AI Levels Playing Field for Smaller Freight Forwarders

Starboard, founded by Sumeet Trehan, is positioning AI as a competitive equalizer for smaller and mid-sized freight forwarders facing operational complexity that typically favors larger incumbents. Rather than replacing forwarders, the company's technology targets the messy reality of daily quote management—handling fragmented data sources including emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, carrier portals, and constantly updating rates that outpace manual data cleaning efforts. The market opportunity reflects a structural challenge in freight forwarding: operational fragmentation creates friction costs that disproportionately burden smaller players lacking the scale to invest in internal automation infrastructure.

By automating the quote desk workflow, Starboard aims to compress turnaround times, reduce manual data entry errors, and improve pricing accuracy—capabilities that have traditionally been available only to mega-forwarders with dedicated technology teams. For supply chain professionals, this development signals a maturation phase in logistics AI adoption. The distinction between AI demonstrations and production-grade operational tools remains critical; Starboard's focus on the specific pain points of real forwarding operations—rather than aspirational end-to-end automation—suggests a pragmatic approach to implementation.

This could accelerate digital adoption across the mid-market freight sector, potentially reshaping competitive dynamics in a historically fragmented industry.