KAR AI was built on a simple idea: someone buying a car or an accessory should get research that answers their actual question, not research shaped by whoever paid for placement. Delivering that at scale is, underneath everything, an engineering problem. Today we're glad to say that part of the company has someone to own it.

Smaragda Baxevani joins KAR AI as a founding member, leading the technical side of the platform.

Who she is

Smaragda studies Computer Science at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, one of the strongest CS programmes in Greece. Alongside her studies she founded and leads GDG on Campus AUTH, the university's Google Developer Group chapter — which means she has spent the last stretch not only writing software but building a technical community around it, organising events and bringing student developers together.

Why it matters for KAR AI

Building an independent AI research service means designing systems that stay honest under pressure: retrieval that finds the right information, models that reason over messy real-world specifications, and infrastructure that holds up as more drivers use it. It also means working closely with people who are not engineers — writers, researchers, and drivers telling us what they actually need. Smaragda does both halves.

What she'll be working on

Her focus will be the platform itself: the architecture of our research pipeline, the systems that keep our answers accurate and traceable, and the technical foundations for everything we want to ship next.

Where this fits in our growth

She joins as we expand. Our work has been featured in GOCAR.gr, and Tanner Wolff is leading our push into the United States. Adding technical leadership at this point is what lets the rest of that growth actually stand up.

Welcome to the team, Smaragda!