Ryan Petersen on AI, Logistics, and the Future of Flexport

In this episode of Y Combinator's podcast The Light Cone, Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen explains how artificial intelligence is transforming global logistics. Petersen details how AI already saved 2% of Flexport's ocean freight spend while improving transit time 20%, how the company aims to make ocean container shipping 8-10% cheaper, and how AI agents now make phone calls, parse contracts, detect unhappy customers, and automate freight forwarding work. He also reflects on incumbency advantages in AI, his personal 'founder mode' evolution, capital discipline, and a sweeping philosophical vision of what automation means for humanity.