Trimble is rolling out a new artificial intelligence tool designed to take some of the repetitive work out of fleet back offices, from entering freight orders into the TMS to handling maintenance notifications and scanning invoices.

The new Trimble Arc Agent is an AI agent that connects with Trimble transportation management systems and common business applications such as Gmail and Outlook.

Rather than requiring employees to move information manually from emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, and other sources into fleet systems, the Trimble Arc Agent can extract and validate that information and put it into the appropriate system.

For motor carriers, Arc Agent works across Trimble’s carrier TMS products, including Trimble TMS, TMW.Suite and TruckMate.

The company says the goal is to automate repetitive processes that still consume significant staff time despite fleets’ investments in transportation management and other software.

What Can Trimble Arc Agent Do for Fleets?

One of the most straightforward examples of motor carrier use of the Trimble Arc Agent is freight order entry.

Arc Agent can extract freight-order information from PDF or text files and submit that information directly into TMW.Suite, eliminating the need for someone to read the document and manually enter the fields into the TMS.

But Trimble sees the technology extending into other areas of fleet operations as well.

On the maintenance side, Arc Agent can work with TMT Connected Maintenance to automate maintenance notifications, road calls, vendor interactions and invoice scanning.

It also can provide how-to information and create support tickets for Trimble products including TMW.Suite, TMT, TruckMate and CoPilot.

Other potential fleet applications include assistance with fuel strategy, pricing guidance, and cost optimization. For tanker fleets, for instance, Arc Agent can recommend wash facilities and provide lane-pricing information.

The agent also can pull together information from emails, calendars, messages, and project-management applications and turn it into a prioritized list.

One AI Agent, Multiple 'Skills'

The “skills” concept is central to how Trimble is positioning Arc Agent.

Instead of deploying separate AI agents for different jobs, Arc Agent uses a catalog of skills that allow the same agent to perform different types of work. Initial skills include order entry and contract intake, business-term negotiations, support-ticket creation, and the personal-assistant function.

That could allow a carrier to automate processes specific to its own operation rather than being limited to the workflows Trimble has developed.

“The market is flooded with disconnected AI tools that require constant babysitting and manual management,” said Jonah McIntire, chief product and technology officer for transportation and logistics at Trimble.

He said Arc Agent is intended to provide a single agent that can use different skills while retaining and consistently applying an organization’s operational knowledge.

Keeping Humans in the Loop

As fleets experiment with AI that does more than answer questions or summarize information, the reliability of autonomous actions becomes more important.

Fleets also can adapt existing skills or build their own through a conversational interface without engineering resources, according to Trimble. The company said several fleets and carriers are currently piloting custom skills.

Trimble says Arc Agent includes enterprise AI guardrails and human-in-the-loop controls intended to make its actions explainable and auditable and to reduce the risk of AI hallucinations.

That distinction matters when an AI system is entering information into a TMS, handling maintenance workflows, or performing other tasks that can affect actual fleet operations.

Arc Agent is offered as a software-as-a-service subscription and is available to Trimble customers worldwide. The subscription has no seat limits or feature gates and includes 10 hours of agent working time, with additional hours available. Customers automatically receive new skills and features as Trimble adds them to the Arc Agent catalog.