Cargo and logistics company Quarrel It expresses the apartment of new products and features, many of which use AI, in what the company says it will be the first in a series of semi -annual announcements of this kind.
If that sounds similar to Airbnb’s approach to seasonal product announcements, this is because it was an inspiration for a new Flexport approach.
“Brian Chesky told me to do so,” said Flexport founder Ryan Petersen in an interview, referring to the Airbnba CEO. “He held this great conversation that Paul Graham wrote the essay oHe called the “founding way,” I was there that day, and he gave great advice. ”
The next edition of the product will arrive in “At the end of the summer”, according to Flexport.
Petersen told Techcrunch that the transition to cadence twice a year offers two great advantages. First, he said, “There is nothing like the power of the deadline.” The other talks more about marketing.
“We have developed a lot of great technology over the years, but it somehow goes out gradually. There are not many fanfars, Buzza -ai opportunity to tell the story the way customers can see what you have done, what you have built, “Petersen told Techcrunch.
Flexport says that more than 20 different products launch on Monday, many of which they have already used on the inside, all powered by a combination of AI from Openi, Anthropic and AWS. The promotion of a large product comes because Petersen ended his first year all year back as executive director Flexport after shooting Former Amazon CEO Dave Clark At the end of 2023 in an effort to “get [Flexport’s] House in line. “
Among the new products is Flexport Intelligence, which allows companies to obtain information about their shipments using the natural language instructions. Another, named Control Tower, will provide clients with “real -time visibility and control over the entire logistical network, even at a burden that did not manage Flexport,” the company said.
Previously, these were the things that Flexport’s staff worked for their customers. Release of Ai to perform these tasks and, basically, mediates in this relationship, is a big change in the company – especially because he was one of the reasons for Petersen released Clark because he felt that the company had devalated its relations with customers.
“It’s something we are really aware of. I’m still a great believer in ‘People First’, Petersen said. He said new products would offer” the best from both worlds “because companies will still have the opportunity to call a Flexport team member – Ideally, someone who knows them well – and seek help if they need or prefer that way.
In this goal, Petersen said he expects to accept AI help Flexport to grow its ranks rather than replace workers.
“I think the company – and I think it will be us – but a company that does the best job in automation of this paper will not have fewer workers. You will have more because you will grow so quickly. If you are cheaper than other people, you will need more people than Ever for service, sale, counseling, technology, development, etc., “he said.
The second effort Flexport announced on Monday is the involvement of voice agents with AI drive in some of their own flows.
Petersen emphasized that Flexport is cautiously introduces this ability. Currently, the company tests this with truckers and warehouses using their logistics platform. AI voice agent invites drivers to tell them that the burden that will be picked up in their area is available and calls for warehouses to check basic details such as hours of work.
Petersen said it helps in these simple conversations, but that Flexport still closes these transactions through regular work on his platform. He said “hesitates” rush to include voice agents in other parts of Flexport business while the ability and reliability improve.
“My standard quality strip to make these things facing customers is really high,” he said. “I think there is a future where customers will be happy to talk to AO if it is really good to answer their question.”
This does not mean that Petersen plans to move slowly from AI as a whole. In fact, he said he loved the speed at which Flexport could experiment.
“Our teams can look at any place [customer] Pain and find a procedure that can better do a llm or other form of machine learning, and just do it. And the next day, it is live, thousands of companies use it without the need to sign a contract about entrepreneurs or a mole of people, “he said.