Logistics shows up on Built This Week in the jobs around moving physical things: counting what goes on a truck, tracing an order until it leaves the warehouse, and getting a driver from one stop to the next. Zach Rattner of Yembo builds moving inventories from a customer's phone video. Wiley Jones of Doss runs order and inventory systems for companies that ship products. Anthony Monteiro used AI to route drivers at his previous startup. No guest has run a freight carrier or a warehouse, so this page sticks to what those three said.
This is important for preparedness on the day of the move, making sure the crew brings the right equipment so you don't have exceptions on the day of the move.
— Zach Rattner, Episode 49
How companies we talked to use AI in logistics
Yembo: the moving survey, done from a phone
Zach walked through a move from New York to London. Traditionally someone comes to the house and writes down everything that needs to go, which decides the truck size and the number of cartons, plus customs paperwork for international moves and DOT rules for domestic ones. That visit takes 60 to 90 minutes. With Yembo, the customer gets a texted link, scans each room in the phone's browser, and the AI identifies the items. (Episode 49, from 02:55)
The output is a "visual inventory": numbered, color-coded photos of every item, a packing materials estimate, and items marked moving or not moving with a time stamp. The crew uses it as a checklist for loading and unloading, and if something arrives damaged, both sides can see what it looked like before. Zach said the moving product runs in about 35 countries and does thousands of inspections every day.
Jordan's read was that movers aren't technology-first. They work without a computer and keep manifests on paper, so handing AI straight to movers would probably fail fast. Yembo puts it in the customer's hands instead, and the mover's paperwork just gets better. The same capture also serves property insurers; see AI in real estate and AI in insurance.
Doss: from sales order to shipping label
Wiley described Doss in one line:
To put it really succinctly, we help our customers manage the flow of goods, dollars, and data.
— Wiley Jones, Episode 44
In the demo he asked the built-in agent how orders get fulfilled. It traced the process line by line from sales order to scanning and leaving the warehouse. Third-party shipments buy labels through ShipStation, pickup and local delivery orders get dummy labels so people know who a package is for, and transfer orders work the same way. The agent reads the system's own workflows rather than documentation. Jordan called that exposed tribal knowledge; Wiley called it implicit system behavior made explicit. (Episode 44, from 15:44)
Routing drivers for vehicle pick-up and drop-off
Before Auto Acquire AI, Anthony built a platform that picked up and dropped off vehicles. He said it had to lean on AI long before today's LLMs, much like DoorDash or Uber working out the next closest job for a driver. (Episode 25, at 15:21)
We had to lean into AI really heavily because we built a logistics platform of picking and dropping off vehicles and to determine how long it takes to go from point a to point b, and each driver had different characteristics and traffic patterns and time of day and all of these things
— Anthony Monteiro, Episode 25
What we built
We haven't built a logistics tool on the show; both deep conversations were guest demos. The closest we came was a news segment in Episode 20 on Amazon testing robotic micro-fulfillment inside Whole Foods. Jordan explained the warehouse idea behind it: Amazon bought Kiva robots so shelves come to a picker who never moves, instead of pickers walking aisles with pushcarts. Apply that to a supermarket and online grocery orders get picked much faster. His prediction was that going to the store becomes optional, because the robot will be faster, cheaper and easier.
What's still hard
- The people doing the work aren't on computers. Movers do inspections and manifests by hand. AI has to fit around them, not ask them to change.
- AI in the physical world lacks guardrails. Zach said there is rarely mature infrastructure around the people using it, or clear limits on what it can and can't do, so the right design is anything but obvious at the start.
- Too many variables to route by hand. Anthony said that without AI you could never line up both ends of a pick-up and drop-off and get the driver to the next job.
- Process knowledge is scattered. How labels get bought or transfers get handled often lives in a few people's heads. Doss's answer is an agent that reads the workflows themselves.
- Switching systems is rare. Wiley said only about 5 to 10% of the market looks to move each year, usually after fast growth, a new product line or a sale.
Episodes on AI in logistics
- Episode 20: Compliance, Pomelli, and the Rise of the Robots: Amazon's robots in Whole Foods (November 2025).
- Episode 25: Car Dealers Are Losing Inventory with Anthony Monteiro of Auto Acquire AI (December 2025).
- Episode 44: This AI Platform Lets Anyone Manage Operations with Wiley Jones of Doss (May 2026).
- Episode 49: A Ten Minute Phone Video Replaces Hours of Home Inspections with Zach Rattner of Yembo (July 2026).
FAQ
How is AI used in logistics?
On our show it came up three ways: Yembo uses computer vision to build a moving company's inventory from a customer's phone video, Doss's agent explains how orders move from sale to shipping label, and Anthony Monteiro's earlier startup used AI to route drivers picking up and dropping off vehicles.
How does AI help moving companies?
Yembo replaces a 60 to 90-minute in-home survey with a phone scan. The AI lists every item with photos and calculates packing materials, which tells the mover what size truck and how many cartons to bring, and gives both sides a checklist and a record for damage claims.
Do movers need to learn AI to use it?
No. Jordan's point in Episode 49 was that the homeowner runs the scan, so the mover gets a better document without changing how they work or even knowing AI is involved.
Is AI routing for drivers new?
Not for Anthony Monteiro. His previous startup, a vehicle pick-up and drop-off platform, leaned heavily on AI before today's LLMs to estimate travel times using each driver's characteristics, traffic and time of day.