Etobicoke Central & South

• Large MSO: CARSTAR London Centre (Don Mor)