Product discovery doesn’t disappear in AI — it becomes more important.

In my experience, teams that skip disciplined discovery pay for it later in failed pilots and stalled products.

Curious how others approach discovery in AI-heavy products.

Most failures in data-heavy products aren’t technical.

They’re product management failures — especially around data ownership, value framing, and uncertainty.

Curious how others have experienced this.

AI value is rarely destroyed intentionally.

In my experience, it’s lost through well-intended executive decisions that make delivery and adoption almost impossible.

Interested to hear how others have seen this play out.

Most GenAI initiatives never make it past the pilot stage.In my experience, this has very little to do with the technology — and everything to do with product ownership, value framing, and delivery discipline.Curious how others are seeing this play out.

I spoke with Paige Mullen — co-founder of Camion, with 15 years of experience in EV charging and a career that began at Tesla. We traced the evolution of charging from its early days in California to today’s ongoing challenges around interoperability, reliability, and grid integration. Paige shared Camion’s journey from raising €2.7M pre-seed funding to building a SaaS model that sells insights rather than just infrastructure, highlighting the importance of real estate, site selection, and forecasting. We discussed the energy infrastructure challenges ahead, from vehicle-to-grid to renewable alignment, and how AI is beginning to transform everything from site utilisation forecasting to revenue modelling and intelligent grid management. The conversation closed with Paige’s long-term vision of how EV charging, AI, and energy converge to accelerate decarbonisation — along with her advice for startups working at the intersection of mobility and energy.

I sat down with Yang Zhang — Founder and CEO of AutoCore.ai, Co-founder and Chairman of the Autoware Foundation, and a former senior leader at NVIDIA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We discussed his journey from shaping global hardware standards and building open-source ecosystems to driving GenAI-powered innovation at AutoCore.ai. Yang shared his perspective on GenAI as both an assistant and a driver, enabling 5–10x efficiency gains while still requiring deep human expertise for the final stretch. We explored the realities behind the hype, the importance of domain-specific integration, and how open collaboration through the Autoware Foundation is shaping the mobility ecosystem. The conversation closed with Yang’s vision of GenAI as a true co-pilot for engineers and a force that could democratise the development of autonomous systems in the years ahead.

I spoke with Adam J. Mandel — founder, advisor, and holder of seven patents, with more than fifteen years at the forefront of autonomy, EVs, and AI. We discussed his unique path from a non-technical background into leadership roles, where he bridged advanced technology with customer-first thinking to help deep-tech companies scale. Adam reflected on the realities of commercialising frontier technologies, from the challenges of deploying autonomous systems on public roads to the trade-offs between lidar and vision. We also explored his work at Rivian on charging and fleet solutions, as well as his venture EnergizedAI, which used AI to improve EV charger reliability and was later acquired by 7Gen. The conversation closed with his belief that the future of mobility is not just electric but intelligent — and his advice for innovators working at the intersection of AI, autonomy, and electrification.

I sat down with Daniel Tesic, whose career spanned Volkswagen Group China, XPENG, and NIO before moving into advisory and consulting. We discussed why China has become such a powerhouse in EV adoption and digital services, and what Western OEMs often overlook about that market. Daniel reflected on the contrasting approaches of incumbents and challengers, sharing lessons from his time leading over-the-air software launches and rolling out NIO’s NOMI GPT across Europe. Our conversation touched on go-to-market strategies for new entrants, the growing importance of AI copilots and in-car assistants, and the balance between strategy, product, and marketing in a fast-moving industry. We closed with Daniel’s perspective on whether today’s challengers will become tomorrow’s household names — and how customer relationships with cars may look radically different by 2030.