Trucking companies that layer AI tools onto legacy processes will see only marginal gains, Trimble CEO Rob Painter told industry technology leaders at the company's 2026 Insight conference in San Diego on Sept. 28 — arguing that real productivity requires redesigning how work happens, not accelerating old tasks with new power.

"The traditional ways of managing freight are changing," Painter said during the opening session. "The temptation is to view AI as either an existential threat to our industry or a magic wand that solves everything. I think it's neither."

He likened AI to "modern rigging" that lets transportation companies spot a supply chain storm well in advance rather than react after running aground. But the shift from reactive management to real-time orchestration demands updated business processes and infrastructure, he cautioned.

Why the 'electric motor' analogy matters for carriers

Painter reached back more than a century for his central argument. When electric motors displaced steam engines, factories built around the steam engine's constraints kept their old layouts for decades. Productivity only jumped once a new generation of engineers redesigned infrastructure around the cheaper, more efficient power source.

"Today, AI is our electric motor, and the trap that every company faces today is the same: bolting a new power source onto an old operational architecture, using AI to speed up the same tasks and the same legacy processes and wondering why the gains are marginal," Painter said. "We believe that real productivity requires the grit to redesign how work actually happens."

Trimble is applying that logic internally as it integrates AI across its transportation technology portfolio, he said.

The human dimension received equal weight. "What is in front of us is as much of a human problem as a technology problem, because technology is fundamentally changing how people work," Painter said. He also pushed back against any narrative that digital transformation diminishes drivers' role in freight movement.

"Freight still moves because a driver got up this morning and did the job," Painter said.

What did Trimble ship at Insight 2026?

The conference, reported Sept. 30, featured product updates spanning routing, navigation, transportation management, maintenance, yard operations and back-office automation. The rollouts include:

• CoPilot Driver Assistant — a voice-activated enhancement to Trimble's CoPilot navigation platform. Drivers use natural-language commands to find fuel stops and parking and manage trips within hours-of-service limits. A driver requesting a rest break can simply ask, and the system evaluates the route, reviews HOS availability and recommends stopping points — no dispatch call or menu navigation required.
• Route Orchestration for PC Miler — the routing platform, which marked 40 years since launch, now unifies planning, execution, visibility and settlement in a single workflow while balancing safety, tolls and delivery requirements. Kornhauser said Trimble processes 5.5 billion routing requests per month through PC Miler.
• Appian Fleet Assistant — autonomous planning for private fleets, functioning as a virtual dispatcher that applies operational rules and generates multistop route plans automatically.
• Trimble Arc Agent — a general-purpose AI agent launched in August, built as a single conversational interface with a growing catalog of transportation-specific skills. It automates order entry, contract intake and a new request-for-quote generation skill, and users can build custom skills.
• Browser-based upgrades to core carrier TMS platforms TMW.Suite, TruckMate, Innovative and Fuel Dispatch, designed for smoother connections with AI agents.
• AI-powered invoice scanning for TMT Fleet Maintenance and new trailer orchestration capabilities for Trimble Dock & Yard.

Can AI replace dispatchers and planners?

Michael Kornhauser, vice president of Trimble's transportation and logistics sector, acknowledged the nervousness some industry professionals feel about AI adoption but drew a clear line between execution and judgment.

"AI is accelerating and multiplying the value we can deliver to our customers … but AI cannot replace the context, the judgment, the decades of experience," Kornhauser said. "What AI has is infinite execution power. When we add AI execution into the systems you use every day, you get time back in your day. You find efficiencies that reduce cost. And you get the freedom to focus on your most meaningful work."

On dispatch operations specifically, he argued the automation frees scarce talent: "Your best planners are no longer trapped in repetitive work."

For shippers and carriers weighing AI investments, the message from San Diego cuts both ways. The tooling is arriving fast — voice assistants, virtual dispatchers, conversational agents — but Trimble's own leadership frames the payoff as conditional on process redesign rather than plug-in adoption.

"The heart and soul of transportation has not changed," Kornhauser said, "but our ability to transform it has." Expect Trimble to keep expanding Arc Agent's skill catalog and deepening AI integration across its TMS portfolio as fleets test whether redesigned workflows deliver the productivity the electric-motor era eventually unlocked.