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In this engaging episode, Paul J. Daly and Kyle Mountsier sit down with Mike Wethington, Founder and CEO of Outsell, to delve into the intricate relationship between technology and human capital in the automotive industry. Mike shares his extensive experience spanning over 40 years in technology, highlighting the transformative impact of technological advancements on the automotive sector. He emphasizes the significance of embracing technology not as a threat but as an ally to enhance productivity and job satisfaction. The conversation also touches on the critical role of artificial intelligence in automating routine tasks, allowing employees to focus on more meaningful work. Mike sheds light on how Outsell leverages machine learning models and AI to empower dealerships in customer engagement, underscoring the importance of supporting dealers to adapt and make the most of these innovations. Tune in to gain insightful perspectives on the future of automotive technology and its symbiotic relationship with the workforce.
0:00 - Intro
0:18 - Mike's First Encounter with Transformative Technology at Xerox
0:50 - Evolution of Technology in the Automotive Industry
2:16 - The Importance of Technology in Shaping the Future of Automotive
3:24 - How Technology Enhances Human Work and Fulfillment
4:33 - The Necessity of Adapting to Technological Changes in the Industry
5:53 - Embracing AI and Innovation for Future Success
6:36 - Outsell’s Goals and Focus for 2024: People, Implementations, and AI
8:19 - Concluding Remarks and Appreciation for Mike's Insights
Mike Wethington is the Founder and CEO of Outsell
This interview was brought to you by Outsell: https://www.outsell.com/
Paul J Daly: 0:06
All right, Mike Wethington. President I'm sorry, not President, founder and CEO of outsell, we just talked to the chief bottle washer, she fought well, that's why they put you in charge. That's why you're still in charge. We'll put it that way.
Mike Wethington: 0:19
You know, I have lots of skills.
Paul J Daly: 0:22
I think one of the one of the lanes that the conversation hasn't gone yet today, and a lot of conversations, we had talked a lot about technology. We've talked a lot about people. But blending together, why technology is actually changing the face of what people are doing, both in the stores and on the frontline seems like a topic that you're probably uniquely qualified to talk about. Yeah.
Mike Wethington: 0:41
I mean, my my perspective is I've been around technology for 40 years. And you know, I
Paul J Daly: 0:50
know that you just said that I have to, we got to break in on the first piece of technology. You remember, like, I'm really excited to work on this.
Mike Wethington: 0:58
Well, actually, I'll tell you kind of a fun story started Xerox on a college. And I it because they had the best sales training in the world, but they didn't notoriously great sales. And I was in a demo room with this thing called the Xerox star.
Paul J Daly: 1:14
I know exactly where you're going with this.
Mike Wethington: 1:19
I looked at it and said that is the future of computing. The difference was there was one other person who saw the same machine about the same time and ended up doing something about it. And that was Steve Jobs. Yes,
Paul J Daly: 1:30
it was. That's right. He didn't.
Mike Wethington: 1:34
Zero. It was great at Xerox PARC. Oh,
Paul J Daly: 1:37
yeah. Right in Rochester, New York, Palo Alto, California,
Mike Wethington: 1:41
was it? They moved Xerox? Was it based out of Rochester, New York, but
Paul J Daly: 1:47
Okay, so back then you've moved on quite a bit. Now we have neural link in people's heads, just getting them?
Kyle Mountsier: 1:55
Yeah, we'll get to that. So that was from Steve Jobs
Paul J Daly: 1:57
to Elon Musk. And now to Mike. Yeah,
Mike Wethington: 2:00
it's, it's, I've never seen a time in my 40 years, it's more exciting about technology than than today. And I don't know of another industry that is more interesting related to technology than automotive. Yeah. And it
Kyle Mountsier: 2:16
was just that wild. Oh, it's cool. I love it. And,
Mike Wethington: 2:20
and what's fun about it is, is that it's you're always on the edge, you're always trying to find opportunities. And one things I like about you guys, is you're focused on trying to help change the industry, and change people's lives. And and, and change it in a way that's positive for the industry and for the people. And so with all the technologies that is happening is, you know, I've found over many years is that technology can either be looked at as, as the beast or your friend. And if you approach it that that it could be your friend, what it does is it helps make you more productive. And it allows us and we've done it within our organization, I remember through different times where we've evolved more of our technology, we've increased AI, we've increased automation. You know, I was always worried that the people would be concerned about their jobs. But But what ends up happening is exactly what I told would happen, which is that they would start to do jobs that had even more fulfillment. Because the technology was taking the more mundane tasks,
Paul J Daly: 3:24
yes, replaced the number of jobs, what it does is allow you to focus on more meaningful deployment of a human's brain and the human experience.
Mike Wethington: 3:32
Exactly. And that's, that's what this industry is going to face more and more mean, this industry within automotive, let's face it, I mean, there's there, there are some huge market forces that are that are in play. And one of the key ones is the evolution of technology within the industry. And this this technology change from ice engines, you know, internal combustion engines to EVs to potentially hydrogen, that's putting so much investment into this industry that ultimately it's squeezing the margins of the manufacturers, which will ultimately squeeze the margins of the dealers in, and what's ultimately gonna happen out of that is that we've got to be able to find ways to be more productive. And so the use of technology, especially with AI driven solutions, is it automates a lot of the mundane. It ends up taking the crates and finds opportunities through the data that we never could find as human beings. Oh,
Kyle Mountsier: 4:34
absolutely. I mean, I was just saying this morning to someone that even my personal use of chat GPT as a tool for for like, use within my day has accelerated my productivity in the last year, way faster than I ever could have imagined. I say like this. You could imagine a year ago. No, no, no. NADA last year, right Jessie 3d Point five came out after NADA last November. I was like, What is this thing? Yeah, it hasn't even been a year. Exactly. Oh, now we have 34. And like, it's it's a totally different thing. And so we're leveraging that. How are you? lately? We're not like, we're,
Mike Wethington: 5:15
we're way behind. I mean, early on that. I mean, we were early, early adopters. I mean, I came from a background around neural networks and fascination with with all that. And so we applied, you know, machine learning models in 2015. That's nine years ago. And so, it's, again, it's going to continue to evolve in companies that, that are not looking for solutions that leverage technology and leverage AI, they're gonna be, you know, eventually, like the dodo birds, they're gonna be gone.
Kyle Mountsier: 5:50
Yeah, I mean, you're, you have to
Mike Wethington: 5:53
embrace it. But part of embracing that, you got to make sure that you bring your people along with us, that your people have to see an opportunity of what they can do to fulfill their lives, you know, to an even better level. And when you show that people rally, I mean, if they have a vision of what can be done, and where you can go, and if you take good care of them, you can do amazing things. And that's what we've built this thing based off without selves. You know, we have people are, you know, it's not technology, that's our largest assets are people.
Paul J Daly: 6:26
So we're heading in full head of steam to 2024. Are we talking about there is no normal anymore? What do you hope to accomplish by the end of this year?
Mike Wethington: 6:36
Well, I tell you what, that's a big question. It is. It's, it's, I mean, from our standpoint, one of the key things, quite frankly, it's not so much around technology. And it's actually it's it's really about people. And what I mean by that is, is that, you know, we've obviously are focused on building great software and figuring out ways to leverage data to understand customers and engage them more effectively for our dealers. But what we're really focused on this this year, is, is that these types of solutions are becoming really mission critical for a dealership and for an organization to better engage with consumers. And, and and with that, organizations that dealerships that dealer groups need to have the skills to be able to develop their people to figure out how to leverage it. And so we're amping up. I mean, our mission and theme this year is about three things. One more implementations creating a an ecosystem of more smart solutions that can all work together within our platform, more AI functionality to make things easier to for the dealer, and better for the consumer. And then more support, which goes back to more support into the dealerships to be able to help the dealerships people be able to leverage that technology, get better outcomes. And in that will be the beginning of even more intellectual capital that we've got to continue to develop within our organization. I support dealers.
Kyle Mountsier: 8:16
You got a couple of things.
Paul J Daly: 8:17
Oh my God, that's a busy year.
Kyle Mountsier: 8:19
Thank you so much for spending a little bit of time with us. I feel like you've got to go get to work, right. So always, always a pleasure hanging out.