Episode 258: AT&T SVP Marketing + Planning Vinay Shahani
Cars & Culture with Jason Stein · Jul 17, 2026
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Term
powertrain
The powertrain is basically the car’s “moving system.” It’s everything that makes power and sends it to the wheels, like the engine or electric motors and the parts that connect to the drivetrain.
Term
EV
Electric vehicles are cars that run on electricity stored in a battery. Instead of a gasoline engine, they use electric motors to drive the wheels.
Term
OEM
OEMs are the carmakers themselves—the companies that build the vehicles you buy. The speaker is saying laws were pushing these companies to make more electric cars.
Term
hybrid
A hybrid car uses two kinds of power: a gasoline engine and an electric motor. It can switch between them (or use both) to improve efficiency and make the transition away from gas easier.
Term
penetration
Penetration here means how common a technology is—like what percent of cars are EVs versus other types. Higher penetration means more people are buying that technology.
Concept
disruption
In this context, disruption means a major shift in the competitive landscape—new technologies or strategies that force companies to change what they build and how they market. The speaker frames hybrid electrification as a disruption because not every automaker had invested in it early.
Term
generative AI
Generative AI is a type of computer intelligence that can create new stuff, like writing or other content, instead of only following fixed rules. The speaker is saying it’s becoming a big change in how companies operate and market.
Term
over the air update
Some cars can get software updates wirelessly, like your phone does. That means you don’t have to go to a dealership just to install new features or fixes.
Term
5G technology
5G is a faster kind of mobile internet. In cars, it helps the car connect more quickly and reliably for things like online services and data features.
Concept
cars become phones on wheels
This phrase means the car is starting to work more like a smartphone. Instead of just driving, it’s becoming a connected device that gets new software features over time.
Car
Rivian R2
The Rivian R2 is an electric Rivian SUV/crossover that’s meant to bring the brand to more people. Here, the key point is that it’s designed with 5G internet built in for connected features.
Car
all new Lexus ES
The Lexus ES is a popular Lexus sedan. In this discussion, the new model matters because it has an updated in-car screen/software system called Lexus Interface.
Term
infotainment system
An infotainment system is the car’s main screen and controls for things like music, navigation, and phone/internet features. It’s a big part of how people judge a car’s “tech” experience.
Term
Lexus Interface
Lexus Interface is Lexus’s name for its in-car screen/software experience. The point here is that the way it feels and works can influence whether people choose to buy a Lexus.
Car
Ford F-150 Lightning
The Ford F-150 Lightning is a pickup truck that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. It’s designed for people who want the practicality of a truck, but with electric driving. It may come up in conversation because electric trucks have been getting better quickly.
Concept
development cycle
The development life cycle is the whole process of designing and building a car, from the first planning stages to when it’s ready to sell. The point here is that car companies are doing it faster than before.
Concept
product cycles
Product cycles are how often car companies update and refresh their vehicles and features. The claim here is that those updates are happening faster now.
Term
connectivity
Connectivity is how a car can “talk” to things outside itself—like your phone or the internet. It matters because it enables features such as app control and remote/online services.
Term
Apple CarPlay
Apple CarPlay lets you connect an iPhone to your car so certain apps show up on the car’s screen. You can then use things like maps, calls, and music without handling your phone as much.
Term
Google Android Auto
Android Auto lets you connect an Android phone to your car so apps can appear on the car’s screen. It’s meant to make navigation and music easier to use while driving.
Term
autonomous emergency braking
Autonomous emergency braking is a safety feature that can automatically brake if the car thinks you’re about to hit something. It’s meant to help prevent crashes, especially when a driver doesn’t react in time.
Term
lane keep assist
Lane keep assist is a driver-assistance system that helps keep the vehicle centered in its lane by steering corrections when it detects unintentional lane departure. It’s designed to reduce common mistakes like drifting, which matters a lot for less-experienced drivers.
Term
connected cameras
Connected cameras are cameras in the car that can send information to safety systems. The idea is to help the car “see” more clearly so it can warn you or help avoid problems.
LIVE
The automobile is one of the most important inventions that revolutionize the modern world.
In America, the rich history of car culture runs deep.
Technology continues to shape the future of the industry.
Jason Stein is here to share the stories of people passionate about cars,
from industry leaders and innovators to car-obsessed celebrities.
Buckle up as Jason takes you inside the boardroom, onto the track,
and around the bend on Cars and Culture on SiriusXM Business Radio.
Welcome into episode 258 of Cars and Culture with Jason Stein,
here on SiriusXM Business Channel 132.
Great to have you along for the ride again.
Every so often, a guest comes back around, and it's never for the reason you'd expect.
Today's guest has one of the most interesting resumes in the business,
because he's had a front-row seat to the transformation of not one industry, but two.
Thirty years in automotive, Volkswagen, Nissan, and Infiniti, Toyota, and Lexus,
building brands, running marketing, learning the business from the factory floor
to the dealership lot.
And then nine months ago, he did something almost nobody in this industry does.
He walked away from it.
He's now Senior Vice President of Marketing and Planning at AT&T,
and Vinay Shahani is running Acquisition, Retention, and Brand Strategy
for one of the most iconic companies in America,
a company that, by the way, predates the automobile by about 30 years.
And here's the thing.
Vinay Shahani didn't leave the car business behind,
so much as he found out it was chasing him the entire time.
Connectivity, software-defined vehicles, in-car AI,
the partnership between AT&T and Oracle Red Bull Racing.
The lines between these two industries aren't just blurring, they're converging.
So today, we're talking career pivots,
and what it's like to learn a totally new vernacular after 30 years in a different industry,
and who really owns the customer relationship in the connected car.
And by the way, why does Vinay think connectivity
might become as important to a buyer as horsepower or styling?
And yes, we'll get to see what's in his driveway.
Please welcome back to Cars and Culture, my friend Vinay Shahani.
Hi, my name is Vinay Shahani, and this is Cars and Culture with Jason Stein.
Our guest today has one of the most interesting resumes in the business,
because he's had a front-row seat to the transformation of not one,
but a couple of different industries.
And I say a couple of different, because there's a reason behind this,
he's also back again as a guest.
It is wonderful to have you back on Cars and Culture, Vinay,
in your new role faster than ever before. Welcome in.
Thank you, Jason. It's great to be back with you,
and congratulations on the success of Cars and Culture.
What is this? Episode 257, 258?
Yeah, we're rounding the corner on 260, which is just incredible.
And I know you were part of the early days of the show,
and I just want to thank you for coming back in.
Not much has changed for you, I mean.
Yeah, exactly.
Could be the understatement of the century.
Right, right, right.
What an honor to have you back.
You are now leading one of AT&T's most significant growth engines.
You're helping businesses of all sizes across so many different segments,
navigate what is an increasingly connected and digital world.
And isn't it funny that the last time that we talked a few years ago,
you were talking about the digital world from a different perspective,
but you now have the courage to pursue a completely different opportunity
and to look at digitization and marketing from a whole different lens.
How is it going?
Yeah, thank you for that.
I will start by saying there's nothing more humbling
than pivoting industries after 30 years in one industry that you love
and you've gotten to know into something completely new.
It is a great experience.
It's, like I said, a challenge to learn a new vernacular, a new language,
but exhilarating at the same time.
And I would tell you, thinking back to episode 31,
which was the first time you and I spoke back in 2022,
we did talk about connectivity and the fact that the landscape in the auto industry
has changed so dramatically.
When you think about the cars that you and I grew up with,
where you could wrench on them very easily, they were simple machines.
And you look at where we are today in the auto industry,
and the software-defined vehicle has become the thing.
And I like to say connectivity is the new horsepower in this new world
because I see in-vehicle connectivity as the frontier for competition these days.
And it's all about engaging consumers with the services that they want.
And that's where this Venn diagram comes together with my experience in automotive
and coming to AT&T, where we like to say connecting changes everything.
And it's absolutely very germane to the shift that we're seeing across the industry.
So really, really been exciting for me to be here.
It's been about nine months and I couldn't be happier with the transition.
Yeah, I know you were coming up on a year.
When you look back on your career, was there a grand plan or have you simply had the courage
to pursue opportunities that felt right at the time?
Well, I feel like this is a leading question because I may have come to you with advice
or for advice along the way.
But yeah, I mean, I think if you'd asked 22-year-old Vinay, which was a long time ago,
if he saw a path leaving the automotive industry, which is kind of what I was looking to do back
then, I would have said, you're crazy.
But I would tell you life happens.
And I'm very much a person that has had a very fruitful career in exploring new things.
When I went into the automotive industry, I started on the technical side as a mechanical
engineer working in design engineering and product development.
But along the way, I took a few turns along the way to really rich in my experiential profile,
working in product, working in marketing, working in manufacturing, working in sales.
And you gather perspective along the way.
And you meet a lot of people.
My most recent automotive experience after spending almost seven years with Toyota and
Lexus, I went back to Nissan and Infiniti for a couple of years.
It was great.
It was exhilarating.
Obviously, you know, we were executing a massive turnaround of that company.
And I know you recently interviewed Christian Munier, who's a close friend of mine,
former boss of mine.
And the back and forth, because I was living here in Dallas, I was traveling commuting back
and forth between Dallas and Nashville.
And just based on my life stage, it was getting to be a point where it was really tough for me
to hold it together with the business and hold it together with the family.
So I had a very transparent conversation with Christian.
I told him about my struggles.
And I said, you know, I think it's time for me to figure out a way to get back to Dallas.
And that's where, you know, life happens and you meet people.
And I was fortunate to be connected with some senior leaders at AT&T.
And when an opportunity came up and the idea of joining a telecom giant with a massive,
massive iconic brand and the authenticity and credibility of that brand to a marketer
sounded so appealing to me.
That's when the idea of making a career pivot was very real.
And as I came to you for advice, not too long before I took the job,
that's where I said, you know what, I'm going to try this.
And it's been really, really great to be able to do it so far.
What's the biggest adjustment that you've had to make?
Yeah, I would say no question the biggest adjustment is learning the business,
learning the fundamentals of the business, whether it's, you know,
if I think about my role, I'll describe that really quickly.
So I lead marketing and planning for AT&T.
So my group is part of the larger marketing and growth organization.
So I report into Helen Smith Kenny, who's the chief marketing and growth officer.
As a senior vice president of marketing planning, we're kind of the hub of marketing.
So think about marketing strategy.
You know, what do we want to accomplish with a campaign?
Who were we trying to reach from a audience perspective,
not just demographically, but also from a mindset perspective,
making sure that we're getting the right information to the consumer,
working very closely with our partners in the media team,
our partners in the content and creative team to basically pull these campaigns together
and connect with the consumer and show them what AT&T is all about.
It's very much a motion that I'm familiar with based on my experience in the past.
You know, I would say acquisition marketing,
irrespective if you're talking about telecom, consumer products, or automotive,
it's generally the same motion.
So I think there's certain constructs where I feel very comfortable and competent,
and I've seen these types of things before.
So that part hasn't been, that part's been fun for sure.
I think the challenge has been just learning the new vernacular,
learning about how the business happens at the front line level with the consumers.
I mean, fortunately, you have retail networks on the automotive side,
you have retail network here in the telecom side.
So again, a lot of consistencies.
Like I said, acquisition marketing, very consistent.
I would say the biggest difference in where a lot of learning has happened for me
is in the area of retention.
And you think about this from an automotive construct.
In an automotive OEM, we work very closely with the dealers
to create the right environment for them to engender loyalty.
You think car to car on a lease or on a retail contract.
Obviously, you're always trying to bring the customer back
and put them in the next vehicle.
And as an OEM, we would like to create the right infrastructure,
the right incentives, the right programs, furnish the right data
so that the dealers could do this efficiently and effectively.
In the telecom industry at AT&T, our approach to retention, it's all on us.
So overseeing the retention function has been a really great learning for me,
where our ultimate job is to try to reduce churn, keep customers with the brand,
and really think about how do we drive brand love,
and recognizing that brand love is a function of not just the marketing that you do,
but the overall customer experience.
And so I would say that's been a really fun challenge to try to learn.
I mean, fortunately, the people at AT&T have been fantastic,
very welcoming of a guy who's coming in from the outside,
who has different perspective, really willing to show me the ropes
and explain how the business works.
We have a very engaged leadership team that's surprisingly flat
compared to some of the other companies that I've worked for.
But these are the types of environmental things that have been really great for me
as a new guy coming in, trying to learn the business,
and ultimately trying to show how AT&T enables something that's so human,
which is connection.
And if you'd seen some of our recent ads, I know you're a sports fan,
so if you watch March Madness, you would have seen some of our ads where we say,
when the connection matters, it has to be AT&T.
As a brand marketer, there's a duality that I love about that.
Obviously, our job is to make sure that the customer has a reliable connection,
so that they can connect with whom matters most to them.
But also, the connection itself, which is something that we do so well
with our reliable network, wireless, fiber, fixed wireless products,
that help make that happen for our consumers.
It's been a tremendous learning opportunity,
but just tremendous headroom for the brand to grow, and that's what really drives me.
When you're selling Nissan's or Volkswagen's or even Lexus,
you're appealing to a certain segment.
You know that you're probably not going to go after every consumer,
because there are some who want exotics,
there are some who want entry level, depending on which side of the brand you're on.
In this way, everybody's a customer.
In fact, you want all customers.
How does that change the scope of how you go to market?
Because you spend so much time in your former role looking at that consumer demographic.
They are from this price point.
They are at this age demographic, maybe in this part of the country,
but now the nation is your oyster, right?
Yeah, this is a big part of what we do in the marketing and planning organization,
and we try to think about it through a segmentation.
I don't care what industry you're in, what business you're in,
it always starts with the segmentation and really understand the audience
and the demand segments that exist.
So we look at that, and as you would imagine, there's a continuum.
There's people that we would call focused on the basics.
There's things that people are focused on, which are latest and greatest,
and we have an offering for everyone.
So it's really about finding where those people are, what are their interests,
how do they look at connectivity solutions, and this idea of really pushing for converged,
where we're bringing together wireless and home internet together
to really create this optimized ecosystem,
and delivering a message which is about finding the right message
to deliver at the right time to the right customer.
And fortunately, the way that media has evolved over the years,
we have mass channels to get in touch with these consumers,
as we were talking about a little bit earlier about the massive sports property that we have
in terms of relationships, as well as thinking about precision marketing
and our ability to go and target consumers that are showing certain signals
where we can match those signals and say, hey, we have a Build-A-Plan product,
which is great for you. You can bring your own device over,
and we have a really affordable monthly price.
And then we have something like AT&T One Connect,
which is an all-inclusive package where you can bring your whole family on board to the plan.
You can have multiple devices that connect not only wirelessly,
but also through the home internet.
And like you said, Jason, the name of the game for us is to really show what AT&T has,
which is something for everyone, but do it in a way where you're resonating very emotionally
and on a one-to-one basis with our consumer.
The car world is so competitive. I mean, you're fighting from market share,
tenths of market share. Tell me how competitive the telecom world is.
Yeah, you're laughing because I think you know the answer.
I can only imagine.
I thought the automotive industry was hyper competitive until I got into telecom,
so that part has been really enlightening for me.
But look, I think this is a function of knowing what your differentiators are.
How do you separate yourself from the competition?
AT&T's differentiator is scale, it's reliability,
and again, we're so confident in our network that we have the AT&T guarantee,
which basically says in the rare event of an outage,
we'll automatically credit you on your bill because we know that that's not something
that the customer should have to shoulder on its own.
And I would tell you serendipitously, I actually experienced an outage a couple of years ago,
and I've been an AT&T customer for almost 28 years now,
and I thought the way that AT&T handled it was brilliantly.
Having been through a number of customer crises, whether it was Volkswagen diesel gate,
seeing other things like tsunamis and earthquakes pan out and what that does to the supply chain,
so I'm no stranger to these types of things that come up that can disrupt the life of a consumer.
And to see how AT&T handled that so brilliantly took responsibility for it, credited my account,
that was actually the first conversation I had with an AT&T senior executive,
was that a cars and coffee, local in Dallas, and when I found out that this individual worked
for AT&T, I credited them on how they handled the outage.
And again, I can't tell you any other time in my 28 years where AT&T had an outage,
but the fact that it happened very rarely and they handled it so well,
they took responsibility and credited my account, made me feel great as a customer.
And that was the evolution and the birth of the AT&T guarantee,
and I think that's something that we talk about a lot in our advertising,
and it's something when you talk to customers who've been through an outage
and that have experienced the AT&T guarantee, you see the net promoter score go up dramatically,
and I think that's something that as a marketer who's trying to really tell the story of AT&T,
that's a material benefit of being an AT&T customer.
So that gives you a little sense for how we choose to go to market
and how we really try to compete at a level of scale,
which is so dramatically different than what we see in the automotive industry.
So what you're talking about is an industry that's inherently relationship driven,
and automotive has historically been transactional to some extent,
just call it what it is, right?
Yeah, I would agree with that.
I would say that certainly there's rational elements of car buying,
but as you and I have talked about a lot, there's the emotional piece too,
and creating that emotional connection between a brand and a consumer is the holy grail.
And I think about some of the relationships that we have that facilitate that connection,
whether it's our host of sports sponsorships where we can tell the story,
whether it's March Madness, College Football Championship, our relationship with the NBA,
the WNBA, the Masters, I mean the list goes on and on.
NHL, I mean you're everywhere, you're everywhere.
And these are done on purpose.
We know that we get the reach.
We know that these are premium media properties where we can tell the story of the brand,
connection changes everything, connecting changes everything.
But also something that I would say which is so core to who we are as a brand would be,
as an example, our relationship with Oracle Red Bull Racing.
And imagine a car guy coming into a telecom company, AT&T nine months ago,
and then learning more about the relationship we have with Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Yeah, tell me about that.
This is not just a marketing sponsorship.
This is a true technical partnership.
You can't start the car without AT&T technology.
I mean we power all the connectivity in the car, and you think about this,
because I know you're a Formula One and a racing fan.
You think about all the data from all those sensors,
and the fact that the AT&T network is real time carrying 600 plus gigabytes of data
from the car back to Milton Keynes live, so that they can make millisecond worthy decisions
that allow them to win a race.
And I love that because first of all, to the business decision makers that are out there,
it sends a message about AI grade network capability.
You think about the data that needs to get uploaded and downloaded,
and the fact that our fiber network has symmetrical upload and download speeds,
which is super important today, especially in a world of AI,
where it's not about just downloading information to your computer,
but it's about uploading information for analysis.
So that symmetrical capability is huge.
But you think about it not only for the business decision makers to see
the capability that the AT&T network has, the reliability that the AT&T network has,
but also from a consumer perspective.
I mean what a great statement of reliability, like if we're able to do that real time,
imagine what we can do for you using our fiber product at home,
or our fixed wireless product at home.
And I think there's a lot of opportunity to continue to promote that partnership that we have
in changing brand perception, not only for the B2C segment, but also B2B.
On Red Bull, I know that you take advantage of that connection
when races are in the United States, particularly in Texas, for example.
How do you use it to either enhance or attract or generate more interest with customers?
Because obviously the popularity of F1, as we've talked about on this show,
for 260 episodes could not be higher.
You're at a right time at the right place with that, aren't you?
Yeah, and credit to Callan and Jeff McAlfresh and others who were obviously at the forefront
of that decision to bring AT&T together with Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Look, I think like any great partnership, it's a two-way street.
And we enjoy a very strong relationship with Laurent and the team at Oracle Red Bull Racing.
I think ultimately we see this as a marquee way to, as an example, take our biggest and best
enterprise business customers, bring them in to experience the adrenaline of Formula One,
but again, also as a demonstration of the capability of the company.
The trustworthiness and the reliability of the network is on display real-time,
and I saw this last year when I was in Austin at the Formula One race
to see how AT&T can power Oracle Red Bull Racing.
I think the other side of it is making sure that we do the right thing about having
consumer activations during these races, and it may not even have to be at the
race track itself. It could be somewhere nearby in an intercept location where we have a lot of
foot traffic, and we can show consumers what it means to be an AT&T customer, bring the guarantee
to life, show the, as you were talking about, recognizing that there's so many different
consumer needs out there, and the fact that we've got a product for everyone
in the range of products and solutions that we have, and bringing it to life through the
excitement of Formula One and Oracle Red Bull Racing is a great way to not only engage B2B,
but also B2C, and we try to make sure that we do that wherever we can throughout this relationship.
So that's just one or two examples of how we leverage that.
After the break, we'll continue with AT&T executive Vinay Shahani.
To see more cars and culture interviews, visit the Cars and Culture YouTube channel.
Subscribe, comment, check out hundreds of conversations with the creators, collectors,
and culture makers who are driving the industry forward.
The automobile is one of the most important inventions that revolutionize the modern world.
In America, the rich history of car culture runs deep. Technology continues to shape the
future of the industry. Jason Stein is here to share the stories of people passionate about cars
from industry leaders and innovators to car obsessed celebrities. Buckle up as Jason takes
you inside the boardroom, onto the track, and around the bend on Cars and Culture on SiriusXM
Business Radio. Welcome back to Cars and Culture here on SiriusXM. I'm your host Jason Stein.
Now the continuation of my conversation with AT&T executive Vinay Shahani.
To see more Cars and Culture interviews, visit the Cars and Culture YouTube channel.
Subscribe, comment, check out hundreds of conversations with the creators, collectors,
and culture makers who are driving the industry forward.
It's a really astute question. Look, I think there's great examples in both industries.
I'll start with auto and you look at what's happening from a powertrain perspective.
You know, at one point there was a lot of
mindshare devoted towards the development of electric vehicles. You had a certain
perspective from the federal government which was saying, look, we expect that this is going to be
the penetration and the legislation was being written in a certain way that required OEMs to
develop electric vehicles. And then you see the administration shift and they take a different
position. But you see consumers are voting with their wallets and you see a winning technology
like hybrid, which has been around since the late 90s, become sort of the near term winner.
Not to say that electric vehicles won't be commonplace in the future. But if it's six or seven
or eight percentage points of penetration in this industry of 16 million cars,
that's kind of the biggest that we're seeing so far. But you see hybrid technology really racing
ahead. So that's an example of a disruption because not everybody had invested in hybrid.
So you see the winners right now that are emerging from that race. I think the pace of
disruption in my space today is much more lightning fast. We're constantly seeing disruption happen in
terms of the products that we develop, in terms of how we connect with consumers to explain to
them what's happening, this notion of one-to-one marketing through the right media channels.
These are all disruptions that are happening every day. And look, I think there's no bigger
disruption than artificial intelligence and generative AI and embracing that as we talked
about, AT&T, really trying to show through the investments we've made, I'll use fiber as the
example. We're in approximately 30 million households and businesses today, a little bit over that.
And by 2030, having over 60 million households and businesses passings for fiber. And again,
that symmetrical capability, low latency, as an engineer, I can really appreciate the innovation,
the fundamental innovation of fiber, which dates back to AT&T Bell Labs, the idea of taking a thin
tube of glass and shooting an electrical light or I should say a light impulse through that
glass with very little signal fall off over long periods of distance is why fiber is such a great
technology and the fact that that can power so much of the analysis and the inquisitiveness
that's happening in business and in science and to be a technological partner with the technology
that we have with the investments that we're making, the capital investments that we're making.
I mean, I used to think when you spend a billion dollars developing a new car platform, that was a
lot of money and it is, but you look at the investments that we're making to lay down the
fiber across the country and buy spectrum to increase the capability of the network.
I mean, these are far bigger investments in the multiple billions of dollars
that are being made to secure the reliability and the performance of the network.
That's where I feel like the innovation that comes from that is pretty staggering.
And you think about the fact that AT&T has had this rich history of innovation.
In fact, you may know this, in March of 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone
call. And I mean, you think about that, that was 150 years ago.
150 years, right. And he's a founding inventor, a founding father of AT&T,
founding innovator. And you think about that development and all the developments at AT&T
and Bell Labs were credited with the transistor, fiber, cellular communications.
I mean, this brand has had such a storied history in innovation and disruption.
I think that's the beauty of this brand.
Predating the car.
Predating the car, exactly. And again, when you asked me that first question about the pivot
going from the automotive industry into telecom, especially as a mechanical engineer,
educated as a mechanical engineer, and to see some of those innovations and how they've been
developed and nurtured at AT&T, it just creates this authenticity and credibility
and really this headroom for the brand to grow where we tell these stories.
And again, it's about the confidence as a consumer and knowing that connection is so
important for consumers. And the fact that AT&T is at the center of that
is really gratifying and exciting for me.
Related to the customer journey as well as technology, vehicles, as you know,
increasingly are just connected devices on wheels. Who ultimately owns that customer
relationship? I know this gets talked about a ton within automotive circles, kind of batted back
and forth, no real clear vision on it. But you have the OEM, the automaker.
You have the dealer. technology partner or the network operator.
It's a complex question to sort out, but I can only imagine that as technology becomes more
omnipresent in our lives and increasingly is in the vehicle, telecommunications just be,
and the role that you play in that evolution becomes just so much more important.
How does AT&T think about that?
Yeah, it's a really great question and we could probably bring a group of industry experts together
and we would all argue about who ultimately owns that customer relationship.
And they'd probably be all right from some perspective.
I think of it a little bit differently and I think about it like my job, our job, is to ensure
that we're offering the reliable connectivity that enables these software defined vehicles to
perform in the way that they need to perform. And I think about the computing needs of these
cars today versus 10 to 15 years ago. It's dramatically different. The number of microchips
inside these vehicles, as you know, as we saw during COVID and the supply chain crisis, has
multiplied exponentially. Seamless navigation, autonomous drive capability,
the ability to upload and download information over the air updates.
These are all things that are commonplace now. These are the norms for the consumer.
And that's the beauty of what AT&T offers is we are there as a fundamental technology partner.
And you look at the list of companies for whom we are providing this service, whether it's some of
my former employers like Toyota and Lexus, Nissan, some of the newer manufacturers like Rivian that
have embraced our 5G technology in their vehicle to offer the right connectivity solutions.
Again, the fact that cars can be upgraded over the air without a dealership visit
says a lot about where we are as an industry. And I think that is what we take very seriously.
We want to be a partner to these OEMs that are putting these innovations inside their vehicles.
And we're proving that the scale, the reliability and the deep auto experience that we have as
AT&T allows us to do a great job of creating a lot of happy customers. And again, collective
ownership for those happy customers between us and the OEMs and all the other technology
providers that partner with the OEMs. But that's kind of how I see it.
I wonder, Vinay, whether we're entering a decade where cars become phones on wheels
or our phones become the operating systems of our lives with cars just simply becoming another screen.
Yeah, it's a really great question. And I would say there's a lot of different camps on this.
A lot of times you see OEMs embracing the idea that the phone that the customer is carrying in
their pocket, which is a supercomputer. It's a computer, right, exactly. Right. That should be
the centerpiece of connectivity for the vehicle. Or you can see that many are choosing to embed,
whether I'll use the example, two recent examples, the Rivian R2, a very new vehicle from Rivian
that's embracing 5G technology. Another one that I love, because you and I even talked about this
in the past, the all new Lexus ES with a brand new infotainment system called Lexus Interface,
which I helped brand and work on when I was the head of marketing for Lexus.
These experiences that customers have with these infotainment systems that are embedded in these
vehicles are becoming more and more the reason why people are choosing to buy those brands.
Because of the functionality, because of the ease of use, because of the customer experience,
the customer experience is the brand. Right. And again, we are a foundational enabler of those
experiences through the reliable connection. So it's a really, I would say, important space
to continue to help support, to drive innovation, but ultimately to drive customer experience and
customer loyalty for these brands. So I think they see us as a technological partner,
not just a technological supplier. And we have a whole team of people here at AT&T
that work in the Internet of Things that are focused on this, and they're having great success.
Yeah, it's interesting. You know, 20 years ago, Automotive and Telecom were completely separate
worlds. And now they're increasingly intertwined. And you wonder whether that convergence was
inevitable. If you were advising an Automotive CEO today, let's say you were going back to
some of your friends and having conversations, what would you tell them about connectivity
that perhaps they still underestimate, knowing what you know now after almost a year in your role?
Wow, that's a really great question, Jason. Look, I think that you've got to have your
eye on where the puck is going. And I think about the way that we interact with LLMs in
our day-to-day lives today. And obviously, that's evolving fast. It is really sort of
reduced barriers for access to information and analysis. And I look at how that's playing out
in vehicle. And, you know, I think about how LLMs and SLMs are changing how consumers interact
in the vehicle itself, right? No longer do you see that little swiggly line on the cockpit module,
and you're wondering, what does that light mean? Well, now in many vehicles, you can just simply
say, hey, what does this mean? And the car is going to give you an intelligent answer.
That kind of stuff takes computing power. And I think we're only starting to see the tip of the
iceberg here in terms of the possibilities. So I think really looking at other industries,
seeing how consumers are interacting with AI, and thinking about that in terms of upstream
product development. And the fact that, you know, the development window for cars used to be five to
six years, that was pretty standard. And now you look now, and you look at some of the Chinese
manufacturers that have boiled it down to two years. I mean, that's a lightning pace improvement,
exponential improvement in the development life cycle. Whereas five years, you used to launch a
car, and a lot of times the technology may be a little bit obsolete based on where another manufacturer
had made the right guess on what technology. Well, now these cycles are moving much, much faster.
So I think the CEOs and the people who are deciding how to define the product have to
really think about, you know, what the consumer really needs, and how do you embed that technology
in a flexible way. And I think that's what partnering with a company like AT&T early in the
development process could be a huge advantage in the future. And I'm wondering whether one day
connectivity will be will be just as important as performance styling or even brand going forward.
The consumer of the future is going to say, is this how is this car connected? How can I connect
to this vehicle rather than it's got a great spoiler? Although we like spoilers, but yeah.
Yeah, you and I like spoilers. We like horsepower. So we're really old school in that way.
Analog. Shifting. Analog. We're dinosaurs, Jason. No, but you know, it's an interesting
point you make, because I think back, you know, in 2015, when I led Volkswagen marketing,
you know, we made a joint decision with product at the time to be the first brand that embedded
Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto. That's right. Almost every single vehicle we sold.
This was back in 2014, we made that decision. So we were ahead of the curve. And you look back at
that decision and you look at how consumers are making decisions on what cars to consider,
what cars to intend to purchase and what cars to purchase. And you see that Apple CarPlay
availability is a key differentiator. It's like some granted, very few cars don't have it anymore,
although some OEMs have decided that they're not going down that path. But that tends to be
what gets a car on the list is whether or not that that technology exists. I think that list is
going to evolve to your point in terms of having the right ways of interacting with the vehicle
and having the vehicle make your life simpler. And again, that's where we as technological
partners and innovators can really help. In the few minutes that we have left,
I can't let you go without talking about cars because the show is obviously called that.
So 230 odd episodes ago, you had some vehicles in your fleet, but I'd like to know where we are
today because now you can be completely agnostic. I mean, let's face it, you can drive whatever
you want now as long as it has AT&T in the vehicle, which it does. So what are we driving, Vinay?
Wow. You know, I have to be careful about this because I can still get in trouble because I
still have a lot of friends in the industry. But fortunately, I can say with 100% confidence that
the Shahani family fleet is very well diversified. There we go. And it includes some of the brands
that I've made stop over. So we've got a Lexus in the lineup. We've got a Nissan in the lineup.
We have a BMW in the lineup, and we have a Porsche in the lineup. And those are some of
the brands that I love. And they're all great vehicles, and they all serve very different
needs in the household. I have a son who's driving now. And I mean, I know you've gone
through it with your kids, Jason, but gosh, that's not a decision that comes easily. I mean,
you want to put your kids in the right vehicle with the right technology. You want the right
crumple zone around them. You want the right safety technology. And fortunately, again,
you look at what connectivity has done, the way that AT&T has partnered with some of these brands
to ensure that you can keep track of where your kids are. Obviously, some of the government
mandates in terms of vehicle safety technology coming to play here in terms of autonomous
emergency brake, lane keep assist, keeping all these connected cameras wired so that you have
a full view of what's happening, and you can avoid certain situations. These become really,
really important in the decision making, especially for that life stage. And I always tell people,
I hear people every so often say, oh, I've got a kid that's coming of age. I'm going to put them
in an older, cheap vehicle. And I'm like, that's the wrong strategy. You've got to put them in
the latest and greatest because that's what's going to help these new drivers. And the amount
of money and development dollars that are being invested in making these technologies more robust
just tells you that the car companies have figured that out. So anyway, long-winded answer to your
question, but that's the current portfolio. And as you and I talk all the time, there's probably
going to be other brands in the picture in the near term. As you sit here and look at the automotive
industry from a different perspective now, a different chair and a different set of responsibilities,
it is described as the most chaotic period for a lot of automakers, suppliers, and dealers.
I don't think you'd disagree, would you? No, I wouldn't disagree. Look, I'm fortunate that,
you know, having worked at a couple of major OEMs, and I'm still in touch with a lot of the
former colleagues and a lot of the dealers, you know, that was always the lifeblood of any brand
is the dealers, I don't care what you say about the marketing that we did at the OEM level,
ultimately the dealers create the experience for the customer, right? Because that's the only,
and that's another difference we didn't talk about. But in the OEM side, there was always just one
channel. It's through the dealer network. So that, you know, that was your critical partner.
Whereas in telecom today, we've got the retail network, we've got the digital channel, which is
an e-commerce engine. You've got call centers. There's a lot of different ways to become part
of the AT&T family. But I look at, you know, what the dealers are facing right now in terms of
competition. I look at what the dealers are facing right now in terms of how they reach and connect
with consumers. How do they take the leads that are generated through the OEM and really sort of
convert those into the business? It's tough now. There's a lot of competition. There's a lot of
great cars. What used to be a pretty wide gap in some of the, what I used to call the hygiene
factors in the industry, quality, reliability, durability, value for money, those gaps have
narrowed. And so I think the business is hyper competitive and they're having to work harder
to acquire customers, but more importantly, retain customers. And it's a pivotal time for the
industry, but it's great to be able to kind of relate to a lot of those challenges because I'm
seeing them in our business here at AT&T. But at the same time, just having a lot of those
connections, I can continue to learn from those folks and keep pulse of what's happening.
Well, in a related story, I upgraded my own AT&T service to the Turbo, which, you know,
who knows whether the automotive connection is brought to you by you. But this is apparently
an upgrade in the AT&T world. So I was always happy to see the crossover of at least labeling
that has gone into the service part of it now. It gives you meaning to forced induction when you
say Turbo and applying it to an AT&T service and wait till you experience Turbo live, which creates
even bigger separation when you're in a venue like a sport arena and something's happening. And
there's a lot of network traffic and our AT&T customers have the best ability to stay connected.
I've actually, I actually used Turbo live during the Super Bowl and I was looking around in the
stadium and I was one of the few people that could actually FaceTime from my seat, whereas other
people were seeing, you know, network issues and I'm sure they had other brands, they didn't have
access to this. So it was kind of cool to be able to experience that firsthand. Few people have had
the opportunity to help shape both the future of mobility and the future of connectivity.
And it's fascinating to hear how those two worlds are increasingly
becoming one. 230 episodes later, thanks for coming back on the program, Vinay. We won't
wait 230 to get you back. It has been an absolute pleasure to have you on the program, my friend.
Well, congrats to you. The pleasure is mine. I just happened to notice on your YouTube channel
almost 20 million views. Yes. That is unbelievable. And that's a testament to you
and your credibility in the industry and your relationships in the industry. So
big shout out to you and thank you as always for letting me join.
Almost as many customers as AT&T. I'm working on it. There you go.
Vinay Shahani, thank you for being on the program. Thank you.
Thank you, Jason. All right. All the best. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Big thanks again to my guest AT&T executive, Vinay Shahani. To see more cars and culture
interviews, visit the Cars and Culture YouTube channel. Subscribe, comment, check out hundreds
of conversations with the creators, collectors, and culture makers who are driving the industry
forward. That's episode number 258. I'm your host, Jason Stein. We'll see you down the road.
About this episode
Vinay Shahani’s path runs from “Thirty years in automotive” to becoming “Senior Vice President of Marketing and Planning at AT&T,” where he’s focused on connected-car strategy and customer experience. The conversation centers on why “the software-defined vehicle has become the thing” and why “I see in-vehicle connectivity as the frontier for competition these days.” AT&T’s approach blends segmentation and precision marketing with reliability messaging like “we're so confident in our network that we have the AT&T guarantee,” plus real-time connectivity partnerships such as Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Original notes
AT&T SVP Marketing + Planning Vinay Shahani
Cars & Culture with Jason Stein
SiriusXM
0:00
48:26