11Sight's AI Agents Are Taking the Service Desk Call

The average automotive service desk is a high-stakes, low-margin operation where every dropped call is a lost repair order. For a dealership, the phone ringing after hours isn't just an operational headache; it's revenue walking out the door. 11Sight, a Berkeley-based AI startup founded in 2016, is building a wedge into this exact problem. Its product is a conversational AI agent that answers the phone, qualifies the customer, and books a service appointment, all within the first 90 seconds of the call [11Sight website, 2025].

For a general manager staring down a fully loaded hourly rate for a service advisor, the pitch is pragmatic. The company's own calculator projects a 73.8% call handling rate, meaning the AI would manage nearly three-quarters of inbound volume without human intervention [11Sight website, 2025]. The remaining calls are transferred to the team. This isn't about replacing the human touch in sales; it's about automating the repetitive, time-sensitive task of appointment scheduling so the human staff can focus on higher-value conversations and closing deals.

A Wedge Into the Dealership Back Office

11Sight's focus is deliberately narrow. While the company's broader tagline mentions a "conversational sales and marketing platform," its homepage and primary messaging are squarely aimed at automotive service departments [11Sight website, 2025]. This vertical specificity is its initial wedge. The product, demonstrated by an AI agent named "Serena," is designed to handle the common, scriptable interactions that dominate a service desk: checking hours, booking standard maintenance, and providing basic directions. By starting with a defined use case in a known industry, 11Sight can tailor its language model, integrations, and sales motion to the unique workflows and compliance needs of dealerships.

The company claims its AI agents are already handling 76% of calls for some deployments, with the rest transferred to a human team [11Sight annual-dealership-report, 2026]. If these figures hold at scale, the labor cost savings and incremental revenue from captured after-hours calls become the core of the ROI story. The bet is that a dealership's fixed cost structure makes even a marginal improvement in call conversion highly valuable, justifying a SaaS subscription.

The Founders' Patent Play

Leading the company are co-founders Aleks Gollu (CEO) and Farokh Eskafi (CTO). Their backgrounds suggest a technical, rather than a pure automotive, pedigree. Gollu holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and was previously founder and CTO of PINC Solutions, a supply chain software company acquired by Kaleris in 2020 [ContactOut, 2026]. Eskafi also holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley [Equilar ExecAtlas, 2026]. The team's public differentiation point is its intellectual property. 11Sight holds three U.S. patents with a fourth pending, and a 2021 patent application lists Eskafi and others as inventors on systems related to conversational AI [Dealroom, 2026] [USPTO.report, 2026].

This patent portfolio is a key part of the company's narrative, especially when courting investors and enterprise buyers who are wary of undifferentiated AI wrappers. The technical leadership extends to Chief Scientist Mehmet Artun [ContactOut, 2026]. The team has also gained visibility in the broader AI ecosystem, with CEO Aleks Gollu speaking on a panel at a Google Cloud AI event for startups [LinkedIn, 2026].

The Funding and Traction Picture

11Sight's disclosed funding history shows a total of $5.15 million raised across several rounds, with a significant $5 million round noted in August 2022 [Tracxn, 2026]. The company has been backed by a mix of accelerators like Alchemist Accelerator and investors including Aegean Ventures and Angel Effect [Crunchbase, 2026].

Mar 2017 | 0.148 | M USD
Aug 2022 | 5.0 | M USD
Total Disclosed | 5.15 | M USD

Public traction metrics are limited. The company states it serves both SME and large corporate customers but does not name them [11Sight Atlassian Confluence, 2026]. For a startup targeting enterprise sales, the absence of public case studies or named logos is a gap that will need to be filled to move upmarket. The sales cycle for dealership technology is long and relationship-driven, often requiring integration with entrenched dealership management systems (DMS). Proving the product works at scale within a complex, regulated environment is the next hurdle.

Where the Concept Meets the Road

The ambition is clear, but the path is lined with specific, practical challenges that any procurement officer would flag.

• Integration depth. Success depends on smooth integration with core dealership systems for scheduling, customer records, and parts inventory. A superficial integration that creates manual work for service advisors will be abandoned quickly.
• Voice AI reliability. Automotive service involves specific terminology, vehicle makes and models, and nuanced customer complaints. An AI that frequently misroutes calls or fails to understand common requests will erode trust and increase, rather than decrease, advisor workload.
• The human handoff. The 24% of calls the AI doesn't handle are likely the most complex and valuable. The system's ability to contextually transfer these calls with all relevant data to a human is as critical as its ability to handle the simple ones.

The company's answer likely lies in its vertical focus and patented technology, aiming to build a domain-specific model that outperforms generic conversational AI in this niche.

The Realistic Competitive Set

For the dealership CFO or general manager evaluating this tool, the competitive frame isn't just other AI startups. It's a layered decision.

• Internal BDC/Service Advisors. The primary alternative is the status quo: hiring more people to answer phones. The ROI calculation must prove the software is more cost-effective than marginal labor.
• Legacy Call Center Tech. Older interactive voice response (IVR) systems and basic call routing software are the entrenched incumbents. 11Sight must demonstrate that its AI provides a superior customer experience that translates to higher show rates.
• Emerging AI Competitors. Startups like Stella Automotive and Mia are also targeting the auto retail space with AI-powered customer engagement tools [Crunchbase, 2026]. Differentiation will come down to accuracy, integration ease, and the strength of the industry-specific sales and support team.

The ICP is unambiguous: the financial decision-maker at a mid-to-large automotive dealership group, typically the Dealer Principal, General Manager, or Fixed Operations Director. They are measured on repair order volume, customer satisfaction scores (CSI), and operational efficiency. Their budget is scrutinized, but they have authority to approve point solutions that demonstrate clear, quick ROI on labor savings and incremental revenue.

For 11Sight, the next twelve months will be about moving from projected metrics to published ones. The key milestone to watch is the announcement of a named, multi-location dealership group as a customer. That would provide the third-party validation needed to accelerate sales beyond early adopters and prove that its AI agents can truly handle the grind of the service desk.

Sources

1. [11Sight website, 2025] 11Sight Homepage | https://www.11sight.com/
2. [11Sight annual-dealership-report, 2026] 11Sight Report | https://www.11sight.com/
3. [ContactOut, 2026] Aleks Gollu Profile | https://www.contactout.com/
4. [Equilar ExecAtlas, 2026] Farokh Eskafi Profile | https://www.equilar.com/
5. [Dealroom, 2026] 11Sight Company Profile | https://www.dealroom.co/
6. [USPTO.report, 2026] U.S. Patent Application | https://uspto.report/
7. [LinkedIn, 2026] Can Akin Ozturk Post | https://www.linkedin.com/in/canakinozturk/
8. [Tracxn, 2026] 11Sight Funding Details | https://tracxn.com/
9. [Crunchbase, 2026] 11Sight Investors & Competitors | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/11sight
10. [11Sight Atlassian Confluence, 2026] Company Information | https://www.11sight.com/