In 1999, I was on the dock in Portland, dispatching freight on the swing shift, asking why two systems that both had internet access still couldn’t talk to each other. Twenty-five years later, that question hasn’t gone away. It just moved. Boston Consulting Group’s research confirms it: only about one in 10 Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) have embedded AI into their core operations at scale. Just 13% report achieving measurable value from AI.

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BCG points to unclear returns and internal capability gaps as the biggest barriers to adoption. It also identifies integration with a wide number of systems, data sources, and processes required for day-to-day operations as a key requirement for moving past pilots or one-off fixes, due to the complexity and level of real-time accuracy required for efficient and cost-effective services to customers.

As a result, many LSPs, including 3pls, freight forwarders, carriers, brokers, and 4PLs, have yet to apply AI to the operational workflows where automation could have the greatest impact.

Many logistics providers still rely on manual effort for procurement, quoting, booking, exception management, and documentation, even though these connected, repeatable processes are ripe for AI agents.

But for these agents to work effectively in LSP operations, they need access to connected logistics data, carrier information, and especially the context surrounding each operational workflow.

How my experience shaped LSP44

That is why we created LSP44, an AI-native tech business delivering AI agent and API infrastructure focused on logistics service providers and the unique ways in which they operate with their technology stack.

Before founding project44, I spent more than a decade working across the transportation industry, from carrier operations and sales to helping build a third-party logistics provider. I felt firsthand the frustration of working in an industry that ran on phone calls and faxes.

That experience shaped project44’s very first product, a real-time API that connected rate quoting, dispatch, visibility, and documentation across the entire less-than-truckload logistics workflow.

That product became the foundation for project44’s broader logistics platform.

Through partnerships with leading LSPs, we built the carrier connections, integrations, and data needed to support transportation operations at scale.

Over the following decade, project44 used that foundation to expand into the enterprise shipper market. We added transportation management, visibility, yard management, and last-mile capabilities to complete the lifecycle. In recent years, that foundation has continued to support more advanced automation across LSP workflows.

But as both sides of the business evolved, the differences between them became harder to ignore. Enterprise shippers want platforms they can use to manage transportation across their networks. LSPs want infrastructure they can embed into their own products, processes, and systems.

To focus on delivering to those unique needs of the market, we decided to separate the businesses. LSP44 now gives logistics providers trusted, dedicated AI agent and API infrastructure built around their needs, while project44 continues serving enterprise shippers as a go-to Decision Intelligence Platform.

How AI agents move LSPs from a legacy of visibility to a reality of execution

Building an AI agent is getting easier. Building one that understands a logistics service operation well enough to act reliably and consistently takes years of data and context.

To execute logistics workflows, agents need a real-time understanding of the workflow being executed and ability to access and act on the systems where actions occur. That context allows them to make decisions that reflect the operation in front of them, whether they are sourcing capacity, quoting and booking moves, or anticipating and responding to a disruption.

Developing this capability takes specialized logistics expertise compounded over many years. It reflects accumulated carrier relationships, integrations, and shipment history that give agents relevant information and contextual awareness from the start.

LSPs have long embedded project44’s carrier connections and APIs into their transportation systems, portals, and customer offerings. They have also worked with us to introduce AI agents and agentic workflows into those environments.

LSP44 brings those capabilities together in a platform designed specifically for how logistics providers build, buy, and operate. For example, the AI agents can source carriers, compare rates, respond to RFPs, and generate quotes using both contracted and spot-market rates. Beyond quoting, they can tender and book freight, dispatch carriers, and secure dock or facility appointments.

Once a shipment is moving, those agents can monitor progress, resolve data gaps, and respond to exceptions by re-tendering loads or rerouting freight. After delivery, they can generate and process documents, audit invoices, and support faster settlement.

This is the shift from legacy visibility to a reality of execution. Agentic workflows can coordinate the operational steps required to move freight from procurement through settlement instead of delaying at an alert or recommendation.

When agents handle more of the repetitive coordination and resolve exceptions before operators even need to know, people gain more time for the complex decisions and judgment that move the business forward. AI does not replace the people in this industry. It gives them leverage they have deserved for a long time.

Context is what makes execution possible

LSPs did not wait to be asked. Eighty-two of project44’s first hundred customers were brokers, forwarders, and 3PLs who bet on a single idea before it had a track record. Twelve years later, that bet is why LSP44 launched last month with infrastructure spanning more than 282,000 carrier connections and supporting 1.5 billion shipments annually. Our AI agents come pre-loaded with operational context from the world’s largest, most accurate, real-time logistics data graph. Nine of the world’s 10 largest logistics service providers already use LSP44 infrastructure.

The carrier connections, integrations, logistics processes, and shipment history agents need are already in place. LSPs helped project44 build this infrastructure over the past decade.

LSP44 puts it back in their hands as a production-grade agent factory built specifically for how they operate.