3038: The Role of AI and Cybersecurity in Tekion's Automotive Innovations

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_00]: How can cloud technology revolutionise the way that we buy, sell and service our cars?

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Well today I'm joined by the founder and CEO of a company called Techion.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_00]: A couple of it's pushing the boundaries of automotive retail with its cloud-mated platform.

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_00]: A with a career that spans 25 years in technology, including a pivotal role as the CIO at Tesla.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Jay brings with him a unique perspective on the digital transformation of the automotive industry.

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So today I want to learn how he's leading the charge to modernise the entire automotive retail ecosystem.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And doing it through a unified platform that integrates everything from inventory management to even customer engagement.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to learn more about Techion's platform. What is it? How is it reshaping the car buying and servicing experiences?

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: What are paying points? Is it eliminating? And also yes, it's a tech podcast. I want to fight out more about those AI driven features.

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: See what I did there, apologies for the pun. But I want to find out more about how it's ultimately saving time for sales agents and increasing conversion rates.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully get a small glimpse into the future of automotive retail where technology isn't just enhancing the process but transforming it entirely.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So what does the future hold for car dealerships in a world where technology and automotive retail converge? These are just a few other things we're going to discuss today.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Delivering daily content to 140,000 of you wonderful monthly listeners across the globe is no small feat.

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[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your patience today. This is the moment you've been waiting for. It's time to welcome my guest onto the show.

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me take your ears on a little field trip to San Francisco where Jay is waiting to talk with us today.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So a massive welcome to the show Jay. Can you tell everyone this thing a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you Neil. It's a pleasure meeting you. Thanks for the opportunity having me in your show. I am my name is Jay Nijen right now.

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_01]: The founder and CEO of Tekian, the company founded and then I have a co-founder with me as well.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Great news. It was the CEO with me here right Tekian. So we've been in this journey for the last eight years building a true

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_01]: into and what typically called a SaaS platform software as a service platform for automotive retake.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_01]: My background very briefly. I started as an engineer. I worked at many of the better known software companies had great experience being their companies like

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Oracle for several years building software and the price software and that he had director.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_01]: My first entry to automotive was the great opportunity to get a Tesla working with Tesla and working with Elon.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I had an opportunity to build many of their technology platforms including what most of the people might have seen

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: the Tesla.com which is the pretty much you can call it as a bottom order V-commerce platform.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's it. I'm actually about me and having a lot of fun building Tekian. We've been already

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd say positively disrupting the automotive industry, especially in the space, the automotive retail space where

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: it doesn't seem to soften I would say for a long time for several decades now. So quite exciting.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah you've been working with so many inspiring people there. I'm curious. Was that any big lessons

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: you took away from Tesla? I was with Elon Musk and things because one of the things I always asked

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_00]: at the end of every episode. I always say who would you like to most have lunch with and why and who

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: would he like to talk with? I would say the people that answer that question usually say Elon Musk,

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: he's in there at some point. Was anything you learned from being around them? Absolutely. I

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_01]: feel it was an incredible opportunity ahead and thanks to Thanks to Elon for giving me the opportunity

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_01]: for very early stages of such a great company and what I feel definitely proud about being part

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: of it building some of the key elements delivering the car via technology platform to customers.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: So learnings, I'd say there are several learnings that say KKKW is for me was in that

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_01]: four years I felt the four very making moments of Tesla's journey. The first one is just focusing

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: obsessively on the customer needs. Basically, just the very say customer needs one

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: totally transforming the whole vehicle driving experience how a car should be. The most important

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: aspect of it is what many people thought before Tesla the last mile. The finishing small small

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_01]: things people thought didn't matter. Consumers validated it does matter for me. It's very simple

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_01]: things like the car, the program, your garage door, it automatically opens when you get close to

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: it and I automatically close it. So while it could be no one thought it could be making such a

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_01]: sense but it does make a difference because every day you drive your car out of the garage and

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_01]: back in if you have a garage and parking a garage. And it's simple simple things like that even

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: usability within the platform before Tesla you will have to go search for where your Bluetooth

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: connectivity is, but it's just like literally how one button on top with the Bluetooth symbol

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: which you just go click. You don't have to search go into many clicking buttons. I think there are

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I think focusing on customers needs it to end the true end need. I feel that was a great learning for

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_01]: me and I feel as I said I feel proud the moments where I was in a position to sit with the

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: long to discuss these things to say every click in a customer journey how can we eliminate it? How

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_01]: can you make it simple to a consumer? So anyway the fundamental key learning that is focusing on

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: the customer focusing on the consumer to say yes you need to make things really simple and

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_01]: easy for that. So that's number one. I'd say here. Number two is probably having the goal that

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_01]: is so big but at the same time having that grid to relatively go after it just doesn't matter what

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_01]: you need to break through what you need to jump over just make each feel that the end goal is so

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_01]: crystal clear for everyone. Of course here and big goal and Tesla has been having a very big goal

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_01]: but going after it there are so many things you need to break through. The many companies do when

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd be do that with the challenge of barriers. If you go at it with the mindset to say okay you know

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_01]: in goal so valuable so important I'm going to keep breaking through solving problems. If there is

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: a solution that doesn't exist I'm going to go create my own solutions for that. So I think that

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_01]: mindset is a second learning which also rallying pretty much everyone behind it. I think it's

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: an important one right? It does any company cannot succeed without its people. So you have to make

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: sure that I tried this everyday. Take care as well. So how do you bring everyone together with you?

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure everyone is clear towards the common goal and the common goal is also quite exciting for

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_01]: everyone to go solve. So truly then one plus one can become three or more not mathematically

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_01]: but the power of cohesively going towards solving a problem. Then the third aspect which I feel

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: good learning for any entrepreneur business owner is while you solve a massive consumer problem

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: you could innovate cool things but if you are not commercially viable no point it's just there

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01]: beyond certain point you're going to not exist. Not to not scale well so that your submission doesn't

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_01]: want to. Throwing making it commercially viable and scaling the business was the third thing. So maybe

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: there's many SSN but if you want to narrow down to three these are the three I don't narrow down

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00]: to us learnings. Yeah so many powerful lessons in that and I think simplicity is a huge one

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00]: and I've seen so many tech companies that make their products or services overly complex and even if

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_00]: take something simple like the Apple Air tag I've been reading a lot about recently that if you

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_00]: want to attach it to your keys then you have to buy an app keyfob which costs about $30 which is

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_00]: the same price as the actual Air tag itself but then Samsung bring one out which has already got

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: a keyhole in there so just a simple thing like a keyhole on an Air tag contract for a man of course

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: so we're not here to talk about key tags or you know work with an Elon we're here to talk about

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_00]: tech here today and this cloud-nate platform that is transforming the automotive retail experience

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_00]: so that anyone listening hearing about it for the first time can you just expand on what it

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_00]: is an an ultimately the unique advantages that it offers compared to let's say traditional systems

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_01]: other. Yeah thanks for asking Neil. See as you maybe just the bigger picture for people

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_01]: understand I'm sure you know this. C cars the second biggest purchase after a house to most people

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_01]: right to most people that's a big big purchase so I've been there in early days buying a car

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_01]: it was a big deal take your families having fun looking at the car but or before my Tesla time

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_01]: purchased a few cars not even one was an enjoyable experience that the enjoyable experience part was

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_01]: just doing the test ride and looking at the car but in the entire process that part was only

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_01]: 10 to 15 minutes maximum right I may be a little bit more but you spend several hours on things

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_01]: that are painful experience which is handling the price you never get to transparency on work the

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_01]: price is what is the right price for me and then also not knowing a lot of details about the

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_01]: vehicle today's consumer is very informed we have most of the information online they do their research

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I did this for the minute I shared this in one of my past interviews as well

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: 2008 I still remember this was before Tesla me and my wife went to buy a BMW for me

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and I did my own research online and I knew exactly what car I want to do I knew exactly what

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I said I wanted to pay I was willing to pay the price for it still it was kind of growing

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_01]: six to seven hours at a dealership except for maybe 20 30 minutes which many 15 to 30 minutes

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: it was very small doing the test ride when really looking at the car was fun part so in my thought

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_01]: process was and why should it be this way like you were 2008 I was already doing all kinds of

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the commerce really really nice simple making easy pushing the bar higher on how fast you can

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_01]: order and get your whatever you're ordering next day to your home and then Apple of course

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_01]: you could buy pretty much most of Apple products online I was like okay this is a big purchase why

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_01]: should it be so difficult then fast forward I got this incredible opportunity to solve that problem

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_01]: for a great brand like Tesla and and the once we built all the platform and made it easy I was like wow

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_01]: okay this why can't it be made easy for the entire industry then it's like I said it's the second

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_01]: largest purchase that anyone would make and millions and millions of people consumers do this almost

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_01]: every day so how can we make it simple make it transform so by the time I had an aspiration

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_01]: always to start my own company and specifically a SaaS tech platform this kind of you would

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_01]: as a seed of this idea was rare with me from my article time I was working at Oracle and SaaS

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_01]: was slowly coming out cloud and SaaS so pretty fast forward I saw when we built the platform for

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Tesla I saw the validation yeah this can be done I mean right but as then I started doing research

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_01]: more about the automotive industry and I got a lot of learnings from my analysis from my Tesla

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_01]: time because I had to look at what's happening in the rest of the industry got a clear feeling that

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_01]: how fragment at the ecosystem was so basically if you're a consumer we don't get a consistent

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_01]: anything no consistent price no consistent experience same brand you could go to different store

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and you could get completely different experience you could go to one website of the same brand

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_01]: go to a different website of the same brand you could completely different experience

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like why should it be that way why can't we unify this then once I started studying

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_01]: this then I realized the problem is much broader and deeper what I mean by that is

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_01]: starting from a brand through a dealer and it's not many times people's thought it just had

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_01]: happening for years and decades it got more and more and more and more fragmented the tech was

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_01]: backwards at a lot of people was focusing quite a bit on eliminating the technology because providers

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_01]: who being doing this didn't have the incentive because they were making a lot of money they really

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_01]: didn't want to invest much in RLD so now I felt no this is an opportunity has been underserved

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_01]: for such a long time and this is a huge opportunity for us to truly build a tech platform

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_01]: to elevate the entire consumer experience that what that means is you need to build

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_01]: elevate the tech for the large OEM brands and all of the retailers dealers across the country

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and probably across the globe that was the idea of techy on itself it was a massive undertaking

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_01]: people did many people did warn me like you're right while the ocean so we don't

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_01]: be built and just AI for lead in the lead generation or they were giving me ideas but I felt

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_01]: now there's already too much software too much fragmentation there are a lot of good companies

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: good software out there but the core known as solid that's how it has been antiquated for decades

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_01]: so I felt it was building it they're going to really solve from ground up changing the foundation

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's kind of what we do at techy on so we built three clouds one in platform connecting

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_01]: the entire automotive retail ecosystem or the retail cloud which is really transforming the retailers

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_01]: moving them to the latest and greatest technology on the cloud and it run their entire stack

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_01]: everything from them to deliver a customer car bike experience to all the way managed they are

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_01]: vehicle inventory parts inventory general manager APAR embedded payments so that everything comes

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_01]: together in one stack and deliver a great experience why I say that as if you have been to a dealership

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_01]: many times when you go through the shopping experience or deep closing most of the you will see

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_01]: the sales agent of over your dealing with they will keep going at it in front of their

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_01]: computer maybe sitting on the other side if you happen to see their monitor you will see many times

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: they'll open eight nine different windows just sell one car deal so they will re-ad their

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_01]: information they'll look up information here and they'll put something here everything

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_01]: calculating your deal to deliver your credit check to lender information nothing most of them

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_01]: connected then of course it results in a poor experience for the consumer because it takes

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_01]: a long time you don't get a good feeling and transparency of what you're buying so that's

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01]: what we are transforming so automotive retail cloud automotive enterprise cloud which is really

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_01]: changing the digital retailing for the OEM the big brand so we have some big customers

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: a general motorist is one of our large customers so very proud to power like Cadillac.com or

[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Chevrolet.com and then the third cloud is partner cloud because this is such a we call it as automotive

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_01]: partner cloud because this is that ecosystem we need to make sure that there is a good

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: secure way for people to exchange information exchange data until you want those are so we have over

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_01]: 350 partners on the partner cloud and that number is growing automotive is a fully ecosystem

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_01]: so if you're buying a car you need to buy insurance so to make it seamless you need an ABI

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_01]: action to the insurance companies or insurance aggregators as buying car buying process you need

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_01]: to do a credit check you need to connect to lenders so if you want a loan or going through a

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_01]: ABI integration to make that cost as seamless if you're doing service, should be adopting

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_01]: your car for service and you know what you need to get a lift ride we lift is one of our partners

[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_01]: as well so we connect to ABI's bill or could get you the lift ride so that's partner cloud

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_01]: just to explain so these are the three clouds offerings that we do to the industry but the idea is

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_01]: to how do you bring their entire automotive retail ecosystem in one platform long as a middle

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_00]: that makes sense. It really does and it just shows the scale of the problem that you're

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_00]: going after here which is quite inspiring and as you said buying a car is the second biggest

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_00]: purchase for most people in their lives and the automotive industry is undergoing significant

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_00]: changes as well with the rise of electronic and electric and autonomous vehicles and

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_00]: the question I've got actually you've got these three clouds you've got everything in place

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_00]: the next thing you've got to look at of course is adoption so how are you attacking

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_00]: helping lead dealerships adapt to these emerging trends because they know what they need

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_00]: to do they know that their customers expectations are rising continuously but getting them on board

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_00]: and helping them and guiding them through right I would imagine that that's quite tricky too

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_01]: it is tricky and unfortunately it was a lot more difficult than the only days because

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_01]: it's a big change is difficult as you may know especially for businesses this is many of the

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_01]: systems even though we do their direct start many of their systems for example for a dealer typically

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_01]: they used to call this as dealer management system we do since we do that plus plus plus

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_01]: we call it as entire automotive retail cloud but it's a big change it's changing how they do their

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: business how they be doing it even though our system is simple easy intuitive but still it's

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: a change for them so it's complex so for example it's like an ERP where big businesses when

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_01]: they switch you may be familiar switching any ERP is the most complex thing that they really

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_01]: go they don't go through very frequently it happens or get one some decade or more

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_01]: so change was difficult but because the industry has been underserved for so long

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and because there was a need that has picked up demand where consumers have been asking dealers

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_01]: have been looking for it oh EM's have been looking for it it's why it was difficult it was not as

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought because even though it was such a big scale then in once we started there were some

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_01]: definitely forward thinking dealers and OEM's apartment they thus and tried the platform in the

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_01]: beginning the validation was poor well-meaning positive so then it became easier and easier now

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_01]: we've truly made the disruption the sense there are dealers who have many big groups who have never

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_01]: been anything outside of the two legacy players in this space the being there for like 15

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01]: plus years first time in 15 years they moved to a true modern cloud platform we run into

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_01]: the world's largest dealership in southern California truly the world's largest dealership

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: in the number of cars they sell it's on our website there is a testing model from them they talk

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_01]: about not just about feeling good they talk about true numbers how much difference it has made

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_01]: to their business how customer weight tanks have improved drastically how much the efficiency

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_01]: operational efficiency has improved so the validation now while it is difficult it's quite exciting

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_01]: the amount of customers we change every month the number continues to increase more and more

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_01]: we have won some of the largest dealership groups across all brands on our platform recently

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_01]: the publicly announced as very automotive is one of the public company dealer groups well respected

[00:23:15] [SPEAKER_01]: so we caught them as our customer were quite excited to hear the costs of onboarding them

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I could see you're from UK I guess you're rude so we are in UK as well so we have one of the largest

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_01]: dealer groups in UK we have just beginning its early stages but it's been an exciting fun partnership

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_01]: in UK and they are in same thing on the enterprise cloud as well so as I mentioned I meant

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_01]: it's it's a big news general motors one of the largest or dealer just in North America

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_01]: they're our customers so yeah it's been it's been good journey for us in exciting growth as well

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and for us to look from the consumer side of things of course we all expect seamless on the

[00:23:57] [SPEAKER_00]: experiences whether they're here in the UK or in the US so I've got to ask how do you replicate

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_00]: the efficiency of platforms that we all now are in Northern TAFE for granted those services offered

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_00]: from Amazon to Google and bring that into the complex world of automotive retail if you can share

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_01]: around that yeah absolutely see that's what the in goal has always been when you deliver the best

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_01]: consumer experience automatically business gets value all of it right so another a does

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_01]: what businesses do exist for for example for us dealers and OEMs are our customers without them

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_01]: we don't exist but for them it is the consumers if consumers don't buy cars from them they don't

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_01]: it's just part of it's the reality right so it is very imperative to deliver the best consumer

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_01]: experience so that consumers do keep coming back to them and you know stay with them right from

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: a loyalty perspective so we do definitely look for consumer experience all that time because we do

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_01]: power us I mentioned some of these big brand digital retailing experience that means the consumer

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_01]: shopping and buying experience itself and in my experience on all the studies I've done

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_01]: consumer experience doesn't mean you just give a very pretty website you can do cool images and

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_01]: videos and all of those yes you know what it's it's it's fun for a few minutes but if you can take

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_01]: them to the entire journey of carbying shopping and buying experience basically full transparent

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: that means you can do the entire shopping online by considering your car uploading all of your

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_01]: documents signing documents digitally and paying if you can but at the same time you need to have

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_01]: a full choice because consumers need to have so let me step back and nothing you'll relate to this right

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_01]: sometimes people do exaggerate things quite a bit it carried away talking about trends what I mean by

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_01]: during COVID people did say like what car buying is ownership is gone everyone is going to

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_01]: go through right share and subscription that's what is going to be the future here we are in

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_01]: 24 that didn't happen so number of cars bought has been going up from 9 million to almost 14 million

[00:26:33] [SPEAKER_01]: in most likely this year for it to 15 million so that didn't on why I was saying that there's people

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_01]: to exaggerate the trends too much saying that okay either they're going to go completely online and then

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_01]: the other sites say no way it's going to be only they go to shop and brick and mortar stores right

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: but what didn't is the fact is consumers are consumers because you're in consumer I'm a consumer

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_01]: in my regular lives and the way I shop and the way my daughter shops 20 year old daughter shops will be

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: what they do the idea for the companies and technology platforms is how do you tell you were

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_01]: a full seamless experience for a consumer doesn't matter where they start and where they end

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_01]: you may decide to do complete research online which most of the people do and then you go to a

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_01]: dealership to do a test drive and then you may want to come back to your home and without

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: taking any pressure from anyone you want to finish the purchase that's all great right because

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_01]: in general experience you do which is the car test drive and looking at the car and

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: spending the time on the vehicle itself and then not so enjoyable one is like signing all the

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_01]: documents and negotiating price how about doing that sitting from your home right but some people

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_01]: say like you know what I am a people guy I want to connect with someone I want to talk to someone

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_01]: look at them I do I and negotiate the price and get the best deal right fine so the idea is

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_01]: a true tech platform needs to deliver the entire experience need to be connected whatever way you

[00:28:09] [SPEAKER_01]: decide to do your shopping you need to be able to do that with full freedom and full transparency

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_01]: that's exactly what we have done that is very complex delivering a cool looking website

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_01]: is easy and let me we could do that and largely we can do that but when you take the entire

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_01]: experience your transaction everything from your as I mentioned there are so many aspects in car

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: buying everything from buying accessories to having a lender taking it to a lender's buying an

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: insurance and making sure that or uploading your documents you don't have to keep searching

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_01]: and taking copies of your documents how do you make it completely digital everything you sign

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_01]: from your you know iPad or a phone or whatever you decide to use so the everything has to come together

[00:29:01] [SPEAKER_01]: that that is exactly our focus as speed so basically you take out all the complexities of this

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_01]: what we talked about a sales agent or an F&I manager in a dealership opening nine different

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_01]: windows to jump through hoops to sell your car and for consumers to go search for different

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_01]: types of documents and they see price differences from one document to another document

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_01]: so make the whole process easy the operational side is easy so that they can push simplicity

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_01]: to the customer so the idea for a true tech system is you take the complexity in that's what

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_01]: computers are even invented for right the fundamental reason for computers is how do you make

[00:29:47] [SPEAKER_01]: people's life easy so that computers can go the job but if you can't do that right across the board

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_01]: then what's the point of having a technology so the idea is always using the technology

[00:29:58] [SPEAKER_01]: how do you deliver the best consumer experience so everything be to whatever we build from dealers

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_01]: to OEMs the goal has always been how do you deliver the best consumer experience or my transparency

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_01]: so you will see for example yesterday one of my employees one of my one of our teammates we

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_01]: probably called ourselves techier nights so he shared in in a Slack channel so we have a Slack

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_01]: across the company everyone has visibility to Slack channel so he did share that I

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_01]: one of my friend message me he cut a piece of exact message so he went to dealership opening and

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_01]: the name of the dealership here concoherred at your dealership and he said like oh my god being

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01]: to this dealership before the dealership adopted tech yarn and being there just yesterday after

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_01]: tech yarn and as exact as we go my god the difference is man the guys have transformed it entirely

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_01]: there people were using character based screens and it was all kinds of paper

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_01]: company transformation I can send you the exact word be it what he sent an email to you

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_01]: it was a problem moment to see because that's a consumer basically an employees friend who was a

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_01]: consumer of that dealership he says like everything he was really calling out how zero paper

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_01]: everything is digital I got a personalized you are able to track my entire service experience where

[00:31:24] [SPEAKER_01]: my car is I was able to review and approve I got pictures I got videos I was able to pay from my phone

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and he was super thrilled that we could see it from the message it was a problem moment for my

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_01]: team member to share like wow okay yeah through you making a difference in the word

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_00]: love that really we have gone 35 minutes without mentioning AI on a tech podcast which has to be

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of dealership operations now so what kind of successes have you seen with tech yarn's AI

[00:31:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and preventations and how are you seeing them improving things like customer interactions and

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_00]: operational efficiency because we hear a lot of the the hype but it'll be great to hear more about

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_00]: the actual impact release is having on those customer interaction yeah now the next question I know

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_01]: there is yeah absolutely yes and any new trend there's always a big hype cycle I decided

[00:32:20] [SPEAKER_01]: the great news is we do we don't really make money with the AI among other companies where there's

[00:32:26] [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of hype about AI and we do truly make money from AI because it brings value to the

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_01]: center we've been using standard AI from the inception of the company it's not new to us

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_01]: but we did invest generated in AI in the last two years the invest and we've continued to

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_01]: work more features using jabby AI in our platform so one of the successful ones we launched my

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_01]: ideas always been how do how do we make your AI to remind as you could imagine we have a pretty

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_01]: good sized in great team they'll always come up with cool ideas and we've been a very innovative

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_01]: company and I keep increasing but the fundamental thing my team knows we all where I always tell

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_01]: it guys technology is important but not even close as it wasn't best what value delivers to

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_01]: our customers so we need to see how does it convert into value you know business in all

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER_01]: customers whenever you come back to me with an idea tell me how what value it converts into how much

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_01]: money it saves how much time it saves for our consumers what it improves in their experience so

[00:33:36] [SPEAKER_01]: stepping back we launched our gender to AI few features in the last 12 months now one of the

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_01]: ones I can share as an example is we have a CRM as well in a spot of our platform customer engagement

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_01]: customer relationship management so similar to what says for us for the larger enterprises our CRM

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER_01]: is very context based it's very latest and greatest super fun for automotive use cases we launched

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_01]: the CRM and the results are been phenomenal customers love it that's what I say they buy that's

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_01]: you the take rate is almost close to 100% so they immediately choose for the AI the early results

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_01]: have been phenomenal for us we use for the most I would say common valuable use case for a

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_01]: generated AI so what happens is as consumers you start shopping say for example you start looking

[00:34:31] [SPEAKER_01]: online and then you are doesn't matter where you do it in a dealer website or do it in a

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_01]: way on website but mostly say they're doing it in a dealer website or you look at it in many of these

[00:34:42] [SPEAKER_01]: car shopping websites like gurus.com or one of those when you start searching for that vehicle

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_01]: information that sends or even Google it sends a lead into the dealer CR which is ours our system

[00:34:58] [SPEAKER_01]: it comes into our system usually what happens is automotive is a very competitive world and consumers

[00:35:06] [SPEAKER_01]: also expect information quick and fast but to the point because today outside of this what happens

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_01]: typically the lead goes in the consumer starts getting like texts from 10 different people they get

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_01]: 20 different calls from different dealerships like sometimes it's it's bit annoying for a consumer

[00:35:25] [SPEAKER_01]: because like they're like oh do I do many times over get them on the phone first probably

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_01]: you know tries to sell the best deal to them but what we're doing with AI is AI consolidates all

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_01]: the consumer information and it automatically composes a reply with the context what vehicle model

[00:35:45] [SPEAKER_01]: make them everything with assets with picture everything composes them keeps it ready for them and of

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_01]: course AI can automatically send it but we give our customers the choice to have a review before

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_01]: they send it so what happened was AI unifies all communication like email text we're working on

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_01]: the voice as well so that all customer communication immediately unifies and then the response time

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_01]: of increase significantly we are everyday keeps going up and it's our consumers told us it saves

[00:36:20] [SPEAKER_01]: almost an hour a day per sales agent so if you're having tens sales agents it's almost 10 hours

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER_01]: saving it's a lot of a lot of time saved and the response time and customer conversions have also

[00:36:35] [SPEAKER_01]: gone on because as I said it's a competitive industry whoever responds the fastest with the

[00:36:41] [SPEAKER_01]: the context has a higher probability of closing the set so that's what you know one of the good

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_01]: use cases we use individually AI for is faster response context based personalised consumer engagement

[00:36:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and of course any conversation about AI is usually followed by things about doing it ethically

[00:37:01] [SPEAKER_00]: and responsibly so it's a sort thing that you're addressing with the ethically AI you so how you

[00:37:07] [SPEAKER_00]: ensure that these technologies are implemented responsibly within the ultimate retail space

[00:37:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I suspect you're a question you can ask a little bit of a question actually a great question

[00:37:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and an important question because one of these compared to there was a lot of noise on AI we

[00:37:25] [SPEAKER_01]: took our time to launch our AI features in our product I think we did the first launch in

[00:37:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I think January this year the reason we took time may even be explained it when we launched was

[00:37:41] [SPEAKER_01]: because reason is the that aspect the the editing and the security aspect of it because

[00:37:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know feeling if you read in the news it was in some of the automotive news channels

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_01]: there was a AI chatbot that was tricked by hackers to sell car for a dollar I don't know if you saw

[00:38:05] [SPEAKER_01]: the news and they were buying me because a binding thing looks like the dealership had to sell it for

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_01]: because it was the AI chatbot where people had tricked it to sell and of course

[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_01]: it didn't have all the security parameters so the dealership had to give it for a dollar looks like

[00:38:25] [SPEAKER_01]: they've kind of worn the automotive news even reported on that so we were very very careful

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and we are still very careful it's my even ahead of data science and AI we talk about

[00:38:37] [SPEAKER_01]: how we safely and securely deliver AI solutions so we really take a lot of care about it one of the

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_01]: things I want to also mention is as a appena CIO for all the companies so these are such an

[00:38:53] [SPEAKER_01]: important ones I know are looking for granted our platform is the highest level has the highest level

[00:38:59] [SPEAKER_01]: of security data privacy certifications in the entire industry even public companies in this space don't

[00:39:06] [SPEAKER_01]: have this level of security and data privacy certifications so we are saw who I'm saw to

[00:39:12] [SPEAKER_01]: dive to certified we have the highest source certification for data security and data privacy

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER_01]: so it would an extreme amount of rigor and controls to ensure the software is truly

[00:39:22] [SPEAKER_01]: ethical and secure I know it takes there's most certifications of standards it's an our own thing

[00:39:28] [SPEAKER_01]: we have to drive and I'm hoping in future those certifications of standards the standards are established

[00:39:34] [SPEAKER_01]: but it's a lot of our need of security system security and data privacy so to

[00:39:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I always try and do at the end of every podcast episode is give my list of valuable takeaway

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_00]: something that might help them and of course the transition to electric vehicles presents

[00:39:51] [SPEAKER_00]: both challenges and opportunities for lead to four dealerships on the around the world both

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_00]: here in the UK the US and beyond and how does techians platform assist dealerships in

[00:40:03] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe educate and consumers and overcoming the barriers to EV adoption because I know it's a big

[00:40:09] [SPEAKER_00]: talking point right now so how would you say that you're helping in this rigor yeah and thank you

[00:40:16] [SPEAKER_01]: so much if I feel especially not just coming from Tesla what we have seen is only customers for anything

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_01]: early usually the earlier doctors are much more open in taking and lot more aggressive to try new things

[00:40:30] [SPEAKER_01]: that's probably why end up buying EVs right yeah I think EVs are phenomenal they choose

[00:40:37] [SPEAKER_01]: have always been which we are all familiar is the price point is still not at a place where

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_01]: it is affordable for many people and through it needs to get down there right the economics

[00:40:49] [SPEAKER_01]: has to be the apps for people to buy the cars and I don't and then there is public infrastructure

[00:40:57] [SPEAKER_01]: related to it as well so for us first is when you deliver an experience and education through

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_01]: the tech platform it makes it much easier so making it much more difficult to say what do you

[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_01]: what do you do to adopt an EV right even for for example for dealerships educating them about charging

[00:41:18] [SPEAKER_01]: infrastructure and scheduling installation of a charging infrastructure for a consumer making that

[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_01]: process easy so making the whole first first and foremost definitely price this is not something

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_01]: we can solve it's an ecosystem thing the entire ecosystem needs to work together how do we

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_01]: bring down the price of an EV and then the second is how do you educate not only definitely

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_01]: dealers because through the platform you can help making education are adoption much more easier

[00:41:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's what we are doing so we are launching features where people can buy is a for example

[00:41:54] [SPEAKER_01]: charging subscription or charging installation infrastructure so making those things easier

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER_01]: is what we do as a as a technology platform we work with pretty much all OEMs and dealers very

[00:42:07] [SPEAKER_01]: closely in fact even on our website you may see some testimonials dealers specifically calling out

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_01]: platform like Dequeyon is the one that is going to truly help us to transform into static EVs

[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_00]: well I cannot thank you enough for sitting down and sharing your time with me today I know how

[00:42:27] [SPEAKER_00]: busy you are anyone listening wanting to find out more information if they're a dealership

[00:42:33] [SPEAKER_00]: anyway in the world wanting to get into it wanting to learn more about your technology or even connect

[00:42:38] [SPEAKER_00]: with your OEM where would you like to point everyone yeah and definitely so yet you could do

[00:42:44] [SPEAKER_01]: a new sales site techyon.com would be the easiest you could definitely learn a lot about on products

[00:42:49] [SPEAKER_01]: if you're a dealer definitely go look at testimonials techyon.com slash testimonials and then

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_01]: need to ask some great questions about security data privacy techyon.com slash trust basically

[00:43:01] [SPEAKER_01]: all we build trust and we are super transparent about all of our security standards data privacy

[00:43:06] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah those are the resources that would be helpful for people. Well I do encourage people to

[00:43:13] [SPEAKER_00]: check out the website and start a conversation with the oil oil team there's so much

[00:43:18] [SPEAKER_00]: exciting things going on there in fact so it's so exciting I look to get you back on next year and

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_00]: see how things are evolving because the pace of changing this industry is moving at bright next

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER_00]: speed at the moment just a huge thank you for sitting down with me and giving me and everyone listening

[00:43:34] [SPEAKER_00]: a little inside peak behind the curve and of what's happening and what's to come but thanks again

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_01]: really appreciate you to have to know. It's my pleasure thanks again for the opportunity I had a lot

[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_00]: of fun exciting ideas with you thank you. I've been spoken with Jay I think it's clear that techyon

[00:43:50] [SPEAKER_00]: is they're aiming to not just improve efficiency but redefine their entire customer experience

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_00]: from start to finish and is insights today have highlighted to me that potential of technology

[00:44:00] [SPEAKER_00]: to streamline operations enhance transparency and ultimately create a more satisfying and efficient

[00:44:07] [SPEAKER_00]: car buying and service experience but what was it that struck you most about this approach in

[00:44:13] [SPEAKER_00]: automotive retail was it the integration of AI to personalize customer interactions or was it just

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_00]: to focus on supporting that transition to electric vehicles these are the innovations that will

[00:44:25] [SPEAKER_00]: make the future of the industry but what are your thoughts as always email me please tech blog

[00:44:31] [SPEAKER_00]: writer at rock.com questions comments anything at all let me know you can also connect with me on

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_00]: LinkedIn at Neil Seahouse Twitter Instagram again just at Neil Seahouse nice and easy get out of

[00:44:45] [SPEAKER_00]: but more like you I just hope this conversation provided you with some valuable insights and

[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe sparked a few ideas so keep your messages coming in thank you for listening and please

[00:44:55] [SPEAKER_00]: stay tuned for more tech driven discussions here on tech dogs daily because I'm going to return

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_00]: right and early tomorrow morning with another guest speak with you all then