AI in logistics isn’t coming. It’s already in your inbox.
Forget the hype cycles and theoretical whitepapers – AI is already running mission-critical workflows in freight. It’s parsing the quote requests you haven’t opened yet, predicting which bookings will land before your sales team even logs in, and running internal Q&A sessions with employees who don’t even realize they’re talking to a bot.
And it’s doing it quietly.
We pulled back the curtain during our recent AI in Freight webinar with industry leaders from Wisor.AI, Röhlig, Exfreight, and Freightos. Here’s what’s actually happening inside the machines – and why the biggest AI breakthroughs in freight might be the ones you don’t see.
1. The Email Triage Engine
We need to stop being afraid that AI will replace us – and start being afraid of people using AI who will replace us.
– Raz Ronen, CEO, Wisor.AI
Customer service inboxes are where urgency goes to die – or at least, that used to be the case. Charles Marrale, CEO of Exfreight, shared how AI models now sit directly in the inbox, parsing hundreds of daily messages, categorizing them by intent, and then pinging APIs for real-time status data before drafting replies.
No “please advise” forwarding chains. No copy-paste from tracking portals. The AI already knows whether shipment 7745 is in customs clearance, preps the answer, and moves it up the queue.
The kicker? This doesn’t just make the inbox faster – it makes it fairer. Every request, whether it comes from your top customer or a brand-new lead, gets the same response time. That’s something even the best-trained ops teams can’t guarantee at scale.
And it’s not just about speed – it’s about consistency. With inbox automation, even inbound quote requests get parsed and answered within minutes – not the industry average of 91 hours for spot quotes. That’s a service-level jump no amount of extra headcount can easily match.
2. Quote Building on Autopilot
Inbound quote requests aren’t just being handled faster – they’re being handled before a human even sees them.
Raz explained how Wisor parses incoming emails, matches them to known customers (based on domain), and builds quotes instantly using real-time rates. In some forwarders’ setups, a human simply reviews and clicks “send.” In others, the quote goes straight out the door without human intervention – shaving hours off cycle time.
Layer in AI co-pilots, and you get smart prompts like:
“This customer typically accepts the quickest option if it’s under $X more – want to add that?”
The results are hard to ignore. Forwarders using API-connected quoting – the same data foundation that powers many AI-assisted workflows – saw response times drop by 65% and reported significantly higher quote-to-booking conversions, without adding headcount. In SMB cases, that’s meant 50% more volume with fewer ops staff – without losing the personal touch that wins repeat business.
3. PDF Parsing Without Pain
When Röhlig’s Chief Digital Officer, Conrad Franchi, started scaling AI adoption, they didn’t begin with flashy predictive models or a moonshot automation project.
They started with…PDF extraction. Conrad explains:
We actually scaled back our grand vision and started with simple, high-impact wins – like extracting PDFs and merging data automatically.
Bills of lading. Supplier invoices. Customs documents. AI reads them, maps the fields, and injects the data directly into operational systems. It’s not flashy, but it’s high ROI – especially in air freight, where non-standardized formats across carriers lead to endless manual corrections.
Conrad’s takeaway:
It’s often the smallest, least glamorous workflows that unlock the fastest payback.
That’s why forwarders chasing big AI wins shouldn’t skip the low-hanging fruit – because it’s usually growing on the money tree.
From inbox triage to predictive pricing – AI’s already doing the work.
Watch the webinar for the workflows no one talks about, but everyone’s using.
4. Predictive Pricing Without the Gamble
Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos, pulled back the curtain on one of the industry’s most ambitious AI projects: training WebCargo’s SkyRate model on millions of bookings to predict – with 90% accuracy – what a forwarder will book in any given market scenario.
Twenty percent always choose the cheapest. Twenty percent always pay extra for a specific carrier like Lufthansa. Twenty percent always take the fastest transit. Feed that behavior into Freightos’ SkyRate AI, and airlines can simulate entire demand curves before publishing rates.
If I charge $1, how many bookings will I get? If I charge $2? We can run the AI again and again until we find the sweet spot.
– Zvi Schreiber
That means yield optimization goes from gut feel to data-backed science – precision pricing, every time.
Air cargo doesn’t wait a quarter. Neither should your intel.
Get the monthly Digital Air Cargo Report straight to your inbox.
5. AI Chat for Internal Ops
Röhlig’s internal AI assistant, ADA, isn’t for customers – it’s for employees.
Need to know the company travel policy? ADA has it. Need to find the right SOP for a temperature-controlled shipment? ADA will not only find it, but explain it in plain language.
The benefit? Lower barriers to asking “basic” questions and faster onboarding for new hires. Given that industry ramp-up for new team members can take months, ADA acts as a 24/7 internal helpdesk, freeing managers from repetitive training queries and keeping operations moving without bottlenecks.
In industries like freight, where tacit knowledge has historically lived in the heads of a few key people, this kind of internal AI can be just as transformative as any customer-facing automation.
If You’re Still Waiting for AI to Arrive, You’re Already Late
These aren’t proofs of concept. They’re not pilot projects. They’re live.
From inbox triage to predictive pricing, AI is already embedded in the daily workflows of forwarders, carriers, and shippers. The playbook is clear: start small, target high-friction processes, and layer AI where it can quietly do the work you never wanted to do in the first place.
Because in freight, speed wins. And the forwarders using AI aren’t just faster – they’re widening the gap with every shipment.
