Three years ago, during the peak period of the pandemic disruption, Colgate-Palmolive’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, Luciano Sieber, executed a sweeping logistics initiative dubbed a “logistics blitz.” This comprehensive exercise granted Sieber deep insights into how the consumer goods giant dispatched its products globally. However, it left him grappling with another complicated issue—the vast quantities of resultant data that proved difficult to manage effectively.
About a year ago, Sieber found an effective solution with Uber Freight, the logistics division of the popular ride-hailing company Uber. Uber Freight had been working quietly to develop sophisticated artificial intelligence tools capable of processing massive data sets efficiently and effectively. This resulted in Colgate-Palmolive becoming an early adopter of one of Uber Freight’s advanced products—an AI-powered logistics management tool called Insights AI.
Now, Uber Freight is officially rolling out an expanded suite of AI features as part of its existing global shipping software solutions. At the heart of this launch is Insights AI, originally developed and introduced in 2023, accompanied by over thirty additional AI-driven agents designed to streamline critical logistics operations across the entire shipping lifecycle.
Uber Freight isn’t alone in attempting to harness AI to untangle complex supply chains. Competitors such as Flexport have recently announced similar AI-based toolsets, while numerous startups continue to emerge with innovative ways to help businesses handle data intricacies, minimize sprawling inventory stockpiles, and anticipate supply and demand fluctuations more accurately.
What distinguishes Uber Freight’s approach, according to founder Lior Ron, is the immediate, tangible financial benefit that its AI offerings deliver—not just for high-profile clients like Colgate-Palmolive, but for the nearly 10,000 other shippers that currently partner with the logistics giant. Ron highlights the eight years of accumulated industry knowledge and relationships Uber Freight has amassed since its inception as key drivers of its potential.
“The supply chain business naturally generates enormous volumes of data; it’s inherently complex, nuanced, and precisely the kind of problem that AI is perfectly suited to address,” Ron said in a recent interview. He also noted that Uber Freight was designed from the outset as a data-centric endeavor, intended ultimately to leverage the full potential of artificial intelligence in shaping and enhancing logistics processes.
Since its founding in 2017, Uber Freight has transitioned from a straightforward trucking brokerage service into a broader logistics solutions provider, increasingly emphasizing technology—and AI in particular. Ron’s personal background, rooted in artificial intelligence, underpins this strategic orientation. His early academic studies focused extensively on neural networks, which served as the foundational technology for his later projects. He spent nearly a decade leading Google Maps, an experience that solidified his conviction in the transformative power of data and AI in digitizing and optimizing real-world processes.
Even though Uber Freight utilized machine learning from its earliest days, the company’s venture into advanced generative AI models, such as Insights AI, began roughly two years ago. Initially, these early explorations shared common challenges with accuracy and reliability issues, with Ron describing preliminary accuracy rates hovering only slightly above 60%. But after rigorous refinement, Insights AI now reportedly delivers accurate analysis at rates exceeding 98%, relying on sophisticated internal and external datasets derived from the roughly $20 billion worth of freight Uber Freight manages annually.
The practical applications of Insights AI are abundant. Clients can quickly generate detailed reports, from highlighting the lowest performing shipment routes to isolating all specific shipments over defined periods, and handle queries of considerable complexity in near-real time. These results, delivered rapidly and reliably, eliminate cumbersome back-and-forth processes traditionally associated with such inquiries.
Colgate-Palmolive’s Sieber highlighted how Insights AI allows his company to swiftly identify carriers who consistently fail to meet contractual shipping volumes, enabling his team to address issues promptly and decisively. Previously, these kinds of logistical checks were complicated and time-consuming, owing to fragmented systems and inconsistent data management across many carriers.
Uber Freight and Colgate-Palmolive’s partnership has now evolved to proactively identify potential efficiencies—highlighting routes where the company is overspending or where faster alternatives exist, with the potential to deliver substantial cumulative savings. According to Sieber, Colgate-Palmolive’s chief financial officer has been particularly pleased with the tangible reduction in logistics expenses thanks to the new AI-enabled visibility.
Ron sees this expanded AI toolkit as just the beginning of Uber Freight’s deeper commitment to reshaping logistics. The suite of AI-powered tools, he suggests, is fundamentally changing how logistics professionals approach problem-solving and decision-making—realizing the promise he first envisioned nearly a decade ago.
