Gavin ShieldsCEO Driving Innovation in Self Storage Tech

Autonomy as the next era of self storage

15 Sept 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:37

In this talk, Gavin Shields argues that modern software autonomy no longer means being locked into a single vendor’s roadmap; instead, businesses should be free to select the best‑in‑class tools for any task. He highlights a rapid shift where an unprecedented number of people are building software—driven by AI—creating a democratized builder ecosystem that outpaces the dot‑com and mobile revolutions. Shields frames this AI‑driven acceleration as a transformative era that most people don’t yet recognize, predicting that in a decade it will be seen as a pivotal moment in tech history.

Chapters

Before, you were locked in, right? You used to be locked into one company's software, right? And you were waiting on one team's roadmap delivering all of the features that you needed to run your business. And that's not really the case anymore. Today, people are building tools, tools are integrating, and we see a future where, as a design principle, we believe you should be able to use the best tool for the job, right? The best in class, world class. tool, whatever it needs to be. So autonomous doesn't need to mean software that's just working for you, but it also means you're free to choose the tools and build the business that you want to build. And that's how we see the future. And like I say, again, this came up, the amount of people building software that wouldn't have built software before is incredible. And software is changing faster than it ever has. I don't think Most of the world realizes the phase that we're in right now. Like, I'm I'm just about to turn forty, but like I've I've lived through dot com internet. I was young, but you know I've seen that shift, and I've seen the big the big shift in mobile. I think this AI shift that we're in now is bigger than any of it, but by far, and I don't think anybody or most people don't realize how big it is. And it's faster than mobile. It's faster than dot com internet, and it's everyone's a builder now, and I think it's. It's— we're going to look back in 10 years and see this as such a formative time.