Flexport Unleashes AI Tools in 'Founder Mode' Surge

# Flexport

Freight forwarding and logistics company Flexport is rolling out a bunch of new products and features, many of which are powered by AI. This is just the first in a series of semi-annual announcements they plan to make, kinda like Airbnb does with their seasonal product updates. In fact, Flexport's founder Ryan Petersen got the idea from Airbnb's CEO Brian Chesky, who gave a talk about "Founder Mode" that really inspired him. The next product release from Flexport is set for "late summer." Petersen told TechCrunch that having a twice-a-year "release" schedule has two big perks. First, it keeps everyone on their toes with a solid deadline. Second, it's a great way to market their tech. Petersen mentioned that while they've been developing cool tech over the years, it often comes out in bits and pieces without much fanfare. These big announcements give them a chance to show off what they've been working on. On Monday, Flexport is launching over 20 new products, many of which they've been using internally. These products are powered by AI from OpenAI, Anthropic, and AWS. This big push comes after Petersen's first full year back as CEO, having fired former Amazon exec Dave Clark at the end of 2023 to "get [Flexport's] house in order." One of the new products is Flexport Intelligence, which lets businesses get info about their shipments using simple language prompts. Another, called Control Tower, gives customers real-time visibility and control over their entire logistics network, even for freight not managed by Flexport. These were tasks that Flexport staff used to handle for customers, but now AI is stepping in. Petersen is aware that this shift could affect customer relationships, which was one of the reasons he let Clark go. He's still all about "people first" and says the new products will offer the best of both worlds—businesses can still call a Flexport team member for help if they want. Petersen believes that embracing AI will actually help Flexport grow its workforce, not shrink it. He thinks the company that automates the best will grow the fastest and need more people for service, sales, consulting, and tech development. Another thing Flexport announced on Monday is the use of AI-powered voice agents in some of its workflows. They're testing this with truckers and warehouses on their logistics platform. The AI voice agent calls drivers to let them know about available loads in their area and calls warehouses to check basic details like hours of operation. Petersen is taking it slow with this, though. He's only using it for simple conversations and is hesitant to rush into using voice agents in other parts of the business until they're more reliable. He's got a high standard for making these things customer-facing but sees a future where customers might be happy talking to an AI if it's really good at answering their questions. Overall, Petersen loves how fast Flexport can experiment with AI. Their teams can spot any customer pain point, find a process that can be improved with machine learning, and roll it out the next day for thousands of companies to use without needing big contracts or begging people to try it.

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