Reflections from Flexport Forward Amsterdam

AI agents now do, or heavily assist with, about 75% of the tasks needed to move a container door to door. A customs “spell check” agent cut the error rate in Flexport's manual compliance review from 2% to 0.2%.

One European customer applies a 10% invoice discount to a small share of shipments. AI writes the code for that rule, and a person reviews it before it goes live.

Flexport automatically looks for ways to consolidate bookings. Customers see about 14% fewer containers on average once it's switched on. A person still decides whether one shipment can arrive three days later to save $2,000.

Atlas shows shipping strings with carrier-published and Flexport-observed transit times side by side. Ryan noted that about 60% of container ships have returned to the Suez route since August.

The Flexport connector for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets customers track shipments, request quotes and book from inside Claude, Copilot or ChatGPT.

S&P Global expects the Middle East conflict to continue on a 12-month view with no clear off-ramp. He flagged security risk as vessels return to Suez.

Conflict continues, and logistics has adapted. Machinery imports are about 125% above 2018 levels, with more arriving by land.

Low river levels at Kaub on the Rhine continue to affect barge shipments. Chris sees similar patterns on the Mississippi and in Latin America.

A cost-of-living gap keeps labour tension alive. 2027 risks include isolated action in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Canada. On the US West Coast, about two dozen port watchmen could stop gates opening.

Semiconductor prices are back near pandemic highs. S&P Global expects that pressure to last through 2027.

An email link took Jaguar Land Rover offline for two months and its suppliers for three. Chris is watching for a major hack of a carrier or port system in 2027.

Chris said the strength of the consumer has been underestimated, and that the AI boom adds to it: about 80% of the growth in the value of US imports is graphics processing units (GPUs), alongside building materials and server racks. Consumer electronics remain weak. Global trade is up about 3% this year, and he said it maybe should have been up 5%.

Chris expects a similar degree of disruption. After ten years in the job, he said, what he expects at the start of a year is never what happens: “If I get half of it right, I count that as a win.”

Chris said you can't negotiate with conflict or lobby against it. The year's biggest surprise was three hurricanes in the Shanghai area, a kind of disruption the industry hadn't seen before. He said the effects of climate change now show up in supply chains, and that paying to hedge against a hurricane season that never arrives makes for a hard conversation with finance the following year.

Chris described a company in northern Europe with 25 procurement teams and 25 risk managers, each division with its own chief financial officer (CFO), and no one in the same room. Bringing them together revealed problems before any AI was in place. The “a little bit crazy” idea becomes a method: widen the planning window beyond plus or minus 10%, list the slightly crazy scenarios, build the case against each and brief the CFO.

Chris said the most common planning mistake is waiting. His teams started 2027 planning in the middle of this year, and he wants to hear people talking about 2028 now.

If companies respond by adding inventory, the $2 trillion problem Ryan described could become a $4 trillion one. Chris said the brave move is to reinvest part of the gains from cutting waste, which is easier for privately held companies than for listed ones. He added that inventory is expensive and a second supplier can be a better hedge: customers now ask about “China or plus one” where they used to ask about “China plus one”. That can worsen unit economics, but so does an extra million euros of stock, and he said companies no longer need to be as scared of complexity as they once were.

The head of logistics said production is moving beyond China, with quality control and sourcing now in-house. Booking through Flexport's MCP connector saves about three to three and a half hours a week. The goal is to double the business with the same back-office headcount.

The supply chain procurement manager said resilience is a must-have in healthcare. The partnership with Flexport began after the Red Sea disruption, with a dual-sourcing trial on ocean freight. The company also runs a resilience table with supply chain partners and the Dutch government, and is building one shared supply chain language across its markets.

The logistics lead said local autonomy lets the team decide quickly. The biggest gap is upstream trade-control data, such as EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) information and mill certificates, which reaches the team too late. The company recently extended its annual air and ocean import contract for another year.

What it does. Customers connect Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot Studio or an in-house tool to their Flexport account. The agent can track shipments, list the ones that need attention (customs holds, open tasks, exceptions, demurrage and detention risk), search rates and book. Rates and booking cover ocean and air freight. What customers gain. Answers without logging in or messaging an account team. One customer reported saving about three to three and a half hours a week on booking.

What it does. Ask a question in plain language and get a table, chart or dashboard across shipments, containers, products, purchase orders, invoices and US customs data. A Deep Insights mode breaks broad questions into sub-questions. Teams can share dashboards across the company. What customers gain. Analysts and non-technical colleagues get answers without waiting for a report. Flexport uses client data only to answer the question asked, and never to train models.

What it does. AI agents take on repetitive, rules-based work such as carrier schedule changes, customs hold follow-up and empty container returns, and hand over to a person when a signal is unclear. Customs AI checks entries against rules before filing, including customer-specific rules that larger accounts can request. What customers gain. Fewer errors and less manual chasing. Flexport reports 99.8% customs filing accuracy, and its customs “spell check” cut the error rate in manual compliance review from 2% to 0.2%.