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Architecting the Automotive Intelligence Era
Auto Agentic is not building another automotive technology company. We are architecting how intelligence itself will operate across dealerships, dealer groups, and OEM ecosystems.
Why Auto Agentic Exists
Automotive is not lacking software.
It is lacking intelligence architecture.
Over the last two years, the industry has invested aggressively in AI tools, automation, and "intelligent" features. The result has not been transformation. It has been coordination debt.
Auto Agentic was founded to solve the structural problem behind that outcome:
Intelligence does not emerge from tools.
It emerges from how systems, data, workflows, and organizations are designed to work together.
- We created the Automotive Intelligence Pyramid to map how intelligence actually develops.
- We built an agentic intelligence architecture to make those higher levels operable.
- And we formed Auto Agentic to guide how the industry crosses from automation into connected, compounding intelligence.
The Market Opportunity
Automotive AI is one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology sectors globally.
Total Addressable Market
$38.5B
by 2030
Global automotive AI market spanning autonomy, infotainment, telematics, and dealership operations.
MarketsandMarkets, 2025
Serviceable Addressable Market
$8.2B
by 2030
North American dealership operations, dealer group intelligence, and OEM ecosystem coordination.
Industry analysis
Serviceable Obtainable Market
$650M
by 2030
Enterprise dealer groups and OEM partners adopting intelligence architecture and agentic AI platforms.
Internal projection
18,000+
Franchised dealerships in North America
45%+
U.S. dealerships already using some form of AI
15.4%
CAGR — Automotive AI market growth rate
75% Canadian-Owned. Global by Design.
Auto Agentic is proudly headquartered in Canada — the birthplace of modern AI — giving us unmatched access to the world's deepest concentration of AI research talent.
Where Modern AI Was Born
The deep learning revolution that powers today's AI began in Toronto and Montreal. Geoffrey Hinton (University of Toronto, Vector Institute) and Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal, MILA) — two of the three "Godfathers of AI" — built the foundational research that enabled everything from ChatGPT to autonomous driving.
Canada invested in AI research decades before it was commercially viable, establishing the world's first national AI strategy in 2017 and creating institutions like the Vector Institute and MILA — now the world's largest academic AI research lab.
Auto Agentic doesn't just use AI. We operate from where AI was invented.
A Global AI Platform
World-Class AI Talent Pipeline
Toronto and Montreal rank among the top 5 global AI talent hubs, producing more AI researchers per capita than any other region.
Institutional Depth
Home to the Vector Institute, MILA, CIFAR, and the Schwartz Reisman Institute — powering breakthroughs adopted by Google, Meta, and OpenAI.
Privacy & Governance Leadership
Canadian data privacy frameworks (PIPEDA, Quebec Law 25) align with global enterprise requirements — a competitive advantage in regulated industries.
North American Market Access
Seamless access to the U.S. and Canadian automotive markets with the cost and talent advantages of Canadian operations.
2 of 3
"Godfathers of AI" based in Canada
#1
World's largest academic AI lab (MILA)
75%
Canadian-owned founding team
2017
First national AI strategy globally
Our Strategy
Auto Agentic is executing a deliberately staged strategy.
Architecture, framework, and enterprise foundation development
Limited strategic partnerships to prove, pressure-test, and codify transformation playbooks
Industry scaling on validated intelligence architectures
Automotive intelligence infrastructure becomes foundational
We are not optimizing for speed to market.
We are optimizing for correctness of architecture.
Because in intelligence systems, early design decisions compound for decades.
Leadership Team
Four co-founders with 100+ combined years across automotive, enterprise AI, and regulated technology.
Barry Hillier
Co-Founder & CEO
25+ yrs scaling automotive SaaS & brand platforms
Bill Playford
Co-Founder & CGO
1,200+ dealerships consulted across North America
Michael Carrick
Co-Founder & CTO
25+ yrs enterprise architecture in regulated industries
Karla Congson
Co-Founder & Chief AI Strategist
100+ enterprise AI agents architected
Our Ideal Investor Profile
We seek capital partners aligned with building long-term intelligence infrastructure—not accelerating distribution.
We partner best with investors who bring:
Experience in platform, infrastructure, or enterprise system businesses
Comfort with long-horizon value creation
Appreciation for architectural and organizational moats
Understanding of regulated, operationally complex industries
Respect for disciplined growth over rapid fragmentation
Alignment with responsible, enterprise-grade AI development
That requires patience, systems thinking, governance fluency, and comfort operating ahead of mass understanding.
Why we are intentionally selective:
- Our architecture decisions shape what the industry will later depend on
- Our partnership model prioritizes depth over volume
- Our transformation timeline spans years, not quarters
- Our ambition is category-defining, not feature-driven
We value capital. We prioritize judgment.
How Investors Engage With Auto Agentic
Strategic investors in Auto Agentic are not passive participants. They are engaged partners in:
We are building the operating layer for automotive intelligence.
That benefits from thoughtful, strategically aligned capital.
The Opportunity
Automotive is one of the world's largest, most operationally complex industries.
As AI moves from tools to intelligence systems, the market does not need more applications.
It needs:
Auto Agentic is building those foundations.
The organizations working with us in 2026 are helping define how intelligence actually operates in automotive.
The investors aligned with us now participate in shaping what the industry will rely on over the next decade.
Investor Inquiries
We welcome conversations with investors who share a long-term view of automotive intelligence transformation and understand what it means to build category infrastructure rather than products.
Initial discussions focus on:
- Strategic alignment
- Time horizon expectations
- Understanding of intelligence architecture
- Experience with platform or enterprise system businesses
If there is alignment, we explore partnership.
If not, we part with respect.