AI as an Augmenter, Or is it a Replacement?
AI is often hyped as some magic potion that will replace humans entirely—especially in development. “AI will replace programmers!” they say. Personally, I think that’s a big, steaming pile of nonsense. I’ve always believed that AI assists programmers, but it doesn’t replace them.
Then, we at 1Logtech went and proved myself wrong—well, kind of.
AI as an Augmenter
For over a year, 1Logtech has been a fully functional integration middleware for logistics data, providing self-connect no-code abilities for truckload(TL) Less-than-Truckload (LTL), final-mile and customer connectivity. All your classic (EDI or API) logistics operational data – tenders, bookings, status, documents, orders etc. But about a month ago, we introduced an internal AI tool. Initially, it was something our dev team used to speed up API integrations. The results were impressive—AI took over the heavy lifting of analyzing payload data, making the integration process far more efficient.
Every API still needs someone to program it, but what has changed is where that programming happens. Instead of developers manually deciphering what an API needs, the AI now does the grunt work, allowing an SME (subject matter expert) to step in, refine, test, and finalize the integration.
Let me give you more specifics. In transportation, every LTL carrier has a unique API suite that needs to be integrated. Typically, this process takes a dev team 100–150 hours per carrier. With our AI tool? We had new integrations ready for testing in about a day. That’s not just a speed boost—that’s game-changing. And this is just one example. While we’ve seen a dramatic impact in LTL integrations, our AI tool isn’t limited to just that—it can also streamline TL, WMS, ERP, and really any API integration. The potential here goes far beyond just one segment of logistics.
Then We Took the Next Step—With Unexpected Results (and Maybe a Job Thief?)
From the start, we planned to bring in SMEs to handle integrations, but we didn’t anticipate just how dramatic the shift would be. We already use SMEs to self-connect for EDI, but now, AI enables them to tackle API integrations as well—further automating and streamlining the process. So, we handed our AI tools to an SME (not a developer, just someone who knows transportation) and asked them to integrate new carriers.
And guess what? It worked.
In their first week—while still being trained—they brought two carriers into production. We ran into a few roadblocks (looking at you, FedEx LTL APIs), but we powered through.
By week two, things got even crazier. Our SME could now set up a new LTL carrier API in about a day, and they believe that once fully tuned in, they’ll be able to complete the setup in half a day. Yes, testing and operational setup with clients still takes time, but the actual integration programming? We’ve gone from 100–150 hours down to mere hours. That’s not just an improvement—it’s a revolution.
So, About That “AI Won’t Replace Developers” Thing…
Yeah, turns out AI can replace programmers—at least for certain tasks. We still need devs to build and refine the iPaaS and integrate the AI, but for heavy-lifting EDI and API integrations? We’ve practically eliminated the need for traditional development work.
AI is changing the game—not by replacing humans, but by amplifying what they can do. It’s shifting how we approach problem-solving. By using AI smartly, we’ve cut costs, sped up implementation, and made integrations so simple that even non-developers can do it. It’s not that we’re eliminating developers—it’s that we’re turning non-developers into developers. So really, we didn’t replace programmers; we just changed who does the programming.