A startup that helps car dealerships manage customer interactions with artificial intelligence is now scheduling 50,000 appointments per month across sales and service operations, according to an announcement published Tuesday on TechCrunch. Flai, which launched just a year ago with a three-person team focused on handling phone calls, emails, and texts, has expanded its AI to answer customer inquiries, conduct outbound campaigns, and book appointments. The company's growth has attracted a $27 million Series A funding round led by Base10 Partners, with participation from dealer groups Friedkin and Findlay Automotive, Toyota's venture arm, Y Combinator, and First Round Capital.
The startup now works with more than 10 of the top 50 dealer groups nationwide and has seen revenue multiply 20 times over the past year, CEO Ari Polakof told TechCrunch. Half of that revenue now comes from new customers, driven largely by dealer-to-dealer referrals. The company has grown from three employees to around 40 people, and can get its software running in a dealership within 10 days of contract signing. Flai's system handles multiple languages mid-conversation — it recently launched with a luxury dealer in Puerto Rico where customers switch between Spanish and English — and has expanded from inbound service calls to sales across all eight stores in that dealer group, according to co-founder Juan Alzugaray's LinkedIn post.
Polakof said the software goes beyond answering phones to "following up with customers" and "alerting the leadership whenever they need to take a look at something, maybe because the customer's mad, or because you forgot to respond, or promised them something next week." One dealer group working with Flai reported that dealerships are selling more cars, making more money, and "customers are getting answers faster." Polakof attributed customer growth to dealers recommending the product to peers, noting "if you really do great by them, they also do great by you, and they recommend you, and talk about you."
The company's rapid deployment and responsiveness set it apart in an industry where vendors often "disappear" after contracts are signed, leaving dealers "almost traumatized by this," according to Polakof. He instructs his team to respond to customers within 20 minutes "at most" and treats "every customer as if they're our only customer, especially because I know how hard it was to get the first one." The deep knowledge Flai has built about dealership operations protects it from generic solutions like Meta's Muse, which pitches itself as a one-shot platform for small businesses. Polakof explained that when "you get a group of really smart people, and you spend all your days, all your time thinking very deeply about this one space — it's just so hard to envision that any other platform outside of the space can come in and start going after your customers."
The company's vision centers on becoming an AI-powered customer relationship management platform built specifically for dealers rather than a simple phone solution, and Polakof said customers who embrace that broader vision are fueling growth. Flai's flexible software adapts to each dealer's specific needs, helping the startup distinguish itself from other AI companies targeting the automotive sector. Despite the momentum, Polakof hasn't yet convinced his own local dealership to sign on, though he's "trying much harder than I should" and expects to close that deal by next year. Dealerships that adopt specialized AI for customer engagement early may gain lasting advantages in efficiency and customer satisfaction, but those same tools could fundamentally reshape which skills and roles remain essential on the sales floor.