How Logistics Veterans Should Be Thinking About AI with David Bell

Everything is Logistics

AI is being hyped as the magic bullet for supply chains—but what happens when your infrastructure isn’t ready to support it? In this episode, Blythe Brumleve chats with David Bell, CEO of Cloneops.ai, about the cold, hard realities of deploying AI in logistics. From unreliable data pipelines to the complexity of nearshoring, David breaks down what’s broken, what’s fixable, and what’s still wildly misunderstood.

Whether you're trying to optimize costs or just figure out how to prep your backend systems, this episode delivers the technical insights and strategy talk you didn’t know you needed.

Key takeaways:

• Most companies overestimate their AI readiness due to poor data infrastructure.
• Nearshoring challenges can be solved, but not without multi-tier supply visibility.
• AI needs structured, reliable, and real-time data to be effective.
• Cost optimization often breaks down without proper freight data standardization.
• Internal champions for AI projects must bridge both tech and ops.

LINKS:

• David's LinkedIn
• CloneOps Website
• CloneOps Logistics
• Andrew Silver Interview on The Freight Pod

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE

Feedback? Ideas for a future episode? Shoot us a text here to let us know.

-----------------------------------------
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!

Are you experienced in freight sales or already an independent freight agent? Listen to our Freight Agent Trenches interviews powered by SPI Logistics to hear from the company's agents on how they took the entrepreneurial leap.

Shipium is the ML-powered shipping platform built by the executives that created Amazon's supply chain technology. They help 3PL & retail leaders like Stord, Ryder, and Saks Off 5th to reduce shipping costs by an average of 12% while improving on-time delivery.

CargoRex is the logistics industry’s go-to search platform—connecting you with the right tools, services, events, and creators to explore, discover, and evolve.

Digital Dispatch manages and maximizes your #1 sales tool with a website that establishes trust and builds rock-solid relationships with your leads and customers.

Chapters

1. How Logistics Veterans Should Be Thinking About AI with David Bell (00:00:00)

2. The Real Bottleneck in AI Adoption (00:02:52)

3. What Most Logistics Teams Get Wrong About Nearshoring (00:12:14)

4. Freight Data Is a Mess. Here’s How to Fix It (00:21:12)

5. AI Without Process Mapping = Chaos (00:29:58)

6. Cost Optimization That Doesn’t Backfire (00:36:19)

7. Infrastructure-First: The CloneOps Mindset (00:44:41)