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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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