After helping freight brokers automate track-and-trace operations, logistics technology startup Chain is taking aim at one of the industry’s most time-consuming tasks: negotiating rates and booking freight with carriers.
Nevada-based Chain recently launched its Autopilot Booking Agent, an artificial intelligence-powered assistant that automates carrier outreach, negotiates rates within broker-defined parameters, vets carriers and books routine freight while escalating exceptions to human employees.
Kevin Coomes, chief revenue officer at Chain, said the company’s goal isn’t to replace carrier sales representatives but to eliminate repetitive administrative work that keeps them from focusing on more challenging freight.
“We had a customer tell us, ‘I don’t want AI to replace my people. I want to give them an Iron Man suit,'” Coomes told FreightWaves. “That’s really been our philosophy. We want to free brokers from the manual, mundane tasks so they can spend more time on the freight that actually requires human judgment.”
Chain’s newest product extends the company’s AI platform beyond its original focus on track-and-trace automation. Founded by husband-and-wife team Param Sandhu and Annalise Sandhu, the company began by building technology to automate shipment visibility before expanding into AI-powered workflow automation.
Coomes said Chain now serves more than 90 freight brokerages, with some customers automating as much as 95% of routine track-and-trace communications.
The Booking Agent builds on that foundation by working inside brokers’ existing communication channels. The software gathers carrier offers from load boards and email, verifies carriers through compliance integrations, negotiates rates within broker-established pricing guardrails and writes completed bookings back into the transportation management system. When negotiations fall outside predefined limits, the AI escalates the load to a human representative.
Coomes said the technology is designed to handle repeatable freight rather than complex or high-risk shipments.
“The goal isn’t to automate the really hard freight,” he said. “It’s to pre-book the freight that’s already moving with carriers in your network so your carrier reps can focus on the 50% that’s actually difficult to cover.”
That distinction also shapes how much autonomy brokers are willing to give AI.
Coomes said customers generally prefer to keep humans involved with high-value freight, hazmat shipments and other specialized loads, while allowing AI to negotiate and book routine lanes with trusted carriers.
“There are 20 different nuances to every load,” Coomes said. “The guardrails determine what AI can handle and what should still go to a human.”
One concern surrounding AI-powered negotiations is whether carriers know they are interacting with software instead of a broker.
Coomes said Chain’s platform primarily communicates through email and text rather than voice, using natural language responses that resemble conversations with brokerage employees.
“So far, they generally think they’re dealing with the broker they’ve always dealt with,” he said, adding that Chain has intentionally avoided relying heavily on AI voice agents because many drivers prefer speaking with people.
Rather than measuring success solely by labor savings, Chain is evaluating whether AI can help brokers cover more freight while maintaining service quality.
Coomes said early customer metrics focus on automating 20% to 40% of routine loads, allowing carrier representatives to handle more freight without sacrificing margin or customer service.
“If one rep is handling 100 loads a day and we can automate 20% to 40% of those, can that same rep handle 150 loads a day?” Coomes said. “It’s not necessarily about increasing margins. It’s about protecting the margins you already have while giving people more time to focus on difficult freight.”
Another objective is increasing carrier reuse by matching freight with carriers that brokers already know and trust.
Coomes said relying more heavily on established carrier networks can improve service while also reducing fraud exposure because brokers are less likely to tender freight to unfamiliar carriers.
As AI adoption accelerates across the logistics industry, Coomes believes many brokerages are looking for practical tools that can be deployed quickly rather than highly customized systems requiring dedicated technical teams.
“These are freight companies, not technology companies,” he said. “They don’t have eight months to deploy an AI agent. They need something they can implement quickly, start seeing ROI from and get back to moving freight.”
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