FourKites wins top usability award for AI-powered supply chain
FourKites has been recognised as an Accelerator in the Nucleus Research 2025 Control Tower Technology Value Matrix, with its platform ranked second highest for usability among 15 vendors evaluated by the research firm.
This marks the first time that FourKites has contributed to the control tower category evaluation. Nucleus Research assessed the company's Intelligent Control Tower, powered by real-time, global, multimodal network data, and included extensive customer feedback as part of the selection process. The report highlighted the company's ability to analyse real-time disruptions in supply chain networks and determine both financial and operational impacts.
According to Nucleus Research, FourKites was recognised as a "full execution-centric platform," and earned the second-highest position on the matrix's Greater Usability axis. Customer responses cited rapid adoption and value extension across both supply chain and customer operations. The research report noted particularly FourKites' ability to "analyse disruptions in real time and determine the financial and operational impact."
Mathew Elenjickal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at FourKites, commented on the findings.
"Ten years ago, FourKites pioneered the real-time transportation visibility category. Now, we're transforming the control tower space," said Mathew Elenjickal. "Unlike other vendors, we're the only control tower solution built on a real-time, global, multimodal network foundation that gives our digital twins and AI workers complete context around every supply chain object - orders, shipments, inventory, assets, and facilities. Shippers no longer need to settle for monolithic platforms. Our modular, AI-first approach simplifies deployment and accelerates time to value, allowing companies to start small and expand based on results."
The report also emphasised the distinctive real-time automation capabilities supported by the company's AI agents, stating: "Unlike traditional automation or RPA, [FourKites' AI] agents act autonomously across multiple systems and channels to resolve disruptions in real time. Each agent can coordinate complex workflows that previously required large human teams, effectively reducing response time and effort in supply chain operations."
AI agents and automation
Charles Brennan, Senior Analyst at Nucleus Research, highlighted a shift in market demand and the benefits provided by FourKites' AI-driven approach.
"The control tower market is seeing increased demand for solutions that can automate execution and prevent disruptions across departments, rather than just identify risks," said Charles Brennan. "FourKites' approach uses AI agents to handle workflows that previously required multiple team members. The platform's ability to work across systems and channels can help teams scale by reducing manual intervention in supply chain operations."
Since moving into AI-powered orchestration for supply chain, FourKites has introduced five AI agents, a natural language analytics platform, and enhanced capabilities for yard and scheduling automation. The company's proprietary AI models are trained using a wide range of supply chain-specific data, including billions of shipments, six million supply chain documents, and more than 12,000 hours of voice data.
Network and data foundation
FourKites processes over 3.2 million supply chain events each day, spanning air, ocean, rail, and road transportation. This network foundation aims to provide comprehensive context to the company's digital twins and AI workers, allowing a deeper level of understanding for variables such as individual orders and shipments, inventory levels, asset locations, and facility operations. FourKites states that this real-time global data enables more precise decision-making compared to platforms that rely on delayed or fragmented data.
Customer outcomes
Several customer use cases were highlighted to demonstrate the company's automation impact. The Coca-Cola Company used FourKites' AI agent Tracy to reduce customer service response times from 90 minutes to seconds by handling stale location data, identifying missing information, and proactively liaising with carriers. Trane Technologies eliminated 98.6% of detention costs at two sites through monitoring and operational reviews supported by the platform.
Alongside automated actions, FourKites' analytics capabilities, such as the Order Risk Dashboard, offer supply chain leaders real-time insights on performance indicators, including on-time in-full rates, revenue at risk, and exception alerts. Outdoor retailer Orvis leveraged FourKites' order visibility features to decrease manual tracking, enhance inbound visibility, and proactively manage orders potentially facing delays or requiring expedited action. The company now uses Order Insights for real-time network snapshots, helping identify bottlenecks, root causes of exceptions, and to measure KPI performance.
Research methodology
The Nucleus Research Value Matrix evaluates control tower technology vendors by measuring both usability and functionality. Acceleration category recognition is given to solutions delivering above-average usability and advancing functionality to match the evolving needs of customers in the market.
