About Auto Agentic
Built between the dealership floor and the engineering room.
Auto Agentic brings together automotive operations, organizational transformation, data, artificial intelligence, product engineering and customer experience. That combination lets us engineer both the systems AI runs on and the people and practices required to run with it.
Four founders.Different disciplines.One integrated approach.
Based in North America. Built for automotive retail. Available globally.
Why we came together
AI transformation cannot be solved from one side of the business.
- Technology is designed without understanding how a dealership actually operates.
- Strategy is set apart from the people who have to implement it.
- Data is treated separately from the workflow that depends on it.
- AI is deployed before anyone agrees who governs it.
- Employees are asked to adopt systems they had no hand in shaping.
- Training arrives after the software, as an afterthought.
- Vendors optimise their own tool rather than the dealership's capability.
An intelligent dealership requires more than software expertise. It requires people who understand how dealerships operate, how organizations change, how data becomes usable, how AI systems are engineered, and how customers and employees experience the result.
That is why we built Auto Agentic together.
The co-founders
Different perspectives are built into the work.
Barry Hillier
Co-founder · Strategy, brand and the customer line
Strategy, brand, customer experience and organizational transformation
Barry works at the executive line: how a group positions itself, how an engagement is designed, and how value is measured before anything expands.
Twenty-five years across brand, technology and entrepreneurship, including automotive platforms, sit behind that. He is the author of Auto Agentic's work on the shift from transactional retail to intelligence-led operations.
On an engagement he sets the commercial structure and holds the discipline that every stage ends in an evidenced decision rather than an automatic renewal.
What they bring
He sets the commercial structure of an engagement and holds the discipline that every stage ends in an evidenced decision rather than an automatic renewal.
Proof points
- 25+ years across brand, technology and entrepreneurship, including automotive platforms.
- Author of Auto Agentic's work on the shift from transactional retail to intelligence-led operations.
- Connects technical capability to commercial value at the executive line.
Bill Playford
Co-founder · Dealership floor and automotive operations
Dealership operations, retail automotive systems and practical implementation
Bill is a fourth-generation auto worker. Twenty years inside automotive retail, across roughly 1,200 dealerships, means he has seen what a workflow has to survive on a Saturday — and what a store will quietly abandon by Wednesday.
His earlier work applying machine learning to lead scoring is where the operational instinct met the modelling: not what a model can predict, but what a desk will actually act on.
On an engagement he pressure-tests every workflow against how the store really runs, department by department.
What they bring
He pressure-tests every workflow against how the store really runs, department by department, before it is built.
Proof points
- Fourth-generation auto worker; 20 years inside automotive retail.
- Experience across roughly 1,200 dealerships.
- Earlier work applying machine learning to lead scoring: not what a model predicts, but what a desk will act on.
Karla Congson
Co-founder · AI agent design, engineering and governance
AI strategy, agent design, responsible adoption and human capability
Karla designs the agent teams: what each specialist agent does, what context it may see, how work passes between them, and where a person has to sign.
Twenty-five years in digital and AI systems and enterprise strategy sit behind that, including her work at Agentiiv on specialist agent systems, and graduation from the Vector Institute's FastLane program.
On an engagement she owns agent architecture, model routing and the governance that keeps an agent inside its permissions.
What they bring
She owns agent architecture, model routing and the governance that keeps an agent inside its permissions.
Proof points
- 25 years in digital and AI systems and enterprise strategy.
- Founder of Agentiiv, working on specialist agent systems.
- Graduate of the Vector Institute's FastLane program.
Mike Carrick
Co-founder · Data, integrations and enterprise architecture
Data, integrations, AI architecture and enterprise engineering
Mike owns the connective work: reading the DMS, CRM, phone, service, inventory and marketing systems a group already runs, reconciling definitions, and keeping each rooftop's data partitioned inside its own boundary.
Twenty years and more building secure enterprise systems for financial institutions is what that discipline comes from — architecture that has to satisfy a reviewer, not just a demo.
On an engagement he owns integrations, data architecture, access control and the export path that lets a group leave with everything it built.
What they bring
He owns integrations, data architecture, access control and the export path that lets a group leave with everything it built.
Proof points
- 20+ years building secure enterprise systems for financial institutions.
- Architecture written to satisfy a reviewer, not a demo.
- Keeps each rooftop's data partitioned inside its own boundary.
One integrated team
The breadth is intentional.
None of the four disciplines sits in its own box. They overlap on every engagement, and they converge on the same outcome.
Automotive operations
Understanding dealership systems, workflows, performance, roles and operating realities.
AI and engineering
Building the architecture, agents, orchestration, integrations and technical controls.
Organization and people
Designing decision rights, governance, literacy, training, adoption and leadership capability.
Strategy and experience
Connecting the technology to business priorities, customer experience, commercial value and long-term direction.
Intelligence infrastructure + operating capability
We speak the languages of the dealership floor, business leadership, data and engineering.
How we work with clients
The people you meet are the people doing the work.
Auto Agentic is founder-led. The founders stay directly involved in discovery, assessment, architecture, workflow design, Blueprint development, verification, training, implementation decisions, and measurement and expansion.
That does not mean all four attend every meeting or complete every task. It means the strategic, operational, organizational and technical disciplines stay represented in the engagement from the first session to the last.
A four-founder engagement. You are not handed to a delivery team after the first meeting.
The business problem stays connected to the build
Strategy is not separated from implementation.
The technical work stays connected to operations
Architecture is informed by how the dealership actually works.
The people side stays connected to the system
Roles, training and accountability are designed alongside the technology.
The evidence stays connected to the decision
Each stage produces something the dealership can review, challenge and approve.
Our operating principles
The way we build matters as much as what we build.
Prove, don't pitch
Every next step is earned through evidence.
Engineer both halves
Infrastructure and organizational capability are designed together.
AI works. People lead.
Human judgment, accountability and decision rights stay visible.
What your business learns stays yours
Dealer data, knowledge and accumulated intelligence remain under dealer control.
Capability should compound
Each deployment strengthens what becomes possible next.
Leave the dealer more capable
The relationship builds internal capability, not dependency.
The industry ahead
Automotive retail does not need more disconnected AI.It needs the ability to operate intelligence.
- Moving beyond isolated point solutions.
- Creating dealer-owned intelligence foundations.
- Connecting systems, data, agents and workflows.
- Giving people the literacy and the authority to lead.
- Making governance operational rather than theoretical.
- Proving value through bounded deployments.
- Letting capability expand as the foundation holds.
- Helping dealerships shape their own AI future.
Bring us the dealership you actually have.
We will start with the systems, people, priorities and constraints already there.