Ep 126: Will AI Spark A New Logistics Revolution? Harish Abbott Helped Pioneer Next-Day Shipping — And He’s Betting Yes.

Harish Abbott is a serial entrepreneur at the forefront of the logistics revolution. He sold his last company to Shopify in 2022 for over $2 billion, and now he's back in the arena again. What are the new possibilities with AI? How will it impact workers? And what's the business opportunity he sees that no one else does?

Harish is the co-founder and CEO of Augment, a new platform building AI teammates for logistics operations. Its first product, Augie, already boasts $25 billion in freight under management. Previously, Harish co-founded Deliverr, an e-commerce fulfilment platform (acquired by Shopify) that provided one and two-day shipping to smaller merchants. He started his career at Amazon Fulfillment, where he helped build industry-leading technologies and transform online shopping as we know it.

We begin with Harish's background, why he came to America to build, and what makes our innovation economy unique. We discuss his most important lessons learned at Amazon, from Jeff Bezos obsessing over customer satisfaction to the company's unique writing culture. Next, Harish explains the origins of Deliverr, how he built a delivery network for the non-Amazon and Walmart world, and lessons learned from selling to Shopify. Then, we dive into the inflection point that sparked Augment, and how advances in LLMs can now manage vast asynchronous workflows and transform how information is traded. Learn why Harish sees a trillion dollar global opportunity to reduce waste in logistics, how he plans to capitalize on it, and why he believes AI can elevate brokers and shippers to higher-order thinking — a win for humans and the economy.

00:00 Episode intro

01:38 Merit matters & why build in the U.S.

05:00 Lessons from Amazon & Jeff Bezos

10:29 Deliverr & bringing next-day shipping to non-Amazon world

17:15 AI & the next logistics revolution

23:58 Meet Augie - the AI teammate for logistics

28:35 The trillion dollar opportunity

32:05 The AI talent battle

38:56 Reasons for optimism

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blog.joelonsdale.com