The Freight Pod Ep. #69: Harish Abbott, CEO & Cofounder, Augment
This week, Andrew sits down with Harish Abbott, CEO and cofounder of Augment, the AI teammate for logistics. Harish says, “Logistics is broken,” and in this episode, he goes deep into just how broken, talking about the inefficient ways information is shared between numerous parties on any given shipment. He talks about how overwhelmed operators are by emails and manual processes, leading to costly inefficiencies, a lack of time for creative work, high turnover, and burnout. The former CEO and cofounder of Deliverr, which was acquired by Shopify for $2.1B in 2022, is setting out to change that with Augment.
In this episode, Harish shares:
- Why the flow of logistics information is broken and the real-world costs of its inefficiency, including missed appointments, wasted labor, and asset underutilization.
- How Augment aims to solve these problems with an AI teammate named Augie that can understand SOPs, manage workflows like tracking and document collection, and learn from context, freeing up human operators for judgment-based tasks.
- The critical importance of living out your company’s values and deeply understanding operator pain points in building scalable businesses.
- Insights on navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape, balancing innovation with delivering tangible business value, and Harish's approach to fundraising for a capital-intensive AI venture.
- A five-year vision for Augment focused on significantly reducing waste in the $10+ trillion global logistics industry and enabling more efficient commerce.
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*** This episode is brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services. Visit gorapido.com to learn more.
A special thanks to our additional sponsors:
- Cargado – Cargado is the first platform that connects logistics companies and trucking companies that move freight into and out of Mexico. Visit cargado.com to learn more.
- Greenscreens.ai – Greenscreens.ai is the AI-powered pricing and market intelligence tool transforming how freight brokers price freight. Visit greenscreens.ai/freightpod today!
- Metafora – Metafora is a technology consulting firm that has delivered value for over a decade to brokers, shippers, carriers, private equity firms, and freight tech companies. Check them out at metafora.net. ***