Chain launches AI tool to automate freight booking for brokers

Nevada-based logistics startup Chain has released an Autopilot Booking Agent designed to handle one of freight brokerage's most time-consuming tasks: negotiating rates and booking shipments with carriers. The AI-powered tool automates carrier outreach, negotiates rates within broker-set parameters, vets carriers for compliance, and books routine freight while flagging exceptions for human review. Chain now serves more than 90 freight brokerages, with some customers automating as much as 95% of routine track-and-trace communications using the company's original visibility platform. The new booking agent extends that capability by working inside brokers' existing communication channels, pulling carrier offers from load boards and email, then writing confirmed bookings back into transportation management systems. The software operates within guardrails. Brokers retain final say on pricing limits and can restrict the AI from handling high-value freight, hazmat shipments, and specialized loads. Chain's chief revenue officer Kevin Coomes told FreightWaves the goal is to free carrier sales representatives from repetitive administrative work. "We want to give them an Iron Man suit," he said, echoing feedback from a customer who wanted AI to enhance rather than replace his workforce. By automating routine lanes with established carriers, the tool lets brokers' teams focus on the 50% of freight that genuinely requires human judgment and negotiation skills.