Customer Success Story: How ExFreight Decoupled Growth from Headcount with AI

Introduction: The Digital Paradox

For digital freight forwarder ExFreight, the mission was never just to move cargo; it was to move data. As a pioneer in the industry, ExFreight built a sophisticated, full-stack tech platform to provide instant quotes and tracking for customers in over 150 countries.

However, as the company scaled, they hit a Digital Paradox: even with world-class APIs, human behavior remains stubbornly analog. Despite having a robust digital portal, many customers still rely on free-form emails for quotes, and carriers often require manual follow-ups to verify shipment status. ExFreight found themselves facing the Headcount Trap, the industry-standard belief that to double shipment volume, you must double your operations team. To protect their margins, they needed a way to bridge the gap between messy human communication and structured digital efficiency.

The Challenge: When Growth Creates Friction

In the high-velocity world of logistics, speed is the only true currency. Yet, ExFreight’s team found themselves bogged down by cognitive grunt work that slowed their momentum:

• The Email Bottleneck: As volume surged, hundreds of quote requests and status inquiries sat in shared inboxes. Each one required manual triage and data entry, taking roughly two minutes per email to process.

• The 20-Minute Visibility Gap: When pickup confirmations were missing from a carrier’s digital feed, operators had to call carriers directly. Each of these calls often meant being on hold for 20 to 30 minutes, tying up a dispatcher's entire morning to secure a single data point.

• The Scalability Ceiling: Rule-based automation works for spreadsheets, but it breaks when faced with the messiness of human conversation. Without a way to interpret unstructured intent, scaling the business meant a linear, expensive increase in headcount.

The Solution: Building an Intelligent Operational Layer

ExFreight partnered with Levity to layer AI-powered intelligence directly onto their existing communication channels. The objective was to automate the routine 80% of inquiries, allowing their experts to focus on the 20% of shipments that require genuine human problem-solving.

1. Intelligent Email Triage

Levity was integrated into ExFreight’s inboxes to act as a digital air-traffic controller. It instantly interprets customer intent, identifying whether a message is a quote request or a tracking update, and routes it for immediate action, eliminating manual sorting entirely.

2. Zero-Touch Quoting & Tracking

• Autonomous Quoting: The AI extracts details from free-form emails, queries ExFreight’s rating engine, and delivers a branded HTML email with multiple transport options to the customer in seconds.

• Instant Tracking: For customer inquiries, the AI retrieves real-time data from internal systems and responds immediately with ETAs and tracking links.

3. AI-Driven Supplier Follow-ups (Phone Automation)

To eliminate time lost calling carriers, Levity introduced phone automation on the supplier side. The AI independently calls carriers to gather missing pickup confirmations and syncs this information back into ExFreight’s system, closing the visibility gap without an operator ever losing 20 minutes to a single call.

"Levity are experts at transport AI technology. They helped us turn our biggest operational bottlenecks into fully automated workflows in a matter of weeks. What impressed us most wasn’t just the speed, but the fact that they truly understand the nuances of logistics. We’ve been able to scale our operations without adding headcount, while responding to customers faster than ever before."

The Transformation: From Reactive to Proactive

By treating AI as a digital teammate, ExFreight fundamentally shifted its operating model.

Results: Measurable Impact at Scale

The shift to an automation-first mindset delivered immediate ROI that directly impacted the bottom line:

• 1.5+ Hours Reclaimed Daily: On quoting alone, the AI handles 30 to 40+ requests per day that previously required manual data entry.

• Ending the "On-Hold" Drain: AI-driven phone automation handles carrier follow-ups for roughly 10% of monthly shipments, reclaiming hours of productive time previously lost to carrier phone queues.

• Instant Customer Gratification: Response times shifted from "when we get to it" to near-instant, providing a level of service that manual teams simply cannot match.

• True Scalability: ExFreight now scales with near-zero incremental operational cost, successfully breaking the revenue-to-cost barrier.

Advice for the Industry

For other logistics providers looking to embrace automation, Charles offers a clear path forward:

"It is better to buy from a provider like Levity than to try to build it yourself. Start by entering into an agreement to build some initial, simple flows. Don’t try to build one flow that does everything. As you gain confidence in the initial flows and technology, you can continue to expand to create more automation by adding more layers onto the initial flow or by creating additional automation flows that can be linked together."

Conclusion: The Blueprint for Modern Logistics

ExFreight’s journey proves that digital transformation doesn’t require a total overhaul of core systems. By layering intelligent automation over high-friction workflows, they eliminated repetitive work and unlocked a new level of scalability.

For logistics providers facing rising demand and tightening margins, the takeaway is clear: Don't just hire more people; increase the intelligence of your process.