AI is shifting from buzz to backbone in freight procurement and cross-border logistics

Freight technology has reached a turning point. For years, the sector was flooded with promises about automation and “smart” platforms. In reality, shippers and brokers still relied on sprawling spreadsheets and human guesswork to set rates or manage procurement cycles. By late 2025, pressure is building to replace patchwork tools with systems that show not only numbers, but why those numbers matter.

Brokerage and parcel logistics are on parallel tracks. In procurement, AI engines now sift through bid data and market signals to generate price ranges in minutes, not days. In parcel logistics, AI is moving upstream into customs and compliance, where delays can cripple entire networks. The key is no longer whether companies experiment with AI. It is whether they embed it into decision-making that can withstand volatility in freight markets and global trade rules.

Transfix’s experience offers a close-up. The company is pitching AI-powered procurement as the cure for RFP bottlenecks, with algorithms that turn messy inputs into structured strategies. But the hurdle remains: can AI win trust when freight prices swing and carrier service falters? In a written response to The Supply Chainer, Jonathan Salama, co-founder and CEO, insists that adoption is no longer optional:

“At this point, AI is not hot and new - it’s not even sexy anymore. It’s critical to the lifeline of everyone in freight and anyone who thinks differently will be left behind. More companies will start to build proprietary systems and coming from experience, I can say that it will take years to properly get that set up in place. What will be reshaping the landscape are the strategists who are laser-focused on bringing AI to their operations. We will likely see fewer generalists in the space. Shippers will be asking their partners about their freight tech stack and deciding from there if the relationship will bring enough value to the table. Brokers will get smarter, faster and will be able to keep up with the way the industry moves in a way they’ve been longing for. We’re already seeing it with our own customer base. We’re big on strategy and answering the why of the numbers - this is what AI-powered procurement platforms will prepare the future of freight for.”

Sean Collins, VP of Cross-border eCommerce, Enterprise, Procurement at UniUni

On the cross-border side, UniUni highlights a parallel transformation. AI is already common in last-mile delivery, but customs, compliance, and multi-carrier visibility remain choke points. Sean Collins, Vice President of Cross-border eCommerce & Enterprise Procurement, told The Supply Chainer how AI can stitch those silos together:

“In the near term, I believe AI will have the biggest impact on making supply chains more predictive and self-correcting. We will see AI models that not only forecast demand but also anticipate disruptions from weather to regulatory shifts and autonomously reconfigure networks in response. On the cross-border front, AI-driven customs pre-clearance and automated compliance verification will become more common, cutting days off transit times. And in global parcel logistics broadly, AI will act as the connective tissue between historically siloed systems such as last-mile, fulfilment, carrier management, and trade compliance, creating a single intelligence layer that keeps goods moving efficiently. The companies that lean into this will deliver faster, operate leaner, and be better equipped to navigate the volatility that is now the norm in global trade.”

For supply chain leaders, the message is blunt. AI is no longer a speculative project or a one-off pilot. It is a backbone technology that will decide who keeps customers and who loses them when the next disruption hits.