Nathan joins leaders from Vooma and HappyRobot on the Sept. 30 panel "Agents of Change" to share product updates and live results from Ellie, Envoy's AI carrier sales agent, including a load where she handled 76 carrier calls in five minutes
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Envoy AI, a logistics technology company that develops Ellie, an AI agent and execution layer built to find carriers, negotiate rates, and book loads for freight brokerages, today announced that co-founder and CEO Robby Nathan will speak at the Journal of Commerce Inland Distribution Conference (Inland26) in Chicago.
Nathan will share the stage with Vooma co-founder Jesse Buckingham and Glen Stewart, head of brokerage deployments at HappyRobot, on "Agents of Change: Mapping Out the Agentic Age in Truckload Brokerage." Eric Johnson, senior editor for technology at the Journal of Commerce, will moderate the InlandTech session, which runs Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 2:20 to 3 p.m. CT at The Westin Chicago River North.
The session will focus on what agentic AI means for truckload brokerage, including ROI, the cost of digital versus human workers, and the change it brings to existing teams. Nathan will argue that digital workers are the right way to think about AI agents, and that companies should manage them like any new hire. Meaning a defined role, clear limits, and a person accountable for their work.
"Everyone expected self-driving trucks. But the revolution happened in the office," said Nathan. "Digital workers is the right frame, and the part I'd push back on is 'on-demand.' You hire a digital worker into a role, decide what it's allowed to do, train it on your judgment, and give it a manager. If nobody is managing it, what you bought is a subscription."
Live results
The results Nathan will share come straight from live Ellie deployments. When one new customer posted its first load through Ellie, she picked up 76 inbound carrier calls in five minutes, all at once. She collected 20 offers, vetted every carrier through Highway, and booked the load below the posted rate. Across Envoy's live accounts, about 75% of freight is booked through Ellie.
Nathan believes that's how brokers should judge AI: by the work it actually finishes, from cost per shipment to how many times a person has to touch each load. The biggest payoff, he says, is being able to take on more freight without adding headcount at the same pace.
Getting better with every load
Even the 56 carriers who called about that first load and didn't make an offer told Ellie something about their rates, lanes, and willingness to move. Every call, negotiation, and booking she handles goes into Envoy's Carrier Context Graph, a record of carrier and lane behavior that the brokerage owns, so Ellie gets a little sharper on each customer's freight with every load. Nathan calls it the compounding loop and has been writing about it in his Substack, The Socratic Shipper. It's also the test he plans to put to every AI vendor on stage, Envoy included: is the system better at a brokerage's freight on load 10,000 than it was on load one?
Product updates
Nathan will also highlight the latest capabilities in Ellie Workforce, which Envoy launched in July. Ellie runs as a Chrome extension inside a brokerage's existing TMS, load boards, and email, with no integration project required. Capabilities include:
- Carrier Match, which identifies and ranks carriers for each load and contacts them by phone, email, and text simultaneously
- Adaptive Rate Negotiation Intelligence, which negotiates within each brokerage's max-buy limits and pricing rules
- Ellie Verified, which vets carriers through integrations with Highway and MyCarrierPortal, including an instant DOT check when a carrier calls in
- Ellie TrustFlow, which lets brokerages set rules for which carriers Ellie engages and how
- Ellie Pulse, which tracks shipments and flags exceptions in real time
"Ellie takes on the calls, emails and carrier checks that fill up a rep's day, and she brings every rate to the rep for approval until the team is ready to trust her with more," said Michelle McBride, head of product at Envoy AI. "Reps keep the relationships and the judgment calls, which is where their experience matters most."
Envoy was recently featured in Fast Company's coverage of AI in logistics alongside C.H. Robinson, Augment and FleetWorks. Nathan will be available for media interviews at Inland26. To schedule an interview, contact Michelle McBride at [email protected].
About Envoy AI
Envoy AI is a logistics operational intelligence company building agentic AI solutions for freight brokerages. Its flagship platform, Ellie, is a browser-native AI teammate that helps logistics teams automate freight execution across existing transportation systems while keeping humans in control. By combining operational observability with intelligent action, Envoy AI enables brokerages to increase productivity, improve execution quality, and scale operations without adding complexity.
For more information, visit www.tryenvoy.ai.
Media Contact
Michelle McBride, Envoy, 1 (972) 821-2012, [email protected], tryenvoy.ai
SOURCE Envoy
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