Automotive AI Summit 2026
The AI Conference for Car Dealers.

Aaron Strout is the author of Wired for Purpose: Why Humanity Is the Biggest Differentiator in a Digital World and co-author of Location-Based Marketing for Dummies (Wiley), one of the earliest mainstream playbooks for mobile and location-driven marketing. He is the founder and managing director of Aardwolf LLC. For nearly 14 years, Aaron helped scale Real Chemistry, formerly W2O Group, from a boutique firm into an industry leader, ultimately serving as CMO. Aaron is also executive producer and host of the Reaching Higher Podcast, a show built around a simple idea: real human connection remains the sharpest tool we have, even in an increasingly digital world.

Earlier in his career, Aaron worked at Fidelity Investments and Mzinga and co-founded the Boston Interactive Media Association (BIMA). A recognized early adopter across three technology cycles—digital, social, and now AI—Aaron has spoken at SXSW, CES, and other major stages, including keynoting at DrivingSales alongside Gary Vaynerchuk. He sits on the board of the Tigerlily Foundation and lives with his wife and two dogs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Michael Affronti is Chief Product & Business Officer at DriveCentric, where he sets product and business strategy for one of automotive retail's leading customer engagement platforms. He brings more than twenty years of experience building and scaling products across consumer and enterprise technology, with a consistent focus on turning complex systems into experiences people actually enjoy using.

Most recently, Michael served as Chief Product Officer at Bumble, where he led product, safety, research, and customer care. Before that, he was SVP and General Manager of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, running a multi-billion-dollar global e-commerce business spanning B2C and B2B commerce. He also led product organizations as SVP of Product at Dataminr, a leader in real-time AI and machine learning, and at Fuze, the cloud communications platform he joined as a founding member of Contactive following its acquisition.

Michael began his career with roughly a decade at Microsoft, where he worked on widely used products including Outlook, Exchange, Office 365, and Lync. A prolific inventor, he holds four U.S. patents with additional applications pending in the enterprise productivity space, and he is a former Inc. columnist who writes and speaks on product leadership and mentorship.

A graduate of Boston University's School of Management, Michael pairs strategic vision with hands-on product craft, and he is known for building high-performing teams that ship durable, high-impact products. His move into automotive retail brings that consumer-grade product sensibility to an industry being reshaped by AI.

Nolan Armpriester is the General Manager of Twin Pine Ford of Hamburg and an automotive professional with more than 20 years of proven experience, the bulk of it spent in fixed operations. He genuinely loves the automotive industry and the challenges it presents, and he leads with a guest- and employee-first philosophy rooted in a simple conviction: this is the relationship business, not the car business. Build the relationships with your employees and your guests first, he says, and the rest will follow.

That approach has produced standout results. Nolan built the number-one volume mobile service dealer in the country from the ground up, completing over 35,000 appointments in 2024 across two locations. His work has made him a leading practical voice on how dealerships can scale mobile service and modernize fixed operations without losing the human relationships at the center of the business.

A graduate and class president of the NADA Dealer Academy, Nolan is also a multiple-time Employee Excellence award winner through Ford. He looks forward to continuing to grow and adapt with an ever-changing industry.

Brian Benstock is Partner GM / VP at Paragon Acura and Dealer Principal at White Plains Honda. His operating mantra - "To get to the next level, you have to push through your previous best" - has fueled 25 marathons and helped Paragon Honda and Acura reach No. 1 certified dealer status nationwide for 17 straight years at Honda and 14 at Acura.

As Vice President and General Manager, Brian has been part of a team that built a distinctive customer journey in the heart of New York City, where mobility is not just about cars - it is about freedom, innovation, and outpacing the chaos of a shifting industry.

He has helped pioneer voice-activated services with the Google Assistant, streamline operations with Amazon-inspired efficiency, and work with trailblazers including RedCap, Google, Team Velocity, and the Apollo platform to make buying and servicing feel seamless. His work spans real-time service alerts, personalized AI-driven marketing, and ParagonDirect, a program designed to turn window shopping into closed deals.

Jodi Blomberg is the Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Cox Automotive, where she leads AI/ML strategy and product delivery across the full automotive technology ecosystem. With a career spanning more than two decades, Jodi is a recognized data science leader known for a rare and valuable skill: making AI make sense to the people who actually have to use it.

Jodi oversees a diverse team of Product Managers, Engineers, and AI/ML experts working to shape the future of automotive technology. Her teams manage a portfolio of AI and ML initiatives spanning early-stage research, proofs of concept, and full product delivery across every business line—applying models across the full AI spectrum: machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI, computer vision, statistics, and optimization.

Before joining Cox Automotive, Jodi built and led AI/ML teams at Charles Schwab, Waste Management, and SAS, where she spent 16 years developing analytics solutions for government agencies, healthcare organizations, and Fortune 500 companies. Her work has driven hundreds of millions of dollars in value, earned patent-pending recognition, and produced published research presented at INFORMS. She was also recognized with the 2020 ANNY Award from the International Institute for Analytics.

Jodi is an Advisory Board Member for The Data Storytellers and a frequent speaker at industry events, where she participates in discussions on AI thought leadership, governance, and innovation. Her professional motto—"always have fun with data"—reflects her belief that the best AI work happens when rigor and curiosity go hand in hand.

Jodi holds a BA in Economics from the University of Colorado Boulder and an MS in Mathematics from the University of Colorado Denver.

Yadira "Yadi" Caro is a Harvard-educated organizational psychology practitioner, professional speaker, and author who helps teams master the human skills needed for the future of work. She is the founder of Hardcore Soft Skills LLC, a platform dedicated to helping professionals develop the critical, and often overlooked, human capabilities that determine whether teams truly thrive.

Yadi's core message is captured in the name of her work: soft skills are anything but soft. She calls them Hardcore Soft Skills precisely because mastering communication, empathy, collaboration, motivation, and feedback requires navigating discomfort and facing challenges with intensity. Drawing on her training at Harvard University and more than fifteen years working alongside engineering and technology teams within U.S. military organizations, she brings both academic rigor and real-world operational experience to a subject too often treated as an afterthought.

She is the author of Hardcore Soft Skills: A Guide to Work with Humans and the host of the Hardcore Soft Skills Podcast, which reaches listeners in more than sixty countries. As a LinkedIn Learning instructor, international keynote speaker, and team coach, she equips professionals—from early-career engineers to senior technology leaders—with practical, immediately applicable tools. Much of her teaching is organized around her Five C's framework: Connect, Communicate, Collaborate, Create, and Correct.

At a moment when everyone is racing to learn how to work with AI, Yadi asks a pointed question: are we also learning how to work effectively with humans? A PMP-certified practitioner based in the Greater Tampa Bay Area, she argues that as technical work becomes easier to automate, the human skills of leadership, influence, and collaboration become the real differentiators.

Joe Castelino is an award-winning service leader with American Motors Group, passionate about building outstanding service organizations and delivering superior customer experiences. Working across the group's stores—including Stevens Creek Toyota, Stevens Creek Volkswagen, and Blackstone Chevrolet—he has become one of fixed operations' most vocal advocates for meeting customers where they want to do business.

Joe's central message is that dealers don't have a traffic problem, they have a growth problem. Rather than chasing more cars, he argues, the profit is already sitting in the service drive, unlocked through advisor consistency, faster cycle times, and a more convenient experience. He is especially bullish on mobile service, which he says is where customer loyalty is now being won or lost, and he's candid that his own team failed at it before getting it right—an experience that changed everything about how they operate.

A builder as much as an operator, Joe launched the American Motors Group Aftersales Summit to bring the group's aftersales managers, general managers, and manufacturers together, and he recently helped stand up a new parts distribution center for the group. A frequent voice at industry events like ASOTU CON and on automotive media, he studied at the University of Arizona and is based in Hayward, California.

Ben Chodor is the CEO of CallRevu, a leader in automotive conversation intelligence that helps dealerships capture, measure, and act on every customer interaction across phone, text, chat, and beyond. A growth-focused, AI-native enterprise and SaaS executive, he brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise communications, technology, social video, and digital health.

Before joining CallRevu, Ben served as President of Notified, a communications cloud for events, public relations, and investor relations. He is also a serial entrepreneur who has founded or co-founded three companies: the telehealth platform CareTalk Health; Happtique, a digital health mobile application marketplace acquired by SocialWellth; and Stream57, a digital media and webcasting company acquired by West Corporation. Along the way he has testified before the U.S. Congress on the FDA's role in digital health and authored a book on transitioning to virtual and hybrid events.

At CallRevu, Ben champions a simple but demanding idea: dealerships can't manage what they can't hear. By scoring the full volume of customer conversations rather than a small sample, dealers can coach more precisely, spot compliance risks earlier, respond faster to leads, and turn everyday phone calls into measurable revenue. He is a frequent voice on customer obsession, execution, and the responsible use of AI in retail.

Recognized as one of PR Week's 25 Leaders of Tech in 2022, Ben serves as an independent board member for multiple organizations. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and is based in the New York City area.

Keri Cohen is a strategic business leader with nearly two decades of experience in the media and marketing industries, specializing in brand strategy, digital transformation, and organizational leadership. She brings a rare blend of creative and operational expertise, with experience on both the buy and sell sides, giving her a holistic perspective on driving growth, innovation, and high-performing teams.

Keri currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief of Staff at CallRevu, where she leads brand strategy, go-to-market direction, and cross-functional alignment across the organization. In her dual role, she partners closely with executive leadership to drive strategic initiatives, strengthen internal operations, and ensure the company's vision translates into measurable business impact.

Prior to CallRevu, Keri held key roles at Publicis Groupe, Hearst Magazines, and Food & Wine, where she was a James Beard Award nominee.

Outside of work, Keri enjoys spending time with her family, running, and rooting for the New York Knicks in the hopes that they'll win another championship.

Allan Cooper's career in automotive sales and digital innovation has set him apart as an influential entrepreneur in the industry.

A bold, consumer-first approach to car sales was the catalyst creating a seamless, transparent process that focused on customer service. In the 1980s, his 1-to-1 concierge sales method, focusing on a consumer build-to-order platform, delivered vehicles directly offsite to clients' home or workplace. Seen as a maverick by competing dealerships, it didn't necessarily win him friends in the competitive automotive world.

Cooper's commitment to fostering relationships and providing a stress-free buying experience led to the creation of the first Internet Business Development Centers. Partnering with colleague Paul Whitehead, their process-driven sales platform led to sales of over 2,000 new Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles annually.

Recruitment to AutoTown, the innovator behind DealerTrak, the first integrated CRM platform for auto dealerships, marked the beginning of his digital media career across various business sectors. Cooper was a co-founding investor at OneCommand, a company at the forefront of targeted digital messaging to enhance consumer engagement and loyalty. The company expanded into multiple verticals, including entertainment, sports, and healthcare, further solidifying Cooper's reputation as a strategic leader in digital communications. He also played a pivotal role in the growth of Reviver. As an early advisor and fundraiser, Cooper expanded the company's reach globally, fostering distribution and partnerships across automotive dealerships and OEMs.

Cooper is actively participating and investing in a variety of digital media, AI, and data companies, remaining at the forefront of advancements in numerous business sectors. A passion for health, wellness, and team sports now includes investments in the U.S.A. and Australia.

In 2005, Cooper's contributions to the automotive industry were recognized when J.D. Power and Associates named him a "Pioneer of Automotive Internet Retailing." A frequent speaker on emerging trends in automotive sales, business culture, and consumer engagement, Cooper remains a thought leader, actively shaping the future of the industry. Beyond his professional achievements, Cooper is deeply committed to philanthropy, dedicating his time and resources to causes benefiting children, veterans, and first responders. His impact on both the automotive world and the community at large is a testament to his dedication to innovation, customer satisfaction, and social responsibility.

Yuriy Demidko is Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer at Clarivoy, where he leads executive strategy through data, AI, and disciplined execution—turning complexity into clarity for the automotive industry. He joined Clarivoy drawn by its position as a truly independent, objective measurement platform, betting on a conviction he has held for years: in the AI age, software is no longer the moat—data is.

Yuriy built his career by studying and improving what others had built. He started fresh out of college at Reynolds and Reynolds, where he first saw what discipline at scale looks like in software that runs the back office of an entire industry. At Apple, he crafted a tool to manage the sales cycle for the company's U.S. education sales organization, in a culture where "good enough" was never acceptable. He later spent several years at Fox Motors, part of DP Fox Ventures, where he built a portfolio of AI systems that earned coverage in WardsAuto—including a platform that answers business questions in plain language and Fox Global Ops, an internal marketplace that let stores trade used vehicles with automated paperwork behind it.

A frequent writer and commentator on leadership, AI, and automotive innovation, Yuriy is known for a practical philosophy: embed before you evaluate, listen before you architect, and sequence before you sprint. He argues that as the cost of building collapses, judgment—knowing what is worth building—becomes the real edge. He also champions building second career ladders so organizations don't lose their best individual contributors by forcing them into management.

Yuriy is a graduate of Michigan State University and is based in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area.

Steve Greenfield is the Founder and CEO of Automotive Ventures, an advisory and investment firm focused on the future of mobility and automotive retail. With more than 25 years in automotive technology, he has become one of the industry's most closely followed voices on where the business is heading and which companies will shape it.

Steve started his career in 1999 selling software to car dealers and has since overseen more than a billion dollars in automotive technology acquisitions. He served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at TrueCar, and earlier as Vice President of Product Management and Business Development at AutoTrader.com, where he helped drive the acquisitions of vAuto, Kelley Blue Book, HomeNet Automotive, VinSolutions, and DealerScience. As Manheim's Director of International Development, he spearheaded overseas investments and established joint ventures in Dubai, Istanbul, and Beijing. Before founding Automotive Ventures, he was CEO of Lender Compliance Technologies and Progress Partners.

Steve is the author of The Future of Mobility and The Future of Automotive Retail, and he publishes the widely read weekly "Intel Report," which tracks trends, deals, and emerging startups across the sector. A frequent keynote speaker and podcaster, he is known for translating market signals into practical guidance for dealers, investors, and founders alike.

He holds an MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School and a bachelor's degree from York University in Toronto. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

CEO of BrainTrust Partners, Tim Hayden has a decade of experience in empowering brands to grow revenue by leveraging first-party data and applied artificial intelligence.

Previously, he headed marketing at Zignal Labs, a real-time media intelligence platform used by Facebook, Google, Uber, IBM, and others to measure global trends and manage their brand reputation. Tim is also the former head of the Mobile program at Edelman Digital in North America. He has catalyzed transformational change within some of the world's leading brands, including Ford Motor Company, Dell Technologies, Paragon Motors, Bacardi USA, McDonald's, Shell Oil, Hilton Worldwide, and Walmart.

Author of “The Mobile Commerce Revolution” (Pearson, October 2014), Tim lives with his wife and son in Austin, Texas, and serves on the board of the Andy Roddick Foundation.

Karl Murphy is the CEO and Co-Founder of Get Spiffy, a technology-powered mobile services company on a mission to redefine car care and dealership fixed operations through software, automation, and hands-on expertise. He helps dealerships launch and scale profitable mobile service programs that drive more repair orders, improve retention, and grow fixed-ops gross profit.

Karl's path to Spiffy began in the military, where he served as a rifle and scout platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. As his unit's Air Operations Officer, he was responsible for the airborne deployment of more than 3,000 soldiers and 200 vehicles on 18 hours' notice anywhere in the world. He later sold enterprise software and technology products for companies including Parametric Technology, Abbott Labs, Geomagic, and Plurimus.

Spiffy grew out of an entrepreneurial project at Carolina Auto Spa, a local chain of traditional car washes that Karl owned and led as president. From those roots, Spiffy evolved into a roughly $60 million mobile service business operating in more than twenty major markets, built on proprietary software, hardware, and full-time teams. Drawing on data from more than four million completed services, Karl is a frequent voice on why mobile service feeds—rather than cannibalizes—the service bay, and how dealers can compete on convenience.

A graduate of Georgetown University, Karl was recognized with the Veterans of Influence award from the Triangle Business Journal in 2019. He is based in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.

Joshua Potts serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Dealership Operations for Mac Haik Automotive Group, leading one of the largest privately owned automotive groups in the country. With more than 24 years of automotive experience, Joshua is responsible for the strategic direction, operational performance, and continued growth of the company's dealership portfolio across multiple states.

Joshua began his automotive career in 2001 and entered dealership management at just 19 years old. In 2017, he became the youngest General Manager in Mac Haik Automotive history at the age of 33. Throughout his career, he has built a reputation for driving exceptional operational performance, developing high-performing leadership teams, and creating sustainable, long-term growth.

As General Manager of Mac Haik Chevrolet, Joshua led one of the nation's highest-performing Chevrolet dealerships, growing annual revenue from $215 million to more than $500 million while increasing annual vehicle sales from approximately 5,000 to more than 10,000 units. Under his leadership, the dealership consistently ranked among the top Chevrolet dealers in the United States and earned numerous manufacturer and industry accolades.

Today, Joshua oversees all dealership operations for Mac Haik Automotive Group, providing leadership for 17 dealerships representing Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Hyundai, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram franchises throughout Texas and Mississippi. He works closely with executive leadership and manufacturer partners to drive operational excellence, strengthen profitability, improve customer satisfaction, and identify strategic growth opportunities through acquisitions and expansion.

Joshua is recognized for his strong focus on manufacturer relationships and operational alignment. He has led the implementation of numerous enterprise-wide initiatives across sales, fixed operations, finance, digital retailing, inventory management, and customer experience, while maintaining a culture centered on accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Awards & Affiliations: 20-Time Chevrolet Dealer of the Year; Chevrolet Evolve Dealer of the Year; GM Financial Presidents Club Recipient; Chevrolet Protection Elite Award Winner; Former President, Houston Local Marketing Association (LMA); Current Member across multiple manufacturer national advisory boards.

Joshua's vision continues to drive Mac Haik Automotive Group's expansion while positioning the organization for long-term success in an evolving automotive industry.

Todd Smith is the Founder and CEO of QoreAI and the author of The Intelligent Dealership: How AI and Data Transform Automotive Retail. His entire career has been spent inside auto retail—as a salesperson, finance manager, general manager, and dealer principal across new-car franchise stores—giving him an operator's perspective on where technology helps and where it gets in the way.

That operating background shapes his central thesis: AI only creates value when a dealership's data and workflows are reliable. At QoreAI, Todd is building what he describes as the industry's first AI-powered system of intelligence, turning fragmented dealership data into actionable insight across sales, marketing, and operations. His platform, QoreCloud, is designed for modern retail auto groups that want to put AI to work in everyday decisions rather than treat it as a novelty.

Before QoreAI, Todd founded ActivEngage and scaled it into the largest managed chat provider in automotive, earning recognition that included five consecutive years on the Inc. 5000 and a spot on the Red Herring Top 100. He continues to advise and invest in emerging automotive technology as Managing Director of Kyzor.

A recognized voice on how AI is reshaping dealership operations and data strategy, Todd frames his message around a memorable idea—dealerships don't have a data problem, they have a control problem. He is based in Orlando, Florida, and studied at Stockton University.

Joe Thistle is Director of Marketing at New Smyrna Beach Chevrolet and the Founder of AI Authority Engine, where he helps dealerships understand how AI is changing customer communication and dealer discovery. Working at the intersection of hands-on dealership marketing and emerging technology, he has become an early, practical voice on what "AI search" actually means for franchise retailers.

Through AI Authority Engine, Joe has run hundreds of AI visibility audits for franchise dealerships, measuring how—and whether—stores appear when consumers ask platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity where to buy, service, or trust a dealership. His findings challenge conventional SEO thinking: visibility varies dramatically by brand, by market, and especially between sales and service, where many dealers quietly disappear. His work gives dealers a standardized way to benchmark their presence, see which competitors AI recommends instead, and identify the sources shaping those answers.

Grounded in the day-to-day realities of running marketing for an active Chevrolet store, Joe brings a rare combination of frontline dealership experience and forward-looking technical curiosity. He is a frequent commentator on AI search, automotive marketing, and fixed-ops visibility, and he studied at the University of Central Florida's College of Business Administration. He is based in the Daytona Beach area of Florida.

McKenna "MK" Valley is the CEO and Co-Founder of SparkServ, a technology company reimagining the dealership service experience and fixed operations. Bringing a background in technology into the automotive world, she built SparkServ from the ground up by listening to hundreds of dealership teams—shadowing advisors, running mystery shops, and studying how fixed ops departments actually work—to understand exactly what was broken and why.

Her thesis is that dealerships have fallen behind other industries in customer experience, still forcing customers to call and letting siloed data quietly erode growth and loyalty. SparkServ answers that with a unified Service CRM and Spark AI, an automated SMS scheduler designed to meet customers on their mobile devices, educate them on the services their vehicles actually need, and free BDC agents from juggling multiple tools. The platform has cut average customer interaction time in half and, at partner dealerships, driven measurable gains in appointment volume, outbound activity, and fixed ops revenue.

MK led SparkServ through a seed round from New Stack Ventures with participation from Automotive Ventures, and she is a frequent voice in the fixed ops community—speaking at NADA, the Automotive AI Summit, and on industry podcasts, where she is known for challenging the "more traffic equals more efficiency" fallacy. A graduate of Colgate University, she is based in Denver, Colorado.

Zaki Wilkinson is Co-Founder and CEO of Revion, a Y Combinator–backed startup (Winter 2026) building an operating system for automotive retail. Revion's first product uses AI to automate the administrative work that consumes an estimated 30–40% of a service technician's day, freeing skilled technicians to focus on actually repairing vehicles.

Zaki brings a go-to-market and finance background to the founder's seat. Before Revion, he worked in go-to-market at Multiverse, the education technology company backed by General Catalyst and Index Ventures, and earlier in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and Citi. That combination of enterprise growth experience and financial rigor informs how he thinks about building durable software for a traditionally underserved corner of the auto industry: the service and repair workflow.

Focused on the operational realities of fixed operations, Zaki and his co-founder are approaching automotive retail as a systems problem—starting with the technician and expanding outward. He studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is based in the New York City metropolitan area.

Danny Zaslavsky is President and Co-Founder of VINCUE, an inventory and data platform built to modernize how dealers acquire, price, and sell vehicles, and the Dealer Principal of his family's dealership, Country Hill Motors, in the Kansas City area. That dual perspective—technology founder and working dealer—defines how he approaches the future of automotive retail.

Danny has been in the car business his entire life. Country Hill Motors was founded in 1984 and grew under his father, John Zaslavsky, into one of the region's most successful independent used-car dealers. Danny has served as General Manager there since 1999, running a real store with real inventory challenges—the same challenges VINCUE is designed to solve. His passion for cars, technology, and community runs deep, extending back to co-founding DealerPrints during college.

He co-founded VINCUE in 2018 to create the future of automotive operations, management, and sales solutions, giving dealers a single platform to make faster, data-driven decisions across acquisition, merchandising, and dealer-to-dealer trade. Because he builds tools he then uses on his own lot, Danny is a credible advocate for practical, dealer-first technology rather than software built in a vacuum.

Danny studied Human Biology at the University of Kansas. He is based in Mission, Kansas.