Empowering Forwarders with AI: Path to Operational Excellence

For years, technology has been cast as a threat to freight forwarders. At Solvo.ai, we believe the opposite is true: far from a threat, technology—in particular AI—will deepen the quality of the work freight forwarders do, empowering them with new tools and freeing up their time to deal with aspects of their jobs that really matter.

To explore this optimistic perspective, we gathered insights from two Freight Forwarding veterans, each bringing unique insights and extensive experience. Despite the diversity of our backgrounds, we all hit on major areas regarding how AI will empower freight forwarders going forward. Below, you’ll find perspectives from myself and: 

• Will Urban, a Freight industry veteran, who after a prolonged career with Expeditors, grew Flexport from $600m to $4.5bn revenue in his capacity as Chief Revenue Officer
• Nikolay Bozhilov, Executive Chairman, Unimasters, a freight forwarder operating in Eastern Europe 

This conversation is far from over. In fact it’s just the beginning. Reach out to let us to know how you see AI impacting freight forwarding—and where you think this exciting and dynamic field is headed - Gaurav Bajaj, CEO, Solvo.ai  

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AI is increasingly being used to automate routine tasks, freeing up time for freight forwarders to focus on higher-value activities. “Data entry, tracking, and basic customer enquiries all consume a vast amount of time,” says Will Urban. “If you’re striving for efficiency, you can’t have your team working on those anymore. You want your entire team to be proactive, not reactive to inbound issues, especially when a large percentage of shipments still face some kind of delays, custom hold-up, missing data and reconciliation challenges.”

“By offloading process-oriented tasks to AI, freight forwarders can focus on real problem solving. You want your operational experts out there resolving critical bottlenecks and working with the shippers and all stakeholders in the logistics chain to get that shipment moving again. You don't want them doing data entry and maintaining spreadsheets. By reducing the burden of repetitive tasks through AI, skilled workers can concentrate on customer engagement and solving critical issues, thereby enhancing client relationships and retention. the stuff that really matters,” Will says. 

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Nikolay Bozhilov, who leads Unimasters, a freight forwarder active in Eastern Europe, agrees that for his company AI is an all-of-business approach. “AI,  and generative AI in particular, is becoming an integral part in several aspects of Unimasters activities,” Nikolay says. “We use it to streamline and automate processes across sales and marketing, operations and financial forecasting.”

For Unimasters, this has been an evolution, not a revolution. “We started to use digital labour for the first time 6-7 years ago with 24/7 software robots tracking shipments of our clients through shipping lines websites. Then we embarked on a machine learning project with AI business partners to identify patterns of last mile deliveries, optimise line hauls and plan our distribution networks.” In other words, forwarders with big growth ambitions like Unimasters need their teams to be focussed on drumming up business and not distracted by easy things technology can solve.

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In Conclusion

Forwarders I speak with regularly share their need to have better oversight and control. Many forwarders expanded at such a pace that decentralization and country-managed P&Ls was the norm. We’re in a new era, though. One where the customer demands transparency and zero-headache shipping. This has forced forwarders to re-evaluate the customer approach and the technology stack that helps them deliver. Ultimately, if they can’t control their first point of engagement (the rate they offer, the speed it’s delivered at and the margins they make), they’ll struggle to be seen as a customer-centric provider or survive in volatile markets. That first engagement sets the tone for the entire relationship and it’s one forwarders can’t afford to get wrong. 

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Those predicting technology as a threat to the industry are missing the point. It’s about the evolution of a forwarder, combining human expertise with AI insights that will deliver forwarder 2.0: one with operational efficiencies, retained customers, and improved margins.

What do you think? Let’s have a conversation.

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