Latest / Auto Collabs / Why Most Dealers Are Solving The Wrong Problems With AI

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Why Most Dealers Are Solving The Wrong Problems With AI · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  A lot of other industries are more, like, democratic. But in the automotive sp- industry, it's more like kingdoms. There's a lot of players with a lot of power. OEMs have a lot of power. The DMS have a lot of power.
• 0:11
  The, the state franchise laws have a lot of power. It really forces you to think, "Now, how can I solve a bigger problem?" I can't just solve one piece of it. I have to think about the entire value chain.
• 0:25
  [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. Ooh. Oh, you did the Wendy's? I did the Wendy's. Did you care about the title when you were a fry cook at Wendy's?
• 0:34
  No, I cared more about my test anxiety, because they, they give you a test before they let you actually touch food. What's the test? I know they do. So, so it's like- Is it the ServSafe?... Food Safe. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:44
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So- Okay... but you have to do that, and then they put you on fries, and you do that, and you're just cooking fries the whole time.
• 0:49
  And then, and then you have to take another test to assemble sandwiches, and then you have to take another test- Wow... to work cash, and then another test. That's more tests than I took at Burger King.
• 0:57
  I, I made it to the fry station. They were like... [laughs] At Burger King, they were like... They, you were done at the fry station? Yeah. Make a burgers. [laughs] I never did fast food. Cool.
• 1:06
  I, I worked at a pizza shop. Oh, that's fun. I did that, too. But it's, like, a nice pizza shop. Did you ever, did you ever make pizza? No. A bougie pizza shop? No, no. We had, we had pizza solid cooks.
• 1:14
  Never had to slap the dough? Solid cooks. Yeah. Never. Do they call, um, the guy who makes a pizza, is it, are they a cook? Uh... I mean, never cooks at our place.
• 1:22
  It feels like there's, it feels like there's a title for them that is not cook. It depends. Well, they, they cooked our... It was, like, an Italian/pizza place. Well, they made all the things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So.
• 1:28
  You know, one of the things, [laughs] I, I do have a t- transition into today's guest. Oh. Wow. 'Cause I know everybody was wondering. Let's go. I was.
• 1:35
  No, um, today's guest, Dave Perry, CEO of BlinkAI, has vast experience across business verticals not in automotive. Mm. So he's worked in all parts of business, and so- The Wendy's- We-... the pizza shop.
• 1:47
  [laughs] He, he probably has. We should have asked him. Um, but- Air Force. What? He was in the Air Force. He was in the Air Force. Gets some cool stuff from the Air Force. Discipline.
• 1:54
  So, uh, we're gonna unpack some of that stuff in this next, but we always love it when someone from outside automotive comes inside automotive. Yeah.
• 1:59
  So we're excited, uh, for you to hear this conversation with Dave Perry. [upbeat music] Dave, thank you so much for joining us today on Auto Collabs. I'm really excited to be here today, guys.
• 2:13
  We had such a good time at, uh, SoTa con, and, and it was great seeing you guys there. So I was, I've been looking forward to this. Indeed, indeed.
• 2:21
  It was, uh, it's good, it's good to be together, and then one of the best things about being together is, like, now you have a different level of re- relationship when you get together again.
• 2:28
  Um, I would like to start with how you ended up in the auto industry, like, a, a l- little f- 60-second journey on how you ended up here and why you decided to kinda post up where you are now. Sure, yeah.
• 2:41
  I, I was, I was captured and- [laughs]... dragged into the industry. [laughs] N- no, it's, I've got a very varied, uh, you know, technical background.
• 2:52
  And lo- and one of the, uh, one of the early career roles that I had with Texas Instruments was, was looking at products that would go into different kinds of industries in different s- forms, you know, with licensing or end products or whatever the case may be.
• 3:08
  And so I'm v- very familiar with working across industries.
• 3:13
  And, uh, you know, about t- three years ago, I had, uh, a couple of people that I know, technical people here in Austin, that were working with, uh, PayPal at the time, but they were doing a side gig called BlinkAI.
• 3:30
  I knew nothing about it, but they came back and said, "Hey, we'd like you to kind of coach us up, talk to us about kind of go-to-market around this industry."
• 3:39
  And, um, then that fairly quickly turned into, "Well, why don't you take the CEO role- [laughs]... and we'll, we'll focus on the tech stack." And so it's been a great learning experience.
• 3:50
  I have to say that I was warned that automotive industry was quite different, and it is. There's a, there's some really unique, uh- All right. How much different?
• 3:59
  Because, like, we, we, we have this conversation a lot, and we say, "No, no, no, you don't understand. It's different." And, and a lot of people coming in be like, "I understand it's different," but- Yeah...
• 4:08
  how much, how much m- more different [laughs] did you think it was? Like, what's the, what's the gap between how different you thought it would be and how different it actually was?
• 4:16
  I- it's actually quite a lot, you know.
• 4:18
  And I, I would say, I, I, I framed it this way, and this may be a little politically incorrect, but it's, it's, uh, it's the, you know, other, a lot of other industries are more, like, democratic, you know.
• 4:31
  Like, the, kind of the best idea wins, and you can go in there, and if you got a great idea, you can, you can convert a lot of the industry very quickly, and you see this all the time. And, uh,
• 4:44
  and, but in the automotive sp- industry, it's more like kingdoms or, or fiefdoms that exist, right? There's a lot of players with a lot of power, you know. The, the OEMs have a lot of power. The DMS have a lot of power.
• 4:59
  The- Mm-hmm... you know, the state franchise laws have a lot of power. The, you know, regulatory environment has a lot of power there. And then you've got the dealership groups, you know, that exhibit their own power.
• 5:09
  So th- there's a lot of, a lot of, uh, landmines, I would say, but there are opportunities, too. I mean, every, every, you know, challenge that you have usually is also, in another way, an opportunity.
• 5:23
  And so it's been really fun for me to explore these things and understand how you can... It really forces you to think, "Now, how can I solve a bigger problem?
• 5:31
  I don't have, I can't just solve a problem w- for one piece of it.
• 5:34
  I have to think about the entire value chain, and how do I make this good for the OEM, and the dealer group, and the dealer itself, and also, you know, s- uh, stay out of the way or, or partner with the DMSs, you know, in an appropriate way."
• 5:50
  So to me, it's been just a really, really fun, uh, journey for me. Okay. I, I need to know. S- selfish question, but it's because I'm so interested. Anytime I get to meet somebody who was in the service...
• 6:02
  By the way, thank you for your service. Thank you. H- h- I've got a two-parter here. The first is,
• 6:09
  in the United States Air Force, with a focus on cryptographics and secure communication systems, I'm curious, A, how that has informed or informs the trajectory that you're bringing Bl- you know, to Blink AI.
• 6:25
  And the, the second parter is, how much does that cryptographic and secure communications, uh, background infiltrate its way into what you're doing at Blink? Yeah, interesting, uh, question. Thanks for,
• 6:37
  uh, thanks for asking that. Uh, uh, the, the l- the experience that I had in the military was, one, and you gotta remember, I was in the Air Force, so you, you can almost call it not really military in some ways.
• 6:49
  [laughs] Right? I mean, uh, we didn't have the enemy coming over the, you know, sandbags and things like that. But we were off in really, uh, remote places doing intelligence gathering.
• 7:01
  And then of course, you'd have to ensure that all your communications outbound back to the US were fully encrypted. Mm-hmm. And so that's, that's what I did.
• 7:12
  And what that taught me was, uh, the nature of mission criticality. You know, there's a lot of things that you... The water fountain doesn't work, okay, fine. You know, there's other ways to get that.
• 7:24
  Or even if the electri- you know, those kinds of things. They're nuisances, but they're not mission criticality. But when you have systems go down there, I mean, lots of things at risk. People's lives at risk. Right.
• 7:35
  You know? The ultimate. And so to me, my, the rest of my career after the Air Force was really focused, not, I wouldn't say devoted, uh, it's not a mission of mine.
• 7:45
  It's just what I learned, and I learned to identify what are those mission critical things that exist inside of an industry. And that's really where your company should focus their time and, and effort.
• 7:56
  I mean, I coach a lot of startups as well, and this is the same message that I give to them is, you know, "If you're gonna go solve a big problem, go, go solve a, or go, if you're gonna go solve a problem, solve a big problem."
• 8:08
  You know, there's lots of nuisance things that, you know, they're kinda interesting, but go solve a big problem that- Yep... is critical for a company.
• 8:15
  I think that, that point right there is such an insight into what the shiny object can be inside a tech company. Because when people are competent to fix problems, it's very rewarding to fix something.
• 8:28
  And when you're working on big problems, right, it takes a long time to get solutions. And when you see little things, you're like, "Oh, I can fix that."
• 8:35
  And you're saying like, "Well, just because you can fix it doesn't mean that's what you should spend your time fixing," right? Because your finite resources is the intelligence of your people and their capacity.
• 8:45
  And, a- have you seen, do you see that? You know, I love that you're a coach- Oh, yeah... because you, like, the coach, coach, uh, or CEO is also a business coach.
• 8:53
  Like, what a, what a benefit because you're like, "Oh, I watched, you know, 100 companies make these mistakes, so we're g- not gonna make them here in this company."
• 9:00
  But do you see that mentality like, "Oh, we're fixing all these little problems because we can, and we feel good," and we pat each other on the back, "Oh, good job. You fixed that problem."
• 9:07
  Meanwhile, the big problem is left unsolved. Is that a very common thing you see? All, all the time, really, and that, that's a great observation there. And, and it doesn't apply just to automotive, of course.
• 9:18
  There's, there's lots of things there. And- Mm-hmm... and the, the problem can expose itself at different, uh, intensities at each level, right, in the organization.
• 9:30
  So the, so the, the technician that's working on the car, they experience, you know, this, some pr- problem or some lack of information in one way, you know?
• 9:39
  But then at the, at the, uh, fix ops, you know, DP's level or at the GM's level or at the dealership group level, then they become more important, right?
• 9:50
  Or, or more valuable because now you can multiply that small problem that the technician is having times 100 technicians times 100 dealerships. Right. And now it's a huge problem, right? And you can quantify that.
• 10:03
  That's the other thing that I've noticed, too, is if you can't really quantify a problem, if you can't describe it in dollars and cents, then it may not be really worth solving, or it may not be the highest priority.
• 10:16
  When you describe a problem, have you ever advised or what is your perspective on how long a problem description should be maximum? Should you be able to describe a problem in one sentence? Uh, well, a- absolutely.
• 10:32
  At, at, at a certain level, right? But you said, yeah, with data. So yeah. I don't like you. Mi- Michael, th- this is, uh, it's a thinly veiled effort for me to just get free expert coaching right now.
• 10:44
  [laughs] Well, well, there's, there's a thing called a value proposition canvas, right? And it's basically seven blocks, and it's designed so that you can put your entire business plan on one page.
• 10:57
  And because if you can't describe it, you know, in very simple terms... In fact, there's, there's another, uh, friend of mine here in Austin who runs a program called Pitch A Kid.
• 11:07
  And the idea is if you can't go in there and, and explain your, your problem, your solution to seven, eight-year-olds, then you need to go back to the drawing board, right?
• 11:20
  And, and it's such a great program 'cause it forces you to take things that you'd be describing in bits and bites and things like that- How does that actually work? Do they bring kids in the room? They do.
• 11:28
  They bring the kids in and they- [laughs] I love this... and they line up. And kids are brutal, I tell you what. [laughs] You know, ob- That is a good one...
• 11:36
  the worst thing an entrepreneur can do is get advice from their friends 'cause they don't wanna hurt their feelings. Ah. But you need people that'll hurt your feelings, and kids will absolutely do that.
• 11:45
  [laughs] Or, or it's like, "So what do, what do you understand about that?" "Six, seven." Yeah. You're like, "Eh, we missed the mark." Right.
• 11:52
  If you really want a kid to hurt your feelings, ask, "How old do you think I am?" [laughs] Yeah. 90.
• 11:59
  [laughs] Okay, so you talked about being able to explain a problem in dollars and cents, um, being able to explain it simply
• 12:06
  Right now, we feel like we're in this place in the industry where people are, are trying to, maybe without even explaining problems, throw AI solutions at a problem. Yeah.
• 12:14
  Because there's this, this magical thing called AI that you can throw at a problem, and it'll fix it. Yeah. But we all know that that's not the case.
• 12:23
  What do you see as, you know, especially in the service department, fixed ops people are looking to solve problems that are complex, do have these complex powers at play.
• 12:32
  What do you see as the biggest misstep right now as people are looking to these AI tools to deploy to try to solve problems? Sure, yeah. Yeah, that's, that's a great question, too. And what I, what I see... You're right.
• 12:44
  I mean, you can't turn on the, the news or listen to a podcast or anything else without AI, AI, AI, every day.
• 12:51
  [laughs] And so there's this FOMO feeling, you know, I'm fear, fear missing out, you know, I gotta do something. And, and it's complicated. It really is.
• 13:01
  And so you're talking about somebody whose life is working on automobiles. They're not really experts in that area, so they think, "Well, I gotta get me some of that AI stuff." Mm-hmm.
• 13:12
  And, and I've, you know, several times, you know, said, "Look, it's, it's not a toaster. It's not something you buy, you plug in the wall, and now you've got it," right? It's, it's a capability that can de- be deployed.
• 13:23
  It will be deployed throughout all your systems eventually. Mm-hmm. Right?
• 13:27
  And because it just performs so much better than the more logical sequencing steps that we took, uh, in the past that were, you know, um, more statistical in nature than definitive, right? And so,
• 13:43
  um, so one thing is, is don't go out just looking for AI. Look for things that solve your overall pr- what's the end goal you're trying to achieve, right?
• 13:53
  And one of the things that, uh, that, uh, you know, I've been talking to dealers a lot about lately is that now is the time for the fixed op side to stand up and, and revolt, right, in a way.
• 14:06
  Because they've always been kind of the back door. You know, you, you, you come in the nice shiny front door, and, you know, the service department- [laughs]... around the back. Right? Door creaks when you open it.
• 14:17
  Er, er, er. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. [laughs] But, I mean, the reality is, is that now, even though it only represents, you know, 15% of a dealership's revenue, it represents half of their, their profits. Right.
• 14:30
  It's paying the bills. And, you know, f- so you can explain some of that because of the, you know, those issues with current interest rates and things like that.
• 14:39
  But the fact of the matter is that the internet and oth- you know, just the explosive nature of information out today, is there is no asymmetry of information now.
• 14:49
  Everybody knows what every car is worth, what it's invoiced at. They know what other people have gotten in terms of deals. So it's compr- it's taken a lot of the margin out of selling new cars.
• 15:01
  And so, but the, the opportunities on the fixed op side of things are just, they're untapped. You know, there's, there's so much demand for service that, uh, now's the time to take advantage of that. And you can use AI
• 15:18
  in acc- in accompaniment with, um, automation and with people so that they're not replicating each other's jobs, right? That AI's got its portion.
• 15:30
  It can do a certain amount, 24 hours a day, work very, you know, cheaply, you know, to be able to drive a lot of business into the dealership.
• 15:40
  And particularly with, uh, you know, younger, younger people who, "I don't want a conversation. I don't want a relationship. I just wanna get my car in. I wanna get an oil change, and I wanna get it back out again.
• 15:51
  And I wanna do so in a trusting, uh, sort of way." And so it can accommodate all that, but you have to also allow for the fact that oftentimes things get, do get complicated. "I got a significant issue with my car.
• 16:03
  It's not drivable. I, I need a tow," or, "I've got some complicated thing. Is this warranty or not warranty?" Where they do need to talk to, to people. And this goes across every channel. It's not just your phones.
• 16:14
  It's your phones. It's your web. It's your social media, you know, booking appointments via Google. It's a lot of outbound.
• 16:22
  So even though we're AI for the fixed ops, we're very efficient at capturing all the inbound demand, but we're super good at going outbound and identifying when that car needs service. Ah.
• 16:33
  And that's where you can apply AI to say, "Hey, your car statistically needs service," or with our telematics platform, we actually tell you that something's wrong with your car.
• 16:43
  You need to bring it in, and here's, here's how you g- you get that appointment booked, like, right now. Mm-hmm.
• 16:49
  And so those are the things that, uh, you know, the fact that there's AI in there is almost inconsequential. There's, there's technology. There's thinking it through.
• 16:58
  Yes, it's AI, but it's, it's, it's not, you know, it's not some sort of, uh, magic bullet for every problem. But where it can be applied and applied well, it can perform, you know, enormously well for the dealership.
• 17:13
  Okay. There, there's a couple of things I need to... I need to get these things out of my face. [laughs] H- here's what I love. What, what I'm hearing as I'm listening between the lines, Dave.
• 17:24
  N- number one is the proactivity of outreach so that we're not missing these opportunities anymore. I think if we looked into any service BDC or any CRM, what we would find is opportunities that probably go cold.
• 17:39
  The, the problem with that is if they are then not servicing here, I'm missing a massive life cycle opportunity to turn those fixed ops customers, those service customers, back into variable.
• 17:49
  I mean, you think about a lot of dealers who are buying off of the street, like buy centers are getting more and more prominent.
• 17:55
  How much better would it be if I knew I not only sold you that car, but that you serviced it here regularly by one of my certified trained technicians, so that when it comes time to buy this thing again,
• 18:06
  I, I can make you a legitimate... well-researched offer because I just have so much history about how you've maintained the vehicle. Mm-hmm. And, and what- Sure...
• 18:15
  I'm hearing you say is, like, that proactive approach to get in there. And I also heard you say something that resonates with us, obviously, love people more than you love cars.
• 18:25
  Which is, I, I really believe our position on AI is not to replace the human, but rather to scale the human.
• 18:33
  To allow them to be able to do more of what they are genius at, and less of the things that mayb- maybe up to this point, without AI, we haven't had the opportunity to really lean into.
• 18:46
  If I can be a genuine, hospitable human being more often, and not have monotonous routine follow-up and outreach get in the way, th- then that's a win for the customer experience- Mm-hmm...
• 19:00
  because they get to experience the fullness of me now, not the watered-down, diluted version. Sure. Am I... I, is that tracking? Am I hearing you right?
• 19:07
  No, you, you, you're right on, on all three of the points that you just made there. There are a lot o- of leaky pipes. And, and, and y- you're right, the DMS is just chock-full of opportunities there, right?
• 19:19
  But the DMS, the s- the CRM, the CDP, tho- those are all systems of record, right? The data's there. It may be split across all three, you know, data sources. It may be wrong data in many cases, right?
• 19:34
  So there's a lot of things like that that you gotta be, concern yourself with. But what's missing is a system of action. Those are systems of record, and that's what Blink AI does. Mm. We become the system of action.
• 19:46
  We sit on- Mm... we're integrated with each one of those, so we're always mining these, these data that's there and saying, "Okay, what's the next logical step to bring that customer into the dealership?"
• 19:57
  And we can automate that. And that connection with the BDC, to me, that's so critical because the way we've been positioned, mispositioned, is, "Well, uh, you replace the BDC." Right. And it's like, no, absolutely not.
• 20:12
  But, you know, what, what things can the dealership do beyond just choosing, you know, the individual platform elements, which they tend to be, you know, very focused on selecting tools, right? Sure. Mm.
• 20:25
  And I'm, o- one of the thing I'm saying, look, look at the platform. Don't look at the individual tools 'cause when you bundle all the tools together, then they, they, they don't work as a single system.
• 20:35
  They break, yeah, right. They only work as a bunch of individual tools. But- Give us, can you give us some examples, actually, of, like, what you're saying?
• 20:41
  Like, what are some really practical ways where you can scale the efforts of a BDC rep or scale the efforts of a human- Sure... through technology? What are the best ca- use cases?
• 20:50
  Well, uh, yeah, I would say, let's just take on the BDC side of things. You know, a lot of the pay plans that they have for BDC people are based on action, you know, on activities. Mm-hmm.
• 21:02
  On how many calls you maybe made or something like that, or how many, how many appointments did you book, right? Not how many did you cause to be booked, but how many did you book.
• 21:13
  And I think the more relevant question is, is, is you, why not give that BDC person
• 21:19
  b- you know, give them, uh, compensation based on the total outcome, but let them use tools like AI to say, "I'm gonna blow this thing up."
• 21:27
  So me working together, I might be able to work, you know, book, you know, 15 calls a day or 20 calls a day, but me with AI could book 50 calls a day, right? Mm-hmm. That's a win-win. Mm-hmm.
• 21:40
  Everybody wins in that kind of case there, right? And now you're not pitting the AI against the BDC. You're, you're allowing them to work together.
• 21:48
  It's like giving an accountant a job and saying, "Well, I'm gonna pay you more if you don't use a calculator." Well- [laughs]... why, what, why would you do that? That's a great illustration.
• 21:56
  [laughs] It reminds me of my high school teacher one year who said, "Oh, what, so you think you're gonna have a calculator in your pocket all the time?" Yeah. Right. [laughs] Yeah. Sort of. One better.
• 22:07
  "Also, I'm gonna have a math teacher in my pocket all the time." [laughs] Yeah. And if I get- McCarren Aber in my back pocket. [laughs] If I get Dave's phone number, I will have a business coach in my pocket- Yeah.
• 22:16
  [laughs]... at all times. That's right.
• 22:18
  Dave, as we wind down, I wanna ask you one more question, 'cause it seems like what, what, what we're really picking up on, which we appreciate, is, you know, you look at the spectrum.
• 22:27
  There's either, like, AI hype people, or there's the zealots, the doom and gloomers. Y- what we're picking up on is kind of this m- much more operationally rooted approach to AI.
• 22:41
  Um, as you look to the future, the next, I don't know, gosh, we used to say five years, but I feel like in an AI world- Way too far... it's like six months. Right. In the next six months, nine months- Yeah.
• 22:51
  That's actually fair... where, where would you like to see the conversation steer to maybe maneuver around the hype? Well, uh, the, Gartner is a company that covers all the tech industry, right?
• 23:04
  They're a huge consulting firm, and they put out a thing called the hype cycle, and it clearly shows that every technology rides the same curve, right? Mm-hmm.
• 23:14
  And AI just happens to be at what they call the peak of the hype cycle. Peak hype cycle right now. And- I love this... and- It's like Dunning-Kruger, the peak of Mount Stupid. Is that where we're at? [laughs] Right.
• 23:23
  Yeah, we're up there. Yeah.
• 23:25
  And, and what, what, unfortunately, what happens next usually is the hype is so overdone that it comes down, and then you get into what they call, it's called the trough of disillusionment, where it's like, "Oh, I bought all this AI, and it's not really helping me."
• 23:40
  I'm still unhappy with my life. Right. [laughs] Yeah. And then they suffer with that, and then they, um, finally emerge out of it because then they realize that it's not one or the other, it's both, right? Mm. Mm.
• 23:55
  But let's integrate our people processes. You know, let's, don't just go buy technology and put it up there and turn it on and then not change any of our internal approaches, right?
• 24:05
  So for example, one of the things recently, we can book New appointments on your, on your web so much better than most other companies is because we, uh, we eliminate or tr- tr- try to eliminate any sort of distraction, right?
• 24:21
  Because the statistics say that if you go in to book an appointment, every time I ask you another question or give you another option, your chances of booking that appointment go down by 7%. Mm. Mm. Right?
• 24:34
  And so, so naturally being, uh, the, you know, from the industry we're in and people wanna sell upgrades and things like that, it's naturally, you know, where they want to, during the booking process, upsell.
• 24:47
  "Oh, you're coming in for that. Let's... How about if we add this on there? Why don't we add something else on there?"
• 24:52
  And they may get some people that opt into that, and you do get some upsells off of it, but what you don't see is, it's under the water, is that you've missed a lot of appointments, people that have decided, "Look, you know, I don't wanna go into somebody that's just gonna put so much upsell pressure on me.
• 25:06
  I'll just stop on my way home and get the oil changed." Mm-hmm. And to your po- earlier point, it's like that, that loss isn't just the value of that RO. That loss is that customer, right?
• 25:17
  'Cause now they're gonna get, "Oh, I could e- more easily go somewhere else." And then when they do get ready to buy their next car, it's open game for everybody. So it's- Mm. The dealer's
• 25:27
  r- i- incentive really is to keep that customer a lifetime customer, not just through the warranty period, through, through the post-warranty period, 'cause that's when the customer pay, that's when they're paying the most dollars for their service anyway.
• 25:40
  Mm-hmm. It's the most valuable. Do everything you can to keep that customer in there.
• 25:44
  Because, you know, statistically, the service advisor will have 10 more touches with that customer, 10 times the number of touches with that customer than the salesperson will. Yes. Mm-hmm.
• 25:57
  They'll more likely buy the next car because of the service advisor than they will- Yes... the salesperson. Wow. Well, I mean, gosh, what, what a fascinating conversation. I love that there's a, an emphasis on fixed.
• 26:08
  We've long believed that that is the gem right on the table in front of everyone and, and, uh, certainly we've enjoyed you sharing time with us. So Dave Perry, thank you so much for joining us on Auto Collabs.
• 26:20
  [upbeat music] Man, had a great time, guys. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. A cryptographic- Anal-... analyst- Anal-... in the- That's a, that's a smart guy... Air Force. Okay.
• 26:36
  Sec- and security communications in the Air Force. Yeah. How do we make sure the signals that we're sending don't get intercepted or interpreted? That's important.
• 26:44
  It's pretty- When you're doing co- communications in auto- With PII... yeah... one of the, one of the most highly regulated industries in the world. Yeah. He's a fish in water. Yeah.
• 26:53
  Well, you know, you know what I thought was really interesting? You asked him, you know, w- what similarities, if a- anything, and he's like, "No, the auto industry's incredibly unique." Yes.
• 27:01
  Like, from, from this vast pool of life experience- Interesting. Yeah... he's like, "No, the auto industry's one of a kind." And he, and, and talking about the different...
• 27:08
  He, the way he explained it as this, like, it's kind of like fiefdoms of, like, this is data, this is power from an OEM, this is the dealer's influence. And he- Yeah. The way he laid it out makes...
• 27:19
  Actually, it actually sounds a lot like a military man would lay it out. Yeah. Who's got the control- Yes... and the command, and how do we navigate all those things together?
• 27:25
  And in different arenas everybody has different control, yeah. I, i- it's... And, and then that also contributes to some of our, our, our data issues, right?
• 27:33
  'Cause everybody's like, "No, I got control of the data," which makes it hard for companies like Blink- Yeah... to leverage AI systems and increase the continuity of communication within a dealership.
• 27:43
  Well, let's talk about how that all boils down. It also highly influences the customer experience. For sure. Because the data is gonna limit you here. The OEM is gonna regulate you here.
• 27:53
  And so we have all these things that, you know, you, you try to get a unified customer experience, but we know the customer experience across any four of the same franchise are gonna be vastly different. Yep.
• 28:02
  But everybody wants it to be the same. I'm, I'm happy that there are companies, like, thinking about it. And the great part about this industry is that dealers get to choose a lot of these things for themselves. Yeah.
• 28:11
  And so to be able to pick a tool, uh, from a company led by a person who's thinking broadly, I think, is a win for everybody. So we had a great time, and, uh, we got to do some stuff in person, which is always a win too.
• 28:20
  Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, on behalf of, uh, Michael over there, Paul right there, and myself, Kyle, thanks for joining us on Auto Collabs. Mash that like, subscribe, share it out. Oh, Gen Z. Okay. And, uh, yeah.
• 28:29
  I'm mashing that. Yeah. I'm figuring it out. [laughs] I'm figuring it out. Are we bussin' yet? Uh, and, and hang around with us for the next Auto Collabs. We'll see you next time. [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs.
• 28:44
  Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? [laughs] Are we rolling yet? Not yet.