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"We can do it too" - how AI is changing Moldovan business
4 Aug 2025
Lilia and Oleg Chetrean wanted to improve the customer service at her store. It led to an AI-native startup.
While Silicon Valley may still get the headlines, in Chișinău’s modest offices, founders are building AI-native products with global ambitions.
Patricia Mihailă
Oleg and Lilia Chetrean didn’t set out to join the AI race. They just wanted to fix customer service at Lilia’s clothing stores. Now, from a modest space in the suburb of Buiucani, their startup aichat.md, launched in 2024, builds autonomous agents for customer communication and support on websites, social media, and even 999.md, the most visited online shopping platform in Moldova.
aichat.md operates with a team of ten people. Oleg and Lilia give me a tour through their dim yet spacious office. Programmers are sitting behind multiple screens, tapping on keyboards and chatting with each other.
“Do you use AI?” Oleg asks every potential new staff member. Those who answer “No” won’t get hired. Photo: Patricia Mihailă
It all started with frustration over clumsy support systems and a curiosity sparked by ChatGPT. “We knew what businesses needed in terms of customer support. The aichat.md idea came from our direct need," Lilia explains. Oleg's energetic presence seems to complement Lilia's calm and composed demeanor. They shut down their other ventures and went all in.
Lilia Chetrean, a former owner of clothing stores, and Oleg Chetrean, a marketing expert, met five years ago and started aichat.md to improve customer service. Photo credit: Patricia Mihailă
90% of their clients are local
Initially, Moldovan business owners were hesitant to adopt artificial intelligence for business optimization, but Oleg has seen it change in the past year and a half. “Now, business owners are coming back to us saying, 'Okay, I'm ready,' Oleg says jokingly.
A subscription business model startup, aichat.md claims to replace ten customer service employees. They serve over 75 businesses, and over 90 percent of them are local. A key feature is the agent's ability to identify when it can't resolve an issue. It then calls for human intervention.
Oleg has noticed that the Moldovan entrepreneurs tend to either be too hesitant to use AI or expect too much from it, like “read their minds”.
AI is as essential as accounting
Oleg admits that they should have turned to potential investors early on. "When we had already spent all our bootstrapped money, we realized that it could have been done more easily."
Aligning with its commitment to empower local entrepreneurs to create innovative technologies, Startup Moldova has brought aichat.md into its network. Having already raised some funding, aichat.md is now in their Investment Readiness Program, where they're busy getting all their materials in order, perfecting their pitch, and mapping out their customer outreach strategy.
At Startup Moldova Summit 2025, Oleg connected with Raido Pikkar, an Estonian angel investor and serial entrepreneur, who saw a significant scaling potential in aichat.md. He's actively following its progress and supporting it.
Oleg Chetrean and Raido Pikkar at the Estonian Startup Summit. Photo: Private collection
Pikkar says the company is "a great example of how a small country can move fast and experiment without bureaucratic drag or institutional inertia." He keeps a close eye on Oleg and the Moldovan business climate. "Moldova is interesting because it combines solid technical talent with the ability to build products beyond borders - often faster and cheaper than in Western Europe," he concludes.
In July 2025, aichat.md competed against 250 other startups at the Sevan Startup Summit pitch competition in Armenia. After a demanding week of work with mentors and investors, they pitched the aichat.md solution and won second place along with a significant cash prize. aichat.md was also accepted to EBRD StarVenture Program, winning 50,000 EUR in business support services from local and international experts.
Oleg envisages a big future for their startup. He wants their service to be as essential for companies as accounting. In the end, they all need customer support.
The first chatbot creators
aichat.md is part of a growing wave of AI support startups in Moldova. FineGuide, founded by Liviu Maftuleac and his brother Corneliu Maftuleac, a veteran in the local IT industry, officially launched its product in March 2024. This venture was a response to a shift in Moldova's tech landscape. International companies are moving away from outsourcing IT from Moldova, a common trend until recent years. This has brought a financial hit to local IT freelancers and companies. "We were the first in Moldova to launch an AI bot," Liviu claims.
FineGuide team collaborates with local entities like the Cadastral Agency, developing AI-powered customer support solutions. Photo: Private collection
FineGuide aims to provide “a holistic platform” that integrates various communication channels - text, voice, AI, and human agents - to create an efficient customer support experience. FineGuide’s system is designed to offer conversation analysis, providing feedback and identifying areas for improvement for both AI and human interactions. He emphasizes, "There isn't just one chatbot; there are several that analyze each other's responses and identify the best answer."
FineGuide currently employs five people and collaborates with various local entities, including state institutions like the Cadastral Agency, a governmental real‑estate cadastre registry. Liviu notes that local clients, despite having less purchasing power, provide invaluable feedback that helps FineGuide improve its product.
FineGuide created the chatbot for the governmental real‑estate cadastre registry. Moldovan customers bring a lot of invaluable feedback that they use to improve. Photo credit: screenshot
Either use AI or fall behind?
Regarding the controversial aspects of AI, such as its environmental impact and people losing jobs, Oleg believes AI itself will provide solutions. He argues that AI's efficiency in other sectors will ultimately outweigh its energy consumption, citing advancements in cooling systems for large data centers.
The Chetreans are passionate advocates for AI's transformative power, even acknowledging its impact on traditional job roles. They believe that those who don't adapt and utilize AI will inevitably fall behind.
Ultimately, their vision extends beyond their own company; it encompasses a desire to elevate Moldova's standing in the global tech arena. As Lilia passionately articulates, "To make a global business that we can grow and that represents us not only here in Moldova, but to show that from Moldova we can create something truly useful. To show that Moldova can do it too."
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