Motive released its new AI Answers tool at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition, dubbing it the first conversational AI tool for physical operations.
It understands natural language questions and provides instant answers on topics from fleet safety to fuel efficiency and maintenance spend. It allows operational staff to make faster data-backed decisions to improve safety and productivity, Motive said during a demonstration to truck press and customers at the event.
AI Answers can respond to questions such as “Which drivers had the most idling time last week?” or “What was our average vehicle downtime last month?” It can also handle follow-up questions in plain language. Built into Motive Analytics, AI Answers also provides live dashboards showing safety, fuel, fleet performance and cost data.
Drilldowns are available to explore root cause analysis and users can generate executive-ready reports.
Hemant Banavar, chief product officer, said AI Answers will help fleets manage the challenges they face today, such as inflationary input costs, a shortage of qualified drivers and deteriorating road safety.
“Our roads are less safe than before, with more accidents, higher insurance costs, and all of that is putting downward pressure on our folks in our industry to run a profitable business,” Banavar said. “What that means is everyone is trying to spend time finding ways to find efficiency in the business and using that to somehow increase profitability.”
Telematics is generating the data needed to find solutions, but analyzing spreadsheets and dashboards is time consuming – and not a skill everyone in operations possesses. AI Answers can be used to help fleets identify their most profitable lanes or freight mix, benchmark various regions or terminals, or even identify where suspicious activity such as fuel theft may be occurring, all by asking questions.
Previously, said Banavar, such decisions would typically involve looping in two or more people and poring over spreadsheets, resulting in lost time and revenue.
“By the time you realize what the problem is that you have to solve – maybe you’re looking for the worst driver who is costing you the most money – by the time you know the answer, they have left the company and now you start over again,” he said. “It’s really frustrating.”
Emily Parsons, Motive product manager, added “Our goal is, with all of the data that’s available within Motive, to give it to our customers in a way that’s accessible, easy to understand and in the most meaningful way.”
She said an analytics background is no longer needed to make sense of all the data generated by the company’s telematics, thanks to the assistance of AI.
“You can easily create custom reports using just a few keywords and clicks,” she explained. “Imagine simply asking a question or making a statement and having AI do the heavy lifting. You can easily ask a question in your own words, as if you’re tapping the shoulder of an analyst on your team.”
During her demonstration Parsons revealed how AI Answers could instantly report how driving distances have trended over the past three months or year. It can identify seasonal trends to help fleets prepare for their busiest periods.
It can identify utilization rate by region, even breaking the data down by total engine-on time or driving time. AI Answers can also assess fuel spend and identify where there’s suspicious activity.
“I’m now able to take action on this before it becomes a bigger issue, given this could indicate some type of fuel card misuse or fraud,” she added.
Banavar then welcomed Michael O’Neil, project manager with car hauler Reliable Carriers to discuss his experience in testing the platform. Previously, O’Neil said, he had to pull Excel spreadsheets and make cross-references between multiple sources. Not everyone can make sense of complex spreadsheets, he said.
“Using these kinds of tools makes it so, really, anybody can do this,” he said. “There’s no longer that pain point of, ‘I don’t understand what I’m looking at’.”
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