Flexport has embedded over 45 AI-driven tools into its airfreight workflows in 2025, aiming to automate routine tasks while maintaining human oversight, signalling a significant shift towards operational augmentation in logistics for 2026.
Flexport has been quietly reworking the mechanics of airfreight by embedding artificial intelligence into routine workflows while keeping complex judgment firmly with people. The company says its aim is to relieve operations teams of ...
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repetitive tasks, terminal calls, data entry and customs checks, so staff can focus on exceptions and strategic problem‑solving.
According to Alexis Boutet, Vice President Global Head of Airfreight at Flexport, the firm adopted an explicit “human in the loop” posture as it rolled out a broad slate of technology in 2025. “Our approach emphasizes keeping a ‘human in the loop’ while leveraging technology like AI to enhance our operators’ efficiency,” he said. Boutet told Full Avante News the business released more than 45 AI‑driven tools last year, targeting customs processing, tariff modelling and supply‑chain optimisation to accelerate decision‑making and cut costs.
Flexport’s product suite now includes tools intended to speed quoting and booking for time‑sensitive cargo. Boutet highlighted the Flexport Rate Explorer as a mechanism to surface immediate pricing across transport modes, likening the convenience to buying an airline ticket. He also pointed to the Flexport Tariff Simulator within the firm’s Customs Technology Suite as a high‑usage calculator for landed costs. “Our Customs Technology Suite includes the Flexport Tariff Simulator; it’s now one of the most utilized tariff calculators globally,” he said.
The vendor’s own accounts are complemented by other industry reporting. Flexport’s corporate blog and product updates describe Control Tower and Flexport Intelligence as AI‑enabled platforms that provide near real‑time shipment insights and end‑to‑end visibility, and the company has been trialling AI voice agents to streamline communications with truckers, warehouses and partners. According to PR Newswire, earlier announcements described a prior wave of roughly 20 tech and AI products intended to modernise supply chains, a figure that differs from the larger tally Boutet cited, an inconsistency that reflects rapid, iterative product releases and varying categorisations of what constitutes a distinct tool.
Industry observers say the airfreight sector is moving beyond the early promises of visibility and into practical predictive and prescriptive capabilities. ReformHQ noted 2025 breakthroughs in predicted delivery dates and the broader adoption of analytics platforms that fuse real‑time feeds with machine learning. That trend, analysts contend, will accelerate into 2026 as companies scale fleets of AI agents and emphasise standardised data interfaces and ongoing model monitoring to maintain reliability.
Flexport positions automated customs review as an example of hybrid workflows: its Customs Analysis product reportedly examines a high proportion of entries with human oversight, contrasting with an industry norm where only a small share of filings receive detailed review. Boutet framed this as emblematic of the company’s approach: use automation to magnify quality and speed while reserving nuanced compliance and exceptions for people. “We’re constantly exploring innovative ways technology enhances execution leading ultimately toward superior customer experiences,” he said.
Applications extend to revenue and risk management. Trade press coverage has credited AI pricing models with improving margin outcomes and cited estimates of a 5–7% uplift in revenue management for some deployments, while other reports describe predictive models that anticipate port congestion, weather interruptions and geopolitical events to enable proactive rerouting and contingency planning.
Competition has shifted accordingly. Boutet stressed that Flexport’s integrated platform architecture, one system spanning forwarding functions, offers an advantage over legacy forwarders that stitch together disparate systems, which can impede real‑time automation and rapid code delivery. “On execution fronts, we prioritize delivering code faster than our rivals,” he said. The claim of superior agility finds echoes in the market, where speed of iteration and quality of data interfaces increasingly determine which platforms can successfully scale AI agents and maintain model performance.
Nevertheless, the balance between automation and oversight remains central to industry debate. ReformHQ and other commentators caution that deploying large numbers of autonomous agents requires not only technical integration but also rigorous governance: continuous validation, error‑monitoring and human escalation pathways must be designed into systems to avoid brittle behaviour when conditions change.
As 2026 approaches, Flexport’s message is that the most valuable role for AI is operational augmentation rather than replacement. Boutet envisages clearer delineations of responsibility between machines and humans as the next phase of development, with automated processes handling routine execution and operators concentrating on higher‑order decisions and customer outcomes. According to Flexport’s product literature and external reporting, the next challenges will be standardising data flows across partners, scaling agent fleets responsibly and sustaining the human oversight that the company says is essential to reliable automation.
Source: Noah Wire Services
