The Agentic TMS for Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers
Agentic TMS is Deep Cognition’s transportation management system for freight forwarders and customs brokers. It runs the operational work of a shipment, not just the record of it. A fleet of AI agents reads inbound email, drafts quotes, places bookings, prepares and files customs entries, tracks milestones, and reconciles invoices. Your team approves the decisions that carry risk, and you set how far each agent may go on its own.
Figures from PaperEntry AI deployments, the document engine Agentic TMS is built on. We measure the savings on your own files, not industry averages, so the numbers are yours and confirmed before you commit.
See Agentic TMS Run a Shipment
A walkthrough inside the Command Center: one shipment record, an agent fleet working it, and a person approving the moves that matter.
Agentic TMS product demo · 4 min 50 sec · 1080p · no sign-up required
What Is an Agentic TMS?
A traditional transportation management system is a system of record. It stores the shipment, the booking and the invoice, and it waits for a person to move the work forward between those states. The software holds the data. The staff do the job.
An agentic TMS does the work between the states. Software agents read the documents, draft the quote, chase the carrier, prepare the filing and match the invoice, then hand the shipment to the next agent without waiting for someone to notice it is their turn.
Agentic TMS is built for freight. It is not a general automation tool pointed at logistics, and it does not replace your system of record. It works alongside your existing TMS, including CargoWise.
Who It Is For
Freight forwarders and customs brokers, from a single branch to a global network.
What It Covers
Quotation, booking, export documentation, customs filing, tracking, delivery and billing.
How Control Works
Every action has an autonomy level from L1 to L5, set per agent and per operation.
What It Runs On
PaperEntry AI, the document engine already processing over $1B in goods each year.
Agentic TMS Compared With a Traditional TMS
The distinction is not how much AI is in the product. It is who performs the step between one status and the next.
| Dimension | Traditional TMS | Agentic TMS |
|---|---|---|
| What the software does | Stores and displays the shipment record | Performs the operational steps between states |
| Who moves work forward | A person, once they notice it is queued | An agent, as soon as the previous step closes |
| Inbound email and documents | Read and re-keyed by staff | Read, classified and extracted automatically |
| Exceptions | Surface after they have cost time or money | Scored continuously and raised before they land |
| Control model | Permissions decide who may edit a record | Autonomy levels decide how far an agent may act |
| Audit trail | Who changed which field | Every human and agent action, with the reasoning |
| Effect of rising volume | More headcount | More volume per person |
Seven Agents, One Shipment Record
Each agent owns one step of the shipment lifecycle and hands off to the next automatically. Everything attaches to a single shipment record, so no desk works from its own copy.
Quote and Rate
Reads the RFQ, checks your rate tables and margin targets, and returns a priced quote in minutes.
Booking
Places the booking and confirms vessel, voyage, VGM, SI and CY cutoffs over EDI.
Export
Files the export declaration, B/L and ISF at origin while drayage is already moving.
Transit and Tracking
Scores demurrage and rollover risk from live EDI milestones and flags drift days early.
Customs
Builds the entry from extracted invoice and packing list data, so the broker reviews rather than re-keys.
Inland and Delivery
Tracks rail, drayage and final mile through unload and proof of delivery capture.
Billing and Reconciliation
Three-way matches invoices against POs and shipments so margin is intact before the customer is billed.
You Set How Far Each Agent Goes
Every kind of action carries an autonomy level. Administrators set it per agent and per operation, and a rule engine can override it for specific situations. Start at L2 on a lane you care about, raise it when the results earn it.
| Level | Name | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | Manual | The person does the work. The agent stays out of the way. |
| L2 | Assisted | The agent suggests. The person performs the action. |
| L3 | Supervised | The agent prepares and proposes. A person approves at a decision gate before it fires. |
| L4 | Autonomous | The agent acts on its own. A person can watch and intervene. |
| L5 | Full Auto | The agent handles the step end to end, with no human step. |
The Decision Gate
The decision gate is the moment an agent pauses and asks a person to approve a consequential choice: which carrier to book, whether to pay an invoice, whether to release a hold. Approvals you owe collect in one Approval Inbox rather than scattering across email and chat.
Built for Two Desks That Share One File
Freight Forwarders
You win on margin and lose the day to paperwork. Agents quote, book, chase confirmations and reconcile the file, so coordinators handle exceptions instead of data entry.
- Priced quotes back in minutes, not hours
- Cutoffs confirmed over EDI without phone chasing
- Rollover and demurrage risk flagged before it costs
Customs Brokers
Entry preparation is the bottleneck and the liability. Documents are read, classified and validated, and the entry arrives pre-built with every field traced to its source.
- Template-free extraction across any layout
- HS classification and duty checks validated before filing
- Every field traceable back to the source document
Your TMS Stays the System of Record
Agentic TMS does not ask you to rip anything out. It connects to the systems you already run and writes validated data back into them.
Common Questions About Agentic TMS
What is an agentic TMS?
How is Agentic TMS different from a TMS with AI features?
Does Agentic TMS replace CargoWise or our existing TMS?
How much control do we keep over what the agents do?
How do we know the agents are getting it right?
Which documents can it read?
How long does rollout take?
See It Run a Real Shipment
One shipment record, an agent fleet working it, and a person approving the moves that matter. Book a walkthrough and we will run it against your own documents.
Artificial intelligence. Real results.
