Visibility no longer enough as FourKites bets on AI execution
For more than a decade, much of the supply chain technology sector has competed on ...
By Alex Lennane
The first generation of digital freight forwarders once appeared to be converging on a single idea: combine software with logistics execution, automate the workflows, and gradually become the operating system for global trade.
Increasingly, however, the sector’s players are heading in very different directions.
For the UK’s Beacon, the answer was to step away from freight forwarding altogether. CEO ...
Comment on this article
Andrew Cabanal
May 28, 2026 at 6:58 pmWhile a pure-play tech platform offers neutrality and aggregates data from multiple sources, it often misses the messy reality of physical exceptions that happen on the ground. Operating inside the freight execution layer allows AI models to learn directly from real-world disruptions, making the resulting software far more practical. However, because shippers frequently change providers based on rates, deeply integrating with a specific forwarder’s proprietary tech remains a tough sell for larger enterprise networks.