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A special one-off episode of Self Storage Lab, recorded live at the SSA Fall Conference on September 11, 2026.

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This isn't a typical interview. It's a panel titled "What's Real, What's Next?", a candid, unscripted look at how AI is actually being adopted and deployed across self storage, from three people building with it every day. Matt Engfer, co-founder and CEO of Cubby, moderates. He's joined by Mason Levy, co-founder and CEO of swivl, and Austin Rockman, who leads AI at White Label Storage. Between them: machine learning backgrounds, millions of customer conversations, and a lot of hard-won opinions on what works and what's just slop.

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The conversation moves through three arcs: where AI adoption really stands today, how these teams are applying it inside their own operations, and a closing "what's next" look at where self storage goes from here.

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What they get into:

• How to actually drive adoption inside an organization, and why it usually starts with one or two people who "get the joke"
• Training teams seat by seat, and installing shared skills so people start with a good experience instead of a rabbit hole
• The deployment problem nobody warns you about: who gets access, to what data, and where the thing you built actually lives
• Communication preferences as the highest-leverage setup step, and why the fundamentals of good work haven't changed even as the tools have
• Keeping AI output honest: human review, QA, and avoiding the "it's the coolest thing ever" trap before it's actually good
• Real applications in storage, from pricing and collections to review solicitation and field maintenance routing
• Clean, structured, well-labeled data as the thing that still makes or breaks everything
• MCPs and connectors explained in plain language
• Talking to your models: dictation, cognitive load, and the new social norms of whispering to your computer

If you're just getting started with AI or already deep into building internal tools, this panel offers an unusually honest, in-the-weeds look at the state of play from three people who are living in it.

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A few ideas worth stealing

• The fastest way to spread AI adoption is to find the one or two people already using it well, then productize what they built for everyone else.
• Don't wait for perfect data to start. The definition of "economic occupancy" can get refined while you're already making progress.
• Spend real time up front on how you want your AI to communicate with you. It pays off across every session after.
• The fundamentals of being good at your job haven't changed. The tools have. Curiosity is still rule number one.
• Structured, well-annotated data is still the whole game. Bad data in, bad data out.

Featured on this panel:

‍Mason Levy, co-founder & CEO, swivl. Matt Engfer, co-founder & CEO, Cubby. Austin Rockman, AI Lead, White Label Storage.

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