How Flai is Empowering Auto Dealerships with AI-Powered Communications

Flai, an AI-powered platform for auto dealerships, led by Ari Polakof, Alen Polakof, and Juan Alzugaray, has secured $4.5 million seed round led by First Round Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, SVAngel, Liquid 2 Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, and many other terrific funds and angel investors.

After visiting over 450 dealerships and speaking with service advisors, BDC managers, GSMs, and GMs across the US, one pattern stood out: missed calls, full inboxes, long hold times, and customers who never call back. Nearly 70% of people who reach voicemail contact a competitor within 30 minutes, resulting in significant lost revenue for dealerships.

Flai ensures no dealership ever misses a lead. When customers call to book service or buy a car, Flai handles the conversation instantly, capturing, qualifying, and advancing every interaction with 24/7 availability, zero hold time, and support for any language.

Fully integrated with dealer systems like the scheduler, CRM, and DMS, Flai automates after-hours capture, service scheduling, recall outreach, and follow-ups across phone, SMS, and email.

By putting communications on autopilot, Flai lets teams focus on what matters most, delighting customers and closing deals.

Flai is already live in dozens of dealerships, including forward-thinking groups like Findlay Auto Group and New Century Auto Group. It has handled tens of thousands of customer calls and generated millions in revenue within just the last two months. At some stores, dealers say Flai paid for itself in a single Sunday, with top locations now driving over $150K in monthly revenue.

With this funding, Flai is advancing its mission to build the AI communications platform for auto dealerships, one where every customer interaction outside the store is handled seamlessly. Never miss a customer. Never waste a call.

Founded out of Y Combinator by former engineers from Uber, Netflix, and HappyRobot, the team behind Flai brings deep expertise in large-scale, human-like voice systems and dependable infrastructure. That experience is now being applied to automotive, with Flai engineered to match dealership workflows where reliability, responsiveness, and trust are essential.