Posted on 02/13/2026 6:45:01 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Shares of several trucking and logistics companies declined Thursday on fears that new artificial intelligence tools could slash major freight inefficiencies, leading to less demand for the industry’s services.
A new tool from AI company Algorhythm Holdings has made trucking companies the latest victim of the market’s AI jitters, adding to the historic sell-off in software stocks and real estate companies. The notable market rotation has come as investors are increasingly scrutinizing traditional businesses that may not be able to keep up with rapid advancements in AI.
Leading trucking and logistics stocks C.H. Robinson and RXO dropped 14.5% and 20.5%, respectively, during Thursday’s session. J.B. Hunt Transportation Services declined about 5%, while XPO lost nearly 6% and logistics company Expeditors International of Washington fell about 13.2%.
There’s an “emerging debate around open-source automation agents such as Molt Bot that offer increased potential to automate routine back-office tasks and help equalize the technology playing field for smaller operators,” said Baird analyst Daniel Moore in a note.
He reiterated his outperform ratings on C.H. Robinson and Expeditors, saying “automation is not a new theme.”
Shares of Algorhythm, a penny stock before Thursday, popped 29.9%, meanwhile.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
This is a pretty significant article.
One of those stories that tells how far a technology has progressed, like it or not.
I’m not sure why this is a BAD thing. “Making trucking companies more efficient tanks profits” WHAT?
“They are losing their cheap, abusable, foreign labor...therefore costs will increase when they have to hire actual qualified US citizens who can read road signs and know how to legally drive on a highway.”
Exactly.
Well said!
And I think everyone knows this, but they’re blaming it on AI.
Wow! Just Wow! Sounds like they are really expert in AI and logistics planning!
/s
If one trucking company alone finds a way to decrease costs, then they will be able to increase profits. But in the case of AI, all of the company’s competitors are going to be using the same method to decrease costs. So, one has to consider the whole market when assessing profitability.
Thanks! Makes perfect sense.
I work with AI quite a bit. My experience is that I was able to get Gemini to write me an AI agent correctly, but it took many iterations, with me consistently refining the requirements and working through bugs. I also got our in-house, sandboxed work AI to write a full-on, dependency-injection version of a method I wrote, with mocks and automated unit tests, with very little by way of the iterative process.
So it can work.
But you need to use prompt frameworks for the best results. I use TACO: TAsk / COntext.
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