CargoAi highlights AI-driven time savings in air cargo operations

CargoAi has highlighted the impact of its artificial intelligence (AI) platform on air cargo operations, presenting findings from a seven-year development journey at the CargoTech press conference during TIACA's Air Cargo Forum.

Matt Petot, Founder and CEO of CargoAi, outlined how the company has developed a platform since 2019 to connect air cargo rates, capacity and data. Its AI agent, which has been operational since October 2024, automates several commercial tasks, including processing quote requests for airline and general sales agent (GSA) teams, responding to airline customer emails, drafting quotations for freight forwarders and communicating with customers through WhatsApp.

Marking two years since the AI agent first began processing live requests from freight forwarders, CargoAi presented figures on the time saved each month through automation and how these efficiency gains allow industry professionals to focus more on commercial activities.

“We have spent years building the connectivity, data, and intelligence required to make that possible. Today, our customers can use our AI capabilities directly, build their own agents and automate real cargo workflows without having to start from scratch”, said Petot.

CargoAi has reported significant time savings from its artificial intelligence (AI) solutions across the air cargo industry, highlighting the growing role of automation in airline operations, general sales agent (GSA) services and freight forwarding.

Speaking at the CargoTech press conference during TIACA's Air Cargo Forum in Miami, Founder and CEO Matt Petot outlined the company's seven-year development journey, which began in 2019 with efforts to connect air cargo rates, capacity and data. The platform subsequently incorporated machine-learning capabilities, including arrival-time predictions, rate forecasts and quality scores, before expanding its AI capabilities in 2024.

CargoAi's AI solutions now automate several tasks, from processing shipment requests and handling airline customer emails to preparing freight quotations and responding to customer queries through CargoMART, email and WhatsApp. The company said the latest figures reflect the scale of these operations and the time returned to industry professionals.

Airlines and GSAs: Automated quote intake
CargoAi’s AI has processed 446,000 shipment requests over the past two years, extracting information from emails, spreadsheets and photos in an average of 1.6 seconds per request. This has saved an estimated 37,000 hours of manual data entry, equivalent to the monthly workload of 13 full-time employees at current volumes.

Airlines and GSAs: Email management
AirAgent has processed 105,000 airline customer emails so far in 2026, including 25,000 in October. Around 70% of these enquiries relate to rates, shipment tracking or bookings for which airlines already have the necessary information. By drafting or sending responses, AirAgent has saved an estimated 6,100 working hours this year, equivalent to nine full-time employees' monthly workload at October's processing rate. For a top-10 cargo airline handling two million emails annually, the technology could save approximately 117,000 hours a year, equivalent to the workload of 61 employees, allowing teams to focus on sales and account management.

Freight forwarders: Automated quotations
Around 90% of priced searches on CargoAi are still quoted to shippers manually. Freight forwarders have generated 400,000 quotations through the platform's quotation module so far in 2026. By using live rates to draft quotes automatically, CargoAi's Auto Quote solution could save an estimated 87,000 working hours, equivalent to the monthly workload of 54 full-time employees across the platform.

Expanding industry connectivity
Over the past 12 months, 6,935 freight forwarding companies have searched for live rates on CargoAi’s platform, which connects them with 209 airlines and offers shipment tracking across more than 260 airlines.

One agent, three fronts: all live
CargoAi's AI technology has evolved over the past two years to support three key areas of air cargo operations: airline and GSA email management, automated freight quotations and customer service across multiple channels.

For airlines and GSAs, AirAgent operates within their existing mailboxes through four stages: filtering, reading, drafting and replying. The system can be activated individually for each mailbox, allowing customers to gradually expand its capabilities. CargoAi reported that some customers progressed from reading and classifying emails to drafting responses in autumn, with the number of AI-drafted answers increasing ninefold in October compared with September.

For freight forwarders, Auto Quote processes shipper requests received through their own mailboxes and prepares quotations using live rates from more than 200 airlines. The system incorporates trucking costs, local charges and forwarder margins into quotes generated within the quotation module already used by forwarders.

CargoAi's CargoCoPilot agent, Aike, handles rate, tracking and booking enquiries in natural language through CargoMART, email and WhatsApp.

The company is already delivering services like STRACKER, which uses CargoAi's MCP Connector to power its own AI agents and automate key stages of its airfreight quotation process. Flexport uses CargoAi's APIs and MCP Connector to integrate airline rates, schedules, and market intelligence into its internal systems and AI-powered workflows. Simultaneously, CargoAi measures the impact of its AI solutions by estimating the proportion of employees' working time that can be redirected to other tasks.

CargoAi is a leading AI-driven technology provider for the air cargo industry, connecting and transforming the freight ecosystem through digital innovation. Its comprehensive suite of solutions supports seamless procurement, booking, connectivity, payments and sustainability, guided by a team of industry experts.