Air freight forwarding software that takes over the inbox
Every air enquiry arrives as email. The dimensions are half there, the rate is somewhere else, and space on Thursday is a third question again.
Every email your company receives is read, understood and turned into a task for the right person, with the answer already drafted. Your team approves. Nobody lives in the inbox any more.
Your rate cards, your airline accounts and your agent network stay exactly where they are.
- 01An air rate is charged on the greater of the actual weight and the volumetric weight. Many enquiries arrive without the dimensions to work that out.
- 02FreighAI asks for what is missing, prices the lanes you hold from your own rate cards, and emails your agents for the lanes you do not.
- 03Booking confirmations, air waybill numbers and flight status come back into the same thread and become the next task.
- 04Your pricer approves. The reply goes out in their name. Nobody opens a tracking site to answer a customer.
- 05You keep your own carrier accounts and negotiated rates. FreighAI never sits between you and your carrier relationship.
The air desk, on a normal Tuesday
An enquiry lands at nine in the morning. Four pallets, Mumbai to Frankfurt, ready Thursday, gross weight 820 kilos. The dimensions are not there. Until somebody asks for them there is no price to give, because an air carrier charges on the volumetric weight or the actual weight, whichever is higher, and the volumetric figure comes from dividing the volume in cubic centimetres by 6000.
So the first job of the morning is not pricing. It is asking. Then waiting. Then reading the answer when it arrives as a photograph of a packing list.
Then the rate. Where you hold a negotiated card for that lane it is already in your files. Where you do not, an airline, a sales agent or an overseas partner has to be asked. The published picture is enormous and it moves: IATA's tariff service carries over five million rates from 85 or more airlines across 200 countries, updated in real time. Almost none of it is the rate you will charge, because the rate you charge is the one you negotiated.
A price is not a booking either. In July 2026 air cargo demand grew 3.9% on the same month a year earlier while capacity grew 1.7%, and the cargo load factor rose a percentage point to 46.0%. Demand grew faster than the space to carry it. So the question after “what is the rate” is “is there room on Thursday”, and it goes to a different person again.
By the time the quote goes out, the answer has been assembled from a rate card, an airline reply, an agent’s email and somebody’s memory of last month.
- Four pallets, ready Thursday
- Dimensions not stated
- Lane you do not hold
- Customer wants it today
Six places, one answer, and a person carrying information between them all morning.
What changes when FreighAI takes the inbox
Where the rate can be fetched without waiting on a person — a carrier API, a portal read in the background, or your own uploaded rate cards — a priced quote goes out in 10–15 minutes instead of 1–2 hours. That holds for ocean and air just as it does for express; the mode does not change it.
FreighAI takes over the inbox. It watches every company mailbox, pricing, operations, tracking and accounts, and follows each conversation from start to finish, not one message at a time. It works out what each email is and what it needs. It writes the reply, creates the task, and puts it in front of the right person in the right department. That person reads it beside the original conversation and approves. They do not compose, forward, file or chase. The reply goes out in their name. The follow-ups happen on their own.
The email is only the start. The real time goes on what comes after it. FreighAI pulls your rate cards, checks the carrier, looks up the customer’s history, reads the shipment status, and talks to your TMS or accounting system.
On an air desk that plays out like this. The enquiry arrives and is read, including the packing list photographed on somebody’s phone. FreighAI reads PDF, Excel, Word, forwarded email, WhatsApp messages, photos and scans. It spots what is missing in an enquiry and drafts the email asking for it. The chargeable weight is set only when the answer comes back, so nothing is assumed from a weight nobody supplied.
The lanes you hold are priced from your own rate cards. For the lanes you do not, FreighAI emails all your agents for a lane in one go, with the route and charge lines filled in, then chases the ones who do not reply.
Nothing about your airline and agent relationships changes. The cards are read on your own account, and the agents stay your agents.
FreighAI suggests a price from what that customer paid on that lane before, within your margin rules. Your team approves every reply before it sends. When the customer pushes back on price, a counter-offer is drafted and waits for approval.
Your people work in FreighAI. Not in the inbox. Not in five browser tabs.
Every air enquiry read. Nothing re-keyed.
FreighAI watches every company mailbox, pricing, operations, tracking and accounts, and follows each conversation from start to finish. It works out what each email is and what it needs, then takes the action that message calls for.
- Packing lists, photos and forwarded mailFreighAI reads PDF, Excel, Word, forwarded email, WhatsApp messages, photos and scans.
- The dimension nobody sentFreighAI spots what is missing in an enquiry and drafts the email asking for it.
- Straight to the pricer who owns itFreighAI writes the reply, creates the task, and puts it in front of the right person in the right department, beside the original conversation.
need DHL quote Gurugram → Ajman, 72kg, by Friday. express.
packing list attached. urgent pls 🙏
Pls quote for shipment as below. Confirmed pkg dims attached, IEC docs to follow…
Which parts does an air desk use first?
Start with the part of the day that costs you the most.
Quotation Agent
Relevant when air enquiries arrive faster than your pricers can answer them. FreighAI spots what is missing in an enquiry and drafts the email asking for it. It suggests a price from what that customer paid on that lane before, within your margin rules.
Booking Agent
Relevant when a won air quote has to become a job file carrying the flight, the pieces and the air waybill number. A won quote becomes a job on its own, fully filled in. Where that file lives is decided in scope.
Tracking Agent
Relevant when “where is my cargo?” arrives on Friday about a flight that landed on Thursday night. Chasing, tracking checks, quote expiry and follow-ups run on their own. Nobody has to remember.
Partner Discovery
Relevant when a lane needs an overseas agent you do not have yet. A structured way to identify, approach and assess partners for the routes you are asked to quote.
The first implementation is usually one of these, not all of them. Expand when the next workflow is ready.
What happens to one air enquiry
Four pallets, Mumbai to Frankfurt, dimensions missing. Here is the whole sequence.
An enquiry arrives. FreighAI reads it, notices the weight is missing and asks for it. It pulls your rate cards, checks the carrier for a live rate, and emails your agents for the lanes you do not hold, then chases them until they reply. It drafts the quote with your margin rules and what that customer paid on that lane last time. Your pricer approves and it goes. It follows up. When the customer pushes back, the counter-offer is already drafted. When the quote is old, it expires. When it is won, the job is created.
Where the rate can be fetched without waiting on a person — a carrier API, a portal read in the background, or your own uploaded rate cards — a priced quote goes out in 10–15 minutes instead of 1–2 hours. That holds for ocean and air just as it does for express; the mode does not change it. Where a lane has to be priced by another agent or over the phone, the wait belongs to whoever is answering — not to the software. FreighAI still writes the RFQ, chases the reply, and turns whatever comes back into a priced, margin-checked quote the moment it lands.
The air waybill number, the flight and the job file stayed where your team already keeps them.
need DHL quote Gurugram → Ajman, 72kg, by Friday. urgent pls 🙏
Hi Marco — DHL Express, AED 425 + AED 35 handling. ETA Thu·18:00, valid 24h. PDF attached.
- 01Enquiry arrivesFour pallets, no dimensions
- 02Dimensions asked for
- 03Chargeable weight set
- 04Your rate cards priced
- 05Airlines and agents chased
- 06Quote drafted
- GATEYour pricer approves
- 08Won jobHanded to your system
At Infinity Logistics, average response time fell from more than 60 minutes to about 15 minutes, and the win rate rose from 35% to 73%. Those figures belong to one forwarder, on their lanes and their rate sources. They are evidence that the mechanism works, not a number we promise you.
What stays in your own system
Most air desks already run something for the job file and the accounts. This is the line.
| The work | Stays in your system | What FreighAI adds | Decided in scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air waybill and job file | The number, the job and the operating history | Reads the confirmation and drafts the task beside the thread | Which fields return, and who carries the hand-off |
| Rate cards and airline accounts | Your negotiated rates and your relationships | Pulls your cards, chases the lanes you do not hold | Which rate sources are reachable, which stay a person’s ask |
| Customs filing and duty | Direct filing and HS or duty lookup, where you do them now | Assembles and chases the email around the filing | Which documents are gathered before a person files |
| Statutory books | Bank reconciliation, accruals and provisions | Checks the carrier bill against the job before anyone books it | Which entries are written, by whom, and when |
- Air waybill and job file
- Stays in your system
- The number, the job and the operating history
- What FreighAI adds
- Reads the confirmation and drafts the task beside the thread
- Decided in scope
- Which fields return, and who carries the hand-off
- Rate cards and airline accounts
- Stays in your system
- Your negotiated rates and your relationships
- What FreighAI adds
- Pulls your cards, chases the lanes you do not hold
- Decided in scope
- Which rate sources are reachable, which stay a person’s ask
- Customs filing and duty
- Stays in your system
- Direct filing and HS or duty lookup, where you do them now
- What FreighAI adds
- Assembles and chases the email around the filing
- Decided in scope
- Which documents are gathered before a person files
- Statutory books
- Stays in your system
- Bank reconciliation, accruals and provisions
- What FreighAI adds
- Checks the carrier bill against the job before anyone books it
- Decided in scope
- Which entries are written, by whom, and when
We scope the first workflow, integration requirements and implementation plan with your team. No line here is a promise about a connector.
Where does this lane’s price come from?
Air quoting is not one process. It is three, and they run at different speeds. Pretending otherwise is how software promises get broken.
Where you hold the rate, in your own negotiated card or in a source FreighAI can reach on your own credentials, nobody has to be waited on. The clock is yours.
Where the lane belongs to an airline you have not loaded, or to an overseas agent, the clock belongs to whoever is answering. Follow-ups, chasers and reminders happen on their own, on the same conversation. The request still went out complete, to everyone who could price it, and it is turned into a margin-checked quote the moment an answer lands.
Where does the rate for this lane come from?
Priced against your margin rules and what that customer paid before, then drafted for approval.
Read on your own account, against your own negotiated terms. Nothing is resold.
One request to every agent for that lane, charge lines filled in, quiet ones chased.
The air waybill, the flight and the question on Friday
Winning the quote is the middle of the job, not the end. A won quote becomes a job on its own, fully filled in.
The confirmation comes back carrying the master air waybill number and the flight. The air waybill is the document that constitutes the contract of carriage between the shipper and the airline, and IATA’s electronic air waybill resolution removed the requirement for a paper one. However it arrives, FreighAI reads the confirmation and hands operations a task with the thread beside it.
FreighAI answers “where is my cargo?” on the customer’s own thread, from carrier status, for approval. FreighAI talks to carriers, portals, your TMS and your accounting system itself. Nobody hops between websites to put an answer together.
| What lands after the booking | Who needs it | What FreighAI does with it |
|---|---|---|
| The confirmation with the air waybill number | Operations | Creates the job task with the flight and the pieces, reply drafted |
| A message saying the flight rolled to tomorrow | The customer, before they ask | Reads it, raises the task and drafts the message on the same thread |
| The airline’s bill, three weeks later | Accounts | Reads a carrier bill and matches every airway bill back to its job, checking line by line before it is booked. |
- The confirmation with the air waybill number
- Who needs it
- Operations
- What FreighAI does with it
- Creates the job task with the flight and the pieces, reply drafted
- A message saying the flight rolled to tomorrow
- Who needs it
- The customer, before they ask
- What FreighAI does with it
- Reads it, raises the task and drafts the message on the same thread
- The airline’s bill, three weeks later
- Who needs it
- Accounts
- What FreighAI does with it
- Reads a carrier bill and matches every airway bill back to its job, checking line by line before it is booked.
The objections we hear most
Do you resell airline rates?
No. You keep your own carrier accounts and negotiated rates. FreighAI never sits between you and your carrier relationship. FreighAI is not a rate marketplace and holds no capacity of its own.
Can it book space on a flight for us?
Booking is your team’s decision and your airline relationship. FreighAI prepares the request, sends it once your person approves, reads the confirmation and turns it into the job. Which booking channels are connected is decided in scope.
A lot of our enquiries arrive without dimensions. What then?
FreighAI spots what is missing in an enquiry and drafts the email asking for it. The chargeable weight is set only when the answer comes back, so a quote is never drafted on a weight nobody supplied.
Our strongest lanes are priced by agents. Does this still help?
FreighAI emails all your agents for a lane in one go, with the route and charge lines filled in, then chases the ones who do not reply. FreighAI cannot make another company answer faster and does not claim to. What changes is that the request is complete, the quiet ones are chased, and the reply is priced the moment it lands.
Will it email our airlines and agents without us seeing it?
Your team approves every reply before it sends. Your team approves. They do not compose, forward, file or chase. The reply goes out in their name. Changing that supervision would be a deliberate decision about one workflow, under rules your team set.
Common questions
Is this air freight forwarding software, or does it sit on top of what we already run?
Either. FreighAI is an AI-first freight operations platform that can run standalone or work alongside an existing TMS or ERP. It does not require a forced replacement. Keep your TMS for the records. FreighAI runs the work around them.
Does it only work for air freight?
No. FreighAI is not mode-specific. This page is about the air desk because the rate, the weight and the flight behave differently from a container and a sailing.
How does it know what to charge?
FreighAI suggests a price from what that customer paid on that lane before, within your margin rules. Every version of a quote is kept, and the line that changed is shown. Your pricer approves the number before it goes anywhere.
What happens to a quote nobody answers?
Follow-ups, chasers and reminders happen on their own, on the same conversation. Quotes expire on their own and can be revived if you want. Nobody has to remember which airline never came back.
How long does it take to put in?
We scope the first workflow, integration requirements and implementation plan with your team. There is no responsible universal timeline. It depends on the workflow, the rate sources and the testing.
- IATA — Air Cargo Demand Grows 3.9% in July (released 31 August 2026): July 2026 demand up 3.9%, capacity up 1.7%, cargo load factor 46.0%verified 2026-09-03
- IATA — Air Cargo Tariffs and Rules: carriers charge on volumetric or actual weight, whichever is higher, volume in cubic centimetres divided by 6000verified 2026-09-03
- IATA — TACT: over 5 million tariffs and rates, 85+ airlines, 200+ countries, 800+ sources, updated in real timeverified 2026-09-03
- IATA — e-AWB: the air waybill is the contract of carriage between shipper and carrier, and Resolution 672 removes the paper requirementverified 2026-09-03
- FreighAI — Quotation Agent: the claims register entries rendered here, approved 2 September 2026verified 2026-09-03
- FreighAI — Infinity Logistics: signed customer reference, 15 May 2026, the only customer figures usedverified 2026-09-03
The demand and capacity figures are one month, from the release named above. Nothing here forecasts rates, capacity or peak season. No airline, sales agent or forwarding system is described by name.
Bring one air enquiry from last week.
Pick a real thread. The one where the dimensions were missing, three agents were asked and the customer had gone quiet by Wednesday. We will show you what FreighAI would have read, what it would have asked for, and exactly where your pricer would have approved.