An Interview with KlearNow.AI’s Rick Tellez

MVPro Media’s Matt Williams spoke to Rick Tellez, the co-founder of KlearNow.AI. Tellez explained KlearNow.AI’s role within the industry, and the company’s plans for the future.

MW: Firstly, could you start by telling us about yourself and your role within KlearNow.AI?

RT: Our CEO Sam Tyagi and I co-founded the company in 2018 when we saw the frustrations faced by today’s supply chain and customs clearance operators. We identified that legacy TMS systems were not going to support the inevitable evolution of digital supply chains and decided to do something about it.

My career spans 20 years of managing operations, process improvement, hub and gateway management, labour negotiations, special project management, and sales for the largest logistics company in the world. I use this first-hand experience to inform the strategy behind KlearNow.AI’s logistics technology and services.

MW: What are some of KlearNow.AI’s most popular solutions? 

RT: KlearNow.AI helps businesses address the increasingly complex challenges facing supply chains today. It uses Artificial Intelligence to automate the information-gathering process across diverse geographies, entities and documents essential for international trade. It connects importers, customs brokers, freight forwarders, carriers and truckers with shipment data, using a singular digital platform to avoid any gaps in communication and improve visibility for all involved in the shipment.

The patented AI technology also eliminates bottlenecks, proactively identifies potentially costly delays and determines immediate actions to remedy the situation, such as rerouting assets or reaching out to a partner who has yet to provide a critical data point.

MW: Which industries/professions use KlearNow.AI’s solutions most frequently? 

RT: Supply chains and their complex fragility were highlighted during the pandemic. Disruption across the global trading environment spurred by unanticipated changes in demand meant all of us now have a ‘supply chain’ story.

International logistics is one of the last industries to embrace digitisation, but the benefits of enhancing global trade processes are massive. The WTO estimates that digitised trade can cut costs by 6% and boost trade flows by $1 trillion per year.

The KlearNow platform unifies the data and then the communication between imports, exporters, global customs authorities, brokers and transport providers involved in a logistics movement, increasing transparency and accountability across the entire chain.

To date, over 1,000 organisations have adopted KlearNow.AI’s platform to become more productive and efficient, including those in furniture, industrial/manufacturing, food and beverage, automotive/transportation, apparel/footwear, chemicals and other industries.

MW: How has KlearNow.AI changed the world of machine vision? 

RT: Our advanced AI- and ML-powered platform already has five years of development behind it – we never questioned whether people would use it, but rather when would be the right time.

The KlearNow platform is entirely agnostic, meaning any entity in global trade can use its advanced capabilities, regardless of their current processes. AI can ‘read’ unstructured data in any format or language, extract the relevant information and populate any system. Critically, using ML, it ‘learns’ which data is relevant to each operation for future use.

AI introduces an additional layer of awareness, giving users a more granular insight into each micro-movement. With this additional knowledge, logistics providers can predict and understand ‘hidden’ costs such as port fees and better manage the financial process along the entire chain.

MW: What new product releases/projects are KlearNow.AI most excited about this year?  

RT: Taking a page from ChatGPT, we are planning to offer our pioneering AI and ML engines to the global logistics market. Instead of customs brokers and freight forwarders having to develop their own AI underpinned systems, KlearNow will package its Customs and Data Engines separately and allow all to benefit from the technology advancements that AI brings to the supply chain industry.

Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers will be able to capture data critical to their processes quicker and more accurately than ever before. They can use this data in their own systems and business process, reaping the benefits of automation and allowing their teams to focus on high-value-adding customer-orientated tasks.

MW: Are there any plans to expand KlearNow.AI in the future? 

RT: We have recently added The Netherlands to our global portfolio and aim to extend our European reach to more markets this year. We will soon launch a standalone AI and ML engine to help anyone involved in Trade and Logistics digitise and extract the data from the multiple paper documents used in international trade.

Find out more about KlearNow.AI.

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