Auto Collabs
Collaboration through connection.
Hosted by Paul J Daly, Kyle Mountsier, and Michael Cirillo, Auto Collabs is your connect point to the human side of the retail automotive industry: what motivates its leaders, how they navigate change, and what keeps them pushing forward. It’s beyond-the-business-card conversations with real people powering dealerships, technology platforms, and everything in between.
From the team behind the More Than Cars movement, this podcast is built on one big belief: thriving people create thriving businesses. With candid conversations, industry insight, and just enough unfiltered banter to keep things interesting, Auto Collabs delivers authentic stories that inspire real collaboration.
// Auto Collabs is produced by Automotive State of the Union (ASOTU). Learn more at https://www.asotu.com
Auto Collabs
AI Is Only As Smart As Your “Regular-I” with Bob George | Auto Collabs
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Bob George breaks down why AI won’t save automotive retail—unless the data underneath it is rock solid.
Before Dealer.com became a household name in automotive tech, Bob George was employee number ~80, learning in real time how to scale a company that would eventually grow to more than 1,100 people in Burlington alone. In this episode, Bob shares what hypergrowth actually feels like from the inside—spoiler: even the founders were figuring it out as they went. We talk leadership humility, scaling urgency across teams without burning them out, and why the best leaders don’t pretend to have all the answers.
Now as VP of Product Management at iPacket, Bob is focused on a different kind of scale: data integrity. As AI tools flood the industry promising transformation, he argues that most solutions are only as good as the “regular-i” beneath them—the foundational, structured vehicle data pulled directly from OEM window stickers. The result? Dealers unknowingly leaving thousands of dollars on the table by mispricing vehicles, misrepresenting features, or relying on flawed data inputs. This conversation challenges assumptions about AI, transparency, and what consumers really want when they buy a car: confidence they chose the right vehicle—and got a fair deal.
Timestamped Takeaways
00:00 The Truth About Hypergrowth — “We Were All Learning Together”
03:45 Leaders Don’t Have a Playbook — Why Humility Scales Faster Than Ego
07:16 How to Scale Urgency Without Burning Out Your Team
08:25 Order Takers vs. Critical Thinkers — The Bottleneck Most Leaders Create
13:12 AI Is Only as Smart as the Data Beneath It
15:20 The Two Questions Every Car Buyer Is Secretly Asking
17:28 The $5,000 Pricing Mistake Dealers Don’t Know They’re Making
19:39 How One Missing Vehicle Feature Can Cost You Trust (and Gross)
20:48 Agentic Commerce Is Coming — Is Your Inventory Structurally Ready?
21:22 The Compliance Problem Hiding in Plain Sight on Dealer Websites
23:00 Technology Doesn’t Replace Dealers — It Exposes Weak Foundations
25:36 Is There Even Such a Thing as “New” Knowledge Anymore?
Connect with Bob George at https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebob/
Learn more about iPacket at https://www.ipacket.us/
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