At CarGurus, AI touches everyone.
From engineers and product managers to salespeople and marketers, AI powers innovation at every corner of the company, leading to smarter tools, more efficient workflows, and better customer experiences.
Just ask Sarah Rich, lead of AI enablement, Ryan Aghdam, a director of engineering, or Harrison Makofsky, a product acceleration manager.
Whether they are using AI to support product prototyping or simply to transcribe a meeting, Rich, Aghdam and Makofsky are but three voices in a true companywide transformation driven by AI experimentation and exploration.
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Inside Our Work
A Top-Down Approach
Sarah Rich helms the AI Forward team.
“There is a lot of nuance within each department in terms of their level of readiness and interest, and the point of AI Forward is to make sure that’s being addressed in every function,” she said.
While the mandate for AI Forward is top-down, what it looks like in every function is very bottom-up, Rich said.
To that end, AI Forward is intended to meet the unique needs of each department, which require different approaches to experimentation. On the engineering team, this might look like a weeklong “bakeoff” in which engineers get to test out two different AI coding tools to see which works best for them. But another team, like human resources, might take a totally different approach.
Sarah Rich
Lead of AI Enablement
“This approach lets us try a lot more things, experimenting faster while maintaining safety and security.”
Continuous Learning Fuels Innovation
According to Director of Engineering Ryan Aghdam, AI Forward is just one example of CarGurus’ culture of continuous learning.
“The investment in learning is key in that it goes beyond just learning about tools,” he said. “It’s about tinkering with new ideas and being innovative that way.” In fact, AI Forward has pre-vetted a robust collection of AI tools, which enables people to dive into experimenting with approved tools instead of working to identify and obtain them.
As AI makes it easier for CarGurus’ employees to drive innovation, it’s also enhancing its platform. A new AI-powered search experience is a testament to this transformation.
Ryan Aghdam
Director of Engineering
“The investment in learning is key in that it goes beyond just learning about tools. It’s about tinkering with new ideas and being innovative that way.”
Enhancing Work For Everyone
AI has enhanced work for every team at CarGurus.
For Makofsky, the AI platform Glean makes it easier for him and his peers in product to quickly search internal data sources, while AI agents summarize findings and automate simple but time-consuming tasks within the platform. Meanwhile, Google’s AI assistant, Gemini, enables his team to easily transcribe meetings and supports their product prototyping efforts.
“All of these tools save people time every single day, while giving the whole company more capabilities than we could have imagined, even a year ago,” Makofsky said.
Harrison Makofsky
Product Acceleration Manager
“One way I try to explain it to folks is that they should consider AI like a new team member who just joined; they have all the information, but they just need the exact instructions and what you need from them. Giving as much context as possible really helps get whatever you’re trying to do done.”
Lead the development of the Dealer Engagement Platform, managing a team while ensuring the delivery of scalable market intelligence solutions and collaborating across departments.
The Sales Account Manager at CarGurus will manage and grow existing customer accounts in the UK, focusing on performance data analysis, subscription negotiations, upselling opportunities, and customer retention. Strong sales, communication, and analytical skills are essential.
Manage a talented engineering team, provide technical leadership, improve developer efficiency, advocate for architectural standards, and drive product development lifecycle.
