Transcripts
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:I'm your host, Lori Boyer of EasyPost.
Speaker:Today we've got a fan favorite.
Speaker:Back again, the one and only Tyler Diestel.
Speaker:He's here for one of our EasyPost Insider edition episodes.
Speaker:That's where you get to learn all about what's happening in the product world
Speaker:at EasyPost and maybe learn a little bit something new about something coming out.
Speaker:And so that is what we're gonna be discussing today, and it is, you
Speaker:guys, one of my favorite releases we've ever had here at EasyPost.
Speaker:Totally geeking out over this one.
Speaker:Tyler, introduce yourself.
Speaker:I'm sure everyone knows you, but for the random person who hasn't ever
Speaker:seen a Tyler Diestel episode, tell our our family here who you are.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Tyler Diestel.
Speaker:I'm a product manager of the data platform here at EasyPost.
Speaker:I've been here for over six years and have throughout the entire time
Speaker:been focused on our data products.
Speaker:You know, you said one of my favorite words, data.
Speaker:So we are gonna be talking today about a, a new product, a new
Speaker:feature that's recently come out in conjunction with our data.
Speaker:It's Luma AI Advisor, and it is one of the first, one of the best LLMs designed
Speaker:specifically for the shipping industry.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I love LLMs because they make my life so much easier.
Speaker:I can just ask a question and be like, what am I supposed to do?
Speaker:And LLM is giving the answer.
Speaker:So Tyler, gimme a little bit of background about maybe how the idea
Speaker:for Luma AI Advisor came about.
Speaker:We have this amazing product suite called Luma AI.
Speaker:It does a lot of things, but one of the biggest things that does
Speaker:is it gives our shippers insights into a treasure trove of data.
Speaker:The problem is a lot of times we provide too much data and it somewhat
Speaker:overwhelms our shippers, and they don't know what to do with it.
Speaker:So with Luma advisor, users can now, instead of having to sift through the
Speaker:various dashboards that we provide, they can just chat with this nice little
Speaker:chat bot to find their answers directly.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:So for years with data, I feel like we've always been insights, insights, insights.
Speaker:You can get new information, new data, but this helps you, what I'm
Speaker:hearing, make you give you decisions.
Speaker:Is that what you would say?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:This helps you reach the decisions you need to make.
Speaker:It's not generic so that it answers everyone's basic question.
Speaker:It answers your specific question that you are looking for, and it's really
Speaker:tailored to the goals that you tell it.
Speaker:Yeah So why would a shipping specific LLM, so I, I, I guess I should back up.
Speaker:An LLM is a large language model.
Speaker:We're talking Claude We're talking ChatGPT, we're talking Gemini,
Speaker:those kind of things, right?
Speaker:Why would somebody want.
Speaker:An LLM that is focused specifically for shipping versus just using
Speaker:some of the more generic LLMs.
Speaker:I would say using the LLM that's specific to your shipping habits
Speaker:is exactly what you wanna use over a generic ChatGPT or Claude.
Speaker:Those are great, but those are answering high level, not
Speaker:really personable questions.
Speaker:This LOM has all your shipping data so it knows exactly what you
Speaker:have done and what you can do to get better, to reach your goals.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So it has your own data.
Speaker:I, I've interviewed so many AI experts and they always say AI is only as
Speaker:good as the data it's trained on.
Speaker:1000%.
Speaker:What data is this trained on then?
Speaker:Can you share some of that?
Speaker:You said it was their data.
Speaker:This LLM is trained on your data, but It also takes advantage of our AI models that
Speaker:produce our time in transit predictions.
Speaker:That comes into play when we provide recommendations to you on, let's say,
Speaker:which carrier to switch to, to maintain the same time in transit criteria that
Speaker:you are used to or want to achieve.
Speaker:So how is it different than from just the traditional like rate shopping kind
Speaker:of tools we've had for a long time?
Speaker:It's different in the sense that it has more information to provide you to get to
Speaker:your exact label that you're looking for.
Speaker:For example, if you're doing traditional rate shopping, there's only so many
Speaker:pieces of information you have at your disposal to say, hey, let me just
Speaker:purchase this next day air, because in and of itself, it says it will get there
Speaker:in the next day, but how likely will it actually get there in the next day?
Speaker:And could a service level that is generally tied to a five day SLA
Speaker:actually get there within just one day?
Speaker:And with this information you can actually determine that again, by using
Speaker:our AI generated predictions, you are leveraging the billions of shipments
Speaker:that we've seen so that you can have that confidence that yes, this ground
Speaker:shipment will get there within one day.
Speaker:So in the past it's kind of correct me if I'm wrong here, it sounds like
Speaker:our data and our analytics were able to pull up that information and you could
Speaker:have dug through to find, you know, maybe which ones were the right options.
Speaker:But this adds like a conversational aspect, just sort of makes it
Speaker:easier to access, is that right?
Speaker:Like what is the conversational piece with it?
Speaker:You start with the conversation right at the beginning.
Speaker:Maybe even before you start with the conversation, you might have an internal
Speaker:conversation to say, what are your goals?
Speaker:What, again, I keep saying goals and I, I don't mean to sound like
Speaker:a broken record, but you need to figure out what are you trying to do
Speaker:with your logistics strategy first.
Speaker:And then once you have that clear objective, whether it's, hey, I
Speaker:wanna make sure my on time delivery percentage increases, or I just
Speaker:want to decrease my shipping costs, if those are your goals, great.
Speaker:Take those, and then you come to Luma and you help Luma get you to those goals.
Speaker:So you would have a conversation.
Speaker:You would say, hey, I'm trying to decrease my shipping cost.
Speaker:What should I do?
Speaker:Luma can then recommend what are the next steps to get there and not only recommend
Speaker:what are the next steps, it would also tell you how much you can decrease your
Speaker:shipping spend by a specific number, so then now you actually have like a key
Speaker:result that you're trying to achieve.
Speaker:I love that you say that there's different goals.
Speaker:I know you said you're harping on it, but I don't think so.
Speaker:I was just reading an interesting article recently that talked about
Speaker:how cost has been, you know, the be all, end all number one goal for
Speaker:companies for a really long time.
Speaker:But we are seeing a little bit more of people looking at, you know,
Speaker:your service level agreements.
Speaker:We're seeing more people looking for stability of carriers.
Speaker:You know, as carriers have kind of come and go and, and looking
Speaker:for all kinds of different things when it comes to carriers, it's
Speaker:not just costs that matters.
Speaker:And so I love that you're bringing up, you figure out what your goals are and then
Speaker:come and bring that to the conversation.
Speaker:I think it's a great place either, actually, I think
Speaker:for me it's easier to see it.
Speaker:So I think this would be a really great spot.
Speaker:I know you have a video that you've put together, kind of showing Luma AI Advisor.
Speaker:Is it okay if we go ahead and pull that up on the screen so everybody can see it?
Speaker:Yeah, let, let's jump on in.
Speaker:This video is actually a classic example of why someone would use Luma Advisor
Speaker:and our shipping optimization tool.
Speaker:In this video, what you would see would be someone trying to see what
Speaker:the effects of adding a new carrier to their mix could actually bring.
Speaker:And so here someone says, hey, what happens if I add Amazon to my carrier mix?
Speaker:How does that affect my parcel spend?
Speaker:How does it affect my time in transit metrics?
Speaker:And so in here you'll see, cool, select adding Amazon as that new carrier.
Speaker:And then what someone would've done before we implemented the LLMs is they
Speaker:would have to go through this entire dashboard and really look through
Speaker:it to figure out, hey, what actual benefits am I getting from this?
Speaker:How, how does this actually help me meet my goals?
Speaker:Now all they have to do is go and type into the LLM, hey, how much do I actually
Speaker:save by adding Amazon to my carrier mix?
Speaker:And it will immediately pop out that answer specifically for you so
Speaker:you can then decide, oh yes, this is worth adding this new carrier.
Speaker:Ah, I gotcha.
Speaker:And so are those the kind of questions that you're seeing
Speaker:customers actually using with Luma ai?
Speaker:Those are probably the more advanced questions.
Speaker:All, although once someone gets there, they're start
Speaker:asking those questions a lot.
Speaker:Users also ask basic questions.
Speaker:Like, what is the best carrier that has the the highest on time percentage?
Speaker:And it can instantly answer that for you, or what carrier do I spend the most on?
Speaker:Or what weight do I end up shipping the most of so that I can try to optimize
Speaker:for that specific weight of a shipment.
Speaker:Could you ask like per zone?
Speaker:So could you say, hey, what, in zone three, what is my typical weight?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You can say for zone three weights between five pounds and seven pounds,
Speaker:how much could I actually improve my parcel spend by adding a specific carrier?
Speaker:Mm. Yeah.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:It.
Speaker:Do you feel like it's more valuable for certain type of shipper, you
Speaker:know, high volume enterprise, SMBs?
Speaker:Anybody?
Speaker:You know, is, is there a key, key audience here?
Speaker:I would say it is across the board.
Speaker:The use cases tend to change as volume ends up increasing.
Speaker:But let's say you're a brand new shipper.
Speaker:You're, you're doing, let's say a hundred orders a month.
Speaker:What this could tell you is, cool, you're doing all your orders on
Speaker:just one carrier, most likely.
Speaker:This will let you know, hey, should I invest in building out
Speaker:another carrier integration?
Speaker:So one, it can help answer those questions so easily.
Speaker:Then as you get larger, this helps you really fine tune your shipping strategy.
Speaker:So, hey, you know what, now I've grown, I do 10,000 shipments a month.
Speaker:I really wanna hit that two day SLA.
Speaker:How much do I have to invest into my shipping operations to meet
Speaker:those two day SLAs for my customers?
Speaker:What about like international shipping?
Speaker:Is that something that it helps answer questions for?
Speaker:Luma Select, our rate shopping tool does help address international shipping.
Speaker:And so it will heavily rely on carrier estimates when diving
Speaker:into time in transit stats.
Speaker:But, for our dashboards, our dashboards are highly focused on US domestic.
Speaker:Okay, great, great point there.
Speaker:So if you are US domestic, small, all the way up to large it can
Speaker:be a really great tool for you.
Speaker:I love that you mentioned Luma AI Select.
Speaker:I know that you know, cross border and, and international shipping is
Speaker:really complex and really challenging.
Speaker:So any tools that help with that, that we do have Luma AI Select.
Speaker:So please make sure you're looking at that.
Speaker:What are kind of results, I guess, are we seeing early on?
Speaker:Can people expect cost savings?
Speaker:Fewer exceptions?
Speaker:You know, what are we seeing so far?
Speaker:We're seeing a lot of cost savings, mostly due to users integrating
Speaker:with a brand new carrier that they weren't even considering before.
Speaker:And what Luma has actually highlighted to them is just as I've been saying,
Speaker:those savings that they could achieve if they added those different carriers
Speaker:and now that they have added them, they are already seeing those savings.
Speaker:There was a recently an article that came out.
Speaker:And I'm sure for all of you who watched our trends up so recently, killed
Speaker:me, that said last year at this time companies were keeping about 13% of
Speaker:the increase in costs that they've been experiencing over the last year for
Speaker:themselves and giving most to customers.
Speaker:Well, as things have shifted over the last year, and customers are a little
Speaker:bit more wary, that's now at 40%.
Speaker:So costs are really hurting shippers, and so I can see the cost savings
Speaker:anywhere we can, especially these are easy savings that, you know,
Speaker:it can improve your service level.
Speaker:You know, it can improve your customer experience as well.
Speaker:Completely makes sense that the cost savings is a big deal.
Speaker:I had to imagine, Tyler, that it would kind of adjust maybe the way shippers
Speaker:are thinking about their overall carrier strategy using tools like an LLM.
Speaker:Are you seeing any of that now?
Speaker:What, what could people expect in terms of kind of their overall strategy shifting
Speaker:if they start using a tool like this?
Speaker:The biggest thing that I've been seeing is people are more open to having
Speaker:a multi-carrier logistics strategy.
Speaker:In the past, I would say not even that far back, like three years ago,
Speaker:the majority of our shippers, I mean the good majority of our shippers
Speaker:were just shipping on one carrier.
Speaker:Now that they're seeing all these benefits, they're opening the door to say,
Speaker:hey, you know what, I need more options.
Speaker:And they are seeing those benefits come in, in the forms of
Speaker:savings and on time percentages.
Speaker:Yeah, I, so cool.
Speaker:And it really, really makes sense.
Speaker:I think everybody knows from a risk management standpoint,
Speaker:having only one carrier is bad.
Speaker:From a cost perspective, having one carrier is bad.
Speaker:But it's always just been really complicated and really hard to do.
Speaker:And so I love the technology's getting us to the point where we can
Speaker:do these things and we can make huge differences without as much risk.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Tyler, where do you see Luma AI Advisor going in the future, what,
Speaker:can you give us a sneak peek into what we can expect over the next year?
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:So immediately, what we're working on right now is having the ability for Luma
Speaker:Advisor to not just be dependent on the data that's presented on the current
Speaker:dashboard that's someone's viewing, but have the ability to really just answer
Speaker:any analytical question that you ask it.
Speaker:That's coming out in the very near future.
Speaker:After that, we do hope to expand Luma Advisor to also help answer questions
Speaker:like, how do I enable a new carrier?
Speaker:And also have more information around carrier metadata to answer
Speaker:questions like, which carrier is the best for shipping HAZMAT?
Speaker:And which of those carriers is the easiest to integrate with that does that?
Speaker:So having all that information in the backend of Luma Advisor is something
Speaker:that we're working on now, and I can just see how beneficial that will be
Speaker:once that ends up being rolled out.
Speaker:It's gonna be huge.
Speaker:One thing I really love, we're right on the cusp of LLMs in the shipping industry.
Speaker:We're just at the beginning, and as you become part of it, especially
Speaker:if you are an EasyPost customer, please take advantage of this.
Speaker:You are there and kind of in the early stages of giving feedback and our product
Speaker:team is amazing at taking customer feedback and using it to implement things.
Speaker:Are there questions that you wanna know?
Speaker:Is there data you wanna know?
Speaker:This is a great chance for you to get in and, and to be part of that.
Speaker:One thing also that I just wanna share that I think is really neat
Speaker:that sometimes our customers miss.
Speaker:We have so much data at EasyPost on hundreds of carriers,
Speaker:so many service levels.
Speaker:We have billions of shipments of data and information.
Speaker:So you could go, you know, maybe there's an LLM or, or there's a chat bot you
Speaker:could use through a single carrier or through a smaller service provider.
Speaker:They simply won't have the same amount of data.
Speaker:So if you go to a one of the big carriers, they only have data on their own services.
Speaker:They don't have data across carriers.
Speaker:If you go to a newer company, there's a lot of other companies that have LLMs that
Speaker:just don't have the dataset that we have.
Speaker:So critical to getting accurate, actionable information.
Speaker:So Luma AI Advisor, it is so huge, so incredible.
Speaker:Tyler, if people want to learn about it, what is their next step?
Speaker:There's a couple things they can do.
Speaker:One is they can definitely visit the EasyPost.com products
Speaker:page and check out Luma AI.
Speaker:That can give you just a very brief overview.
Speaker:If you are currently an EasyPost user today, you can navigate to the
Speaker:Luma self-serve to sign up for Luma yourself and actually start
Speaker:utilizing it as soon as today.
Speaker:And then lastly, you can also contact EasyPost sales rep and they can give you
Speaker:a nice demo of the tool itself as well.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:So many ways.
Speaker:Feel free to reach out to me, reach out to Tyler on LinkedIn, anything you want, you
Speaker:know, somebody's gonna help you get there.
Speaker:So thank you Tyler, for being here.
Speaker:I am, this is one of my favorite product updates we've ever had,
Speaker:having an LLM specific to shipping.
Speaker:Huge.
Speaker:Thank you, thank you, not just for being here, but for making it.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:And I'm sure we will see Tyler again.
Speaker:Fan favorite.
Speaker:Everyone wants to hear what's going on with EasyPost.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:We'll see you all next time.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Bye y'all.
