Photo: David Prusinski, VMS
By Fleet Management Weekly Staff
January 7, 2026
Artificial intelligence has become a powerful tool in fleet management, enabling smaller fleets to compete with larger ones. While large and medium-sized fleets usually have access to FMCs or software designed to simplify fleet management, smaller fleets have often been overlooked. With the emergence of affordable, scalable AI tools, small fleets can now automate fleet management tasks without spending a lot.
Vehicle Management Systems (VMS), formerly known as EVAI, recently rebranded to reflect its efforts to expand beyond its initial focus on electrification. Now, the AI-first fleet management company works with small fleets of all vehicle types to offer an Agentic AI solution that simplifies fleet management by automating routine, everyday tasks. VMS’s AI-based platform functions as a virtual fleet management assistant, easing the burden on overworked small fleet owners and allowing them to focus on running their businesses.
To learn more about the VMS rebrand and the company’s recent survey of small fleets, we sat down with VMS’s newly appointed CEO, David Prusinski.
What are some of the findings from VMS’s latest small fleet management survey?
This was a comprehensive study focused on the daily tasks of small fleets. The results tell an interesting story: managing a small fleet involves a lot of pain and effort, much of which occurs at night after hours. Fleets with over 200 vehicles rely on FMCs for most of their management, and even those with around 50 vehicles can utilize quite good software products, though these still require a lot of time and energy to operate.
But small fleets, those with fewer than 50 or even 30 vehicles, have mostly been overlooked. In these businesses, the owner is usually the fleet manager, and they often spend their days out in the field, visiting job sites or doing the work themselves. What we’ve discovered is that small fleets spend an excessive amount of time managing their fleets. Our survey showed that 90% of these small fleets spend more than 10 hours on fleet management each week, with 44% dedicating over 20 hours.
That’s a huge time commitment for a business owner, who spends so much time just maintaining their vehicles instead of focusing on their core business. These fleets don’t have a dedicated fleet manager, and their owners have to handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks. That’s why VMS aims to level the playing field by providing small fleets with the same fleet management tools available to larger fleets.
How is the shift toward automation and AI-driven management reshaping the small fleet ecosystem? What does that mean for the broader fleet industry?
The market has changed a lot over the last two years, mainly because of AI. In my last 15 years of operating with fleets and fleet management solutions, it became abundantly clear that all the manual tasks associated with fleet management made scaling hard. This experience helped me see the value that generative and Agentic AI will bring by automating those manual, time-consuming tasks.
In our survey, 93% of respondents reported performing many manual physical tasks, which they described as a moderate-to-significant time burden. Moreover, most of this work occurs after hours. With an AI-centric platform, most of these tasks can be automated. As an industry, we hope to see a revolution that provides small fleets with access to the same tools as larger fleets and eases the burden of these tedious daily tasks.
Small fleet managers will no longer have to spend their evenings clicking through repair orders and scheduling. Instead, they can rely on AI agents to process data, analyze it, act on it, and communicate externally via platforms like VMS. With VMS’s coming communication layer, for example, AI can contact repair facilities to request quotes, obtain repair orders, and even manage scheduling.
Where do you see things in six months to a year?
Since joining VMS as CEO, I’ve observed the incredible speed at which AI is advancing. In software development, we operate in “sprints,” which are about six-week cycles during which teams focus on specific engineering tasks. Sometimes, the AI tools we’ve used to build new software have evolved so quickly that we’ve had to adjust our development plans mid-sprint. AI is expanding rapidly, fueling more automation and improved tools for fleets.
In six months, VMS will keep developing tools to assist small fleets. We will continue expanding our agentic tools to handle tedious tasks. Of course, you will still require the basics: a telematics system, a multi-powertrain platform for EVs and ICE vehicles, a transportation layer, and a communication layer. As these tools grow exponentially, the number of tasks AI can perform will increase significantly.
We envision a world in which a virtual fleet manager handles 90% of daily tasks, leaving decision-making to the fleet owner. We’ve found that people don’t want to get rid of fleet managers/owners; they just want support. The final judgment call should still sit with the human. For example, AI can pull repair quotes, analyze prices, ratings, distance, and shop availability, and then present the best option for the fleet owner to decide. AI is there to help fleet owners focus on strategic activities rather than tedious manual work.
Can you tell us about your time at Ford?
I’ve been in software for about 30 years, with the last 15 years focused on connected-fleet technology. I worked at a small Canadian company called Fleet Complete, where I spent 10 years helping it become one of the largest connected-fleet providers in the world, operating in 23 countries. I left in 2021 to join Ford, where I’ve worked for the past four years. During that period, I was a founding member of FordPro’s executive team and handled all software and solutions. Over time, I served as General Manager and Chief Revenue Officer, eventually becoming CRO for all of Ford’s software and services globally.
I saw the potential of AI in fleet management and realized it would be a huge market, which is part of why I left Ford. I understood that smaller organizations could act more quickly, and if we aimed to pursue virtual fleet management, we would need to move swiftly. When I met the VMS team and first saw the platform, I knew we could achieve great things with small fleets that would transform the market.
Your company was previously called EVAI before rebranding to VMS. Why did you make the change?
The rebrand was a recognition of how our capabilities had grown. EVAI did an excellent job developing an EV-first platform, but we saw that it could do much more. What we’ve built is a powerful AI-first platform where AI captures, interprets, and acts on data. It’s an autonomous agent with reasoning and memory. It can generate dynamic conversations, offer contextual insights, and respond proactively. With these tools, we realized our solution wasn’t just for EVs but for all types of powertrains. The rebrand acknowledges that we can implement the same predictive, closed-loop automation across EV, hybrid, and ICE fleet vehicles.
To learn more about how VMS can help your fleet, click here.
