From hype to implementation: Jump Start Day 2 gets practical on AI
Authored by SMC³ on February 4, 2026
Day 2 of SMC3‘s Jump Start 2026 built on the energy of day 1’s opening keynote, turning from mindset to mechanics. AI dominated the agenda, but not as a buzzword. Speakers discussed invoice automation, resolving exceptions at 3 a.m., freight moving without drivers behind the wheel and beyond.
AI has made itself comfortable in the back office
The morning opened with David Morris, CFO of Armstrong Transport Group, joining remotely to discuss how AI has become central to the company’s operations.
“We’re starting to use it a lot more,” Morris said. “It definitely plays a major part in our long-term strategy.”
Armstrong has deployed AI across multiple functions: automated track and trace, AI-driven calls to carriers and drivers for real-time status updates, and an automated POD collection that has compressed turnaround from several days to under 24 hours. Morris said roughly 65% of invoices are now automated through a partnership with TransFlow, including an LTL workflow AI that Armstrong piloted.
But Morris cautioned against treating AI as a silver bullet.
“All these AI initiatives, they’re really great, but…you have to have the right people in place,” Morris said. “I love to keep reminding us of that because AI is not going to replace that human aspect and that critical thinking that is needed.”
As always, data is king
A recurring theme across sessions: AI is only as good as the data feeding it. Nathaniel Klein, COO of Sun Logistics, described his company’s uncompromising approach.
“If you’re not entering clean data in the system, you’re not working at our company,” Klein said. “Data is king going forward, and every company has to treat it that way.”
Sun Logistics has eliminated nearly all manual back-office tasks and is rolling out AI that reads bills of lading in real time, alerting drivers to missing information before they leave the pickup location. The company has also deployed autonomous robots on its Miami dock.
“I believe by the end of this year, probably 20% of our touches can be robots on our dock,” Klein said. “Within five years, between 50% and 80% of the touches can be robots.”
Ben Wiesen, president of Carrier Logistics, urged carriers to document their standard operating procedures now, not for compliance, but because those SOPs will train AI systems.
“If you have instruction guides and step-by-step guides to what to do from customer service to operations to back office…that’s going to train how the LLM makes decisions at the same time as it leverages your data to make those decisions in the same way that we do today,” Wiesen said.
Staying in the game comes with a price
Clete Cordero, vice president of pricing and traffic at Southeastern Freight Lines and current chair of the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, framed AI not as a competitive advantage but as a baseline requirement.
“I do believe technology AI is a must-have to continue operating as an LTL carrier,” Cordero said. “What I mean by that is we have to put technology in as an LTL carrier to be able to compete and really offset what we’re seeing in rising insurance costs, rising labor costs, the high real estate investments that an LTL carrier has to make that other modes do not have to make.”
Southeastern is using AI to optimize linehaul and city routes, identifying runs that can be eliminated to reduce fuel costs.
“We are using AI and some other tools to make sure that all of our line haul runs each night, our city runs during the day, are as efficient as possible,” Cordero said. “If we can determine how to eliminate a run, all that does is save fuel.”
For carriers not yet investing, Cordero was blunt.
“I believe if you’re a carrier that is not investing in technology, not looking how to be more and more efficient, and then you’ve got these other factors of real estate investments, rising insurance costs, rising labor costs, it’s going to be tough to compete,” he said. “So, it’s almost a necessity to go and use technology in your business to make you more efficient, so you can compete.”
The open road’s new normal
The afternoon panel on autonomous and electric vehicles revealed that both technologies have moved well past the experimental stage. Jordan Coleman, chief legal and policy officer at Kodiak, reported that the company operates 10 fully driverless trucks in the Permian Basin, running around the clock and having delivered more than 5,200 loads with zero at-fault accidents.
Coleman described 2025 as the year trucking went driverless, with 2026 focused on scaling. Kodiak plans to launch driverless operations on public highways by year’s end.
John Verdon, cofounder and chief commercial officer of electric carrier Nevoya, described operating about 40 trucks across California, Texas and Arizona, with plans to deploy another 50 to 60 in Texas by the end of this year. He emphasized that electric trucking must stand on its economics.
“Adoption has to be driven by the economics, not regulation, generally speaking,” Verdon said. “Regulation can be a helpful catalyst, but we ourselves need to be the ones that demonstrate that we can win on the economics.”
A point of no return — for the better
Across sessions, the pattern was the same: Technology that once seemed theoretical is now operational. Kodiak is hauling freight without drivers. Armstrong has automated 65% of its invoices. Sun Logistics has robots on its docks. Southeastern is using AI to cut unnecessary runs. These aren’t experiments. It’s how these companies run today.
“If you’re not doing it, you’re falling behind,” Klein said.
Wiesen put it more starkly.
“I think we’re close to the point of no return of getting knocked over if we’re not riding the wave,” he said. “At this point, I think move fast, move aggressively. Maybe the time for caution is a little bit behind us.”
Day 2 of Jump Start made clear that the speakers who took the stage weren’t pitching AI possibilities. They were reporting results.