I’m incredibly proud to share that I won the Innovation & Technology Award at this year’s Motor Trader Women’s Awards!
What makes this award so meaningful is what it represents. It’s not about a single high-profile launch or a standout moment.
It’s about years of quietly building, testing and rebuilding business intelligence tools at RWA Automotive – the work that happens deep in data models, interface iterations, and conversations with dealers that reshape the direction of a product.
It recognises a very deliberate approach to innovation: rooted in business intelligence, shaped by real operational challenges, and continually refined through user feedback.
In this blog, I want to share the thinking behind this award: how I approach innovation day to day, the projects that have shaped that journey (including PriceSmart and our next-generation used-car reporting), and how AI is redefining what’s possible for our industry.
I’ve always viewed innovation through a simple lens: data and decisions. My role sits in business intelligence, transforming vast datasets into something dealers can act on quickly and confidently.
Since joining RWA in 2019 as a data analyst, I’ve been driven by a desire to make data not just available, but genuinely usable. My early work focused on aftersales reporting tools that are now used daily across hundreds of dealer sites in the UK.
Those first projects taught me something fundamental: innovation isn’t a moment of inspiration, it’s a habit of constantly questioning whether something could be clearer, faster, or easier for the person who needs to use it.
Even when a report is technically complete, I rarely feel finished. If I can see a way to make it more intuitive, especially for the people making high-pressure decisions at 4 pm on a busy trading day, I’ll go back in and refine it.
The most meaningful innovation starts with listening.
Before thinking about visuals or features, I want to understand the friction points:
A recurring theme I’ve seen is dealers manually stitching together spreadsheets, market feeds, and internal reports just to get a “complete view” of their stock position. A huge part of my work is turning that fragmented, confusing picture, into one joined-up view.
That’s the moment when “innovation” stops being a buzzword and becomes something that genuinely improves how dealerships run.
A lot of my work can be summed up quite simply: make it easier for people to see what matters. Our PriceSmart redesign is a great example of this.
The goal wasn’t more functionality; it was making insights clearer. Dealers already know their stock and sales performance.
The tougher strategic questions are:
I recently built a new report that answers exactly that – combining part exchange-data, workshop intel and wider market signals to highlight the stock dealers need and best places to source it. By pulling together datasets that previously lived in silos, we’ve made it possible for users to act with confidence rather than gut feel.
That shift, from information to insight, is what lifts performance.
Today, I work closely with many of the UK’s largest dealer groups, helping them use this technology to make faster, smarter decisions. The impact has been significant:
These are the kinds of outcomes that remind you why this work matters.
Our used car tool has already gone through two major redesigns, with a third in progress. Every iteration reflects dealer feedback and our commitment to making insights easier to surface.
We’ve rethought navigation, visual hierarchy, and the logic behind key metrics to ensure that a user can access the right answer in seconds, not minutes.
Innovation isn’t just about new features. It’s about removing friction until the tool disappears and the insight becomes obvious.
It would be impossible to talk about innovation today without addressing AI, and I’ll be honest, it’s both exciting and a little daunting.
The pace of change is fast, and it challenges all of us to rethink what we do and how we do it. But once you look past the noise, the practical value becomes clearer.
At RWA, I’m leading a project exploring generative AI web apps that will make our reporting more interactive, adaptive and accessible – especially for users who aren’t naturally data-confident.
We’re also testing agentic AI capabilities that would allow users to interrogate reports conversationally, surface insights instantly, and receive tailored recommendations.
This isn’t about replacing people. It’s about amplifying their capabilities and freeing time for high-value thinking.
At the end of the day, AI is just another tool.
The real innovation lies in how thoughtfully we choose to use it.
Winning the Innovation & Technology Award feels like recognition for the work that typically stays behind the scenes: the hours spent refining dashboards, the early morning rebuilds, the redesigns that never ship, and the conversations with customers that turn a good idea into a genuinely impactful one.
But it also represents something much bigger – the culture at RWA Automotive. A culture where we’re encouraged to challenge assumptions, refine relentlessly and build tools that genuinely improve how dealerships operate.
Standing in the room last week, hearing my name announced, I felt incredibly proud. Of the colleagues who’ve pushed and supported me, of the dealers who trust the tools we build, and of the journey that brought us here.
This award doesn’t feel like a finish line.
It feels like a marker and a reminder to keep building what’s next.
If you’d like to explore how RWA Automotive’s business intelligence tools can support your dealership, I’d love to continue the conversation: laura.murphy@realworldanalytics.com
We’re always happy to walk through what’s possible with your data and where we can help you go next.
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