Technology

Transportation Management | Compliance | Visibility | Procurement

Next phase of digital forwarding on collision course with AI revolution

By Eric Johnson

AI is influencing how forwarders manage everything from quoting to data entry, invoice auditing and customs filings. Shutterstock. com

A confluence of events in the world of forwarding technology over the past few months suggests that the industry is poised to transition into a new phase of so-called digital forwarding, largely driven by the rapid advances of artificial intelligence( AI).

Flexport, the flagship brand among the cohort of digital forwarders to have emerged over the past decade, launched a catalog of product updates around AI capabilities on Feb. 24. That same week, WiseTech Global, the leading software provider for forwarders, hinted at a growing desire to serve the supply chain management market while also acknowledging that AI will play an ever-larger role in the solutions it builds. Meanwhile, Berlin-based digital forwarder Forto is exploring a sale of its business, trade publication The Information reported in mid-February.

Those public announcements are set against AI’ s rapid rise, which is influencing how forwarders manage everything from quoting to data entry, invoice auditing and customs filings. These dynamics should not be considered in isolation.

“ To the extent we’ re behind on AI, we’ re paranoid and investing like crazy in it,” Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen told the Journal of Commerce on Feb. 26.“ I’ m paranoid because it’ s a fact that, in aggregate, there’ s more AI talent in the world outside of Flexport than inside it.”

“ We’ re paranoid and investing like crazy.”

But Flexport has advantages, Petersen said, that the outside world building AI products doesn’ t.

“ The scale we have gives us data to fine tune the models in ways smaller startups can’ t,” he said.“ We can also cherrypick the best use cases to use AI across the whole flow. And distribution, because of our customer base, means we can go live with things the minute we build them.”

The product release on Feb. 24 included a clutch of AI-enabled tools, from legitimately new tools such as a database that’ s searchable using natural language prompts to build analytics reports, to bedrock international logistics tools such as sailing preference, booking and container allocation products. Many of those are features that Flexport’ s internal team were using that are now being made available to its customers, Petersen said.

36 Journal of Commerce | April 7, 2025

‘ High-value, high-volume things’

Meanwhile, WiseTech Global said it is looking at“ highvalue, high-volume things our customers want” as areas to focus its efforts on AI. The company serves 24 of the top 25 global forwarders— customers for its transportation management, tracking, accounting and customs software.

“ We are obviously watching what [ AI-focused software providers ] are doing,” WiseTech Executive Chairman Richard White told the Journal of Commerce.“ But AI doesn’ t blot out the sun. You still have databases and workflows. AI won’ t rewrite the world.”

White did say AI is making a mark in areas that make jobs easier to do, with a special mention to how AI products are helping software developers create code and validate human-written code.

On the customer side,“ we’ re looking at AI as a way to make components of work easier,” he said.“ But it’ s a very rapidly moving landscape. And if you put your stake down on one thing, you’ ll get passed.”

Indeed, it’ s harder to find a software vendor or forwarder not experimenting with AI, and specifically AI agents, than one that is.

“ AI use cases are real, and they often make sense,” said Jonas Krumland, CEO of Logward, a technology provider for shippers spun out of the German forwarder Leschaco.“ It’ s not that hard to make them accessible.”

The challenge, according to Krumland, is that it takes effort and a volume of logistics-specific data to train the models behind AI tools.

“ People are largely too scared to invest,” he said.“ The

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