ATLANTA — XPO is rolling out new AI-based technology to photos that dockworkers take to improve safety and reduce damage claims, VP of Technology Erin Goheen said Jan. 26 at the supply chain conference SMC³ Jump Start.
While dockworkers have already been taking photos as part of their routine duties, the new effort involves an AI model guiding a worker in real time if a trailer cannot be closed and why, Goheen said.
"For several years, our employees have used their handheld devices to take a photo of every loaded trailer before closing the door. The AI model builds on that process and is currently being piloted across all our service centers," the company said in a statement to Trucking Dive.
The LTL carrier built a model based on the company’s photo records to flag whether a loaded trailer met steps, checks and procedures to ensure freight was properly secured. By utilizing AI, a project that two years ago would have required six months to complete instead took weeks to develop, Goheen said.
Any amount of efficiency gain, even if it’s 1% to 2%, can translate to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars of cost savings, she said of technology upgrades in general.
The company has previously noted how technology was improving operations, including the use of virtual reality headsets for cross-dock training, AI-based demand forecasting and AI models to reduce empty miles and diversions.
“We see AI playing a major role in how we operate, compete and create value over the long term,” CEO Mario Harik said on a Q1 2025 earnings call.
That doesn’t mean using AI to replace its workforce but rather to help reorient how workers are spending their time, such as by redirecting sales staff away from administrative tasks. “We want them to spend time on revenue-generating activities, not things that take away from that,” Goheen said.
That strategy is driven by tech professionals aiming to deeply understand what particular problem the company is trying to solve, have a clear vision for how to move forward and do so quickly. XPO tech teams typically have a one-to-two week deadline to get output.
"It's our job in technology to figure out what's the fastest path to get there,” Goheen said. “And a lot of times that's not going to be AI.”
One of the ways XPO’s sales team and customers have benefited from this kind of intervention involved addressing a pain point over response times. These days, AI drafts an answer to essentially every type of customer inquiry, allowing the organization to respond in minutes.
To keep humans in the loop to ensure the company’s service quality remains intact, a person reviews the drafted responses before hitting “send.”
XPO’s Harik previously served as the company’s chief information officer from 2011 through 2022, among other roles, which has helped continue the carrier’s focus on technology.
But Goheen advised other business leaders to foster innovative cultures with technology teams focused on understanding the problem they are trying to solve.
“I really like what the keynote said earlier: The change is already here,” she said. “It's not going to stop. It's not going to slow down.”
