Add an AI inbox layer to CargoWise. No migration required.
TIO reads every inbound freight email, extracts the fields, and pre-fills your CargoWise record for review. Your team approves every write. CargoWise stays your system of record. The inbox-to-TMS prep work your team does by hand today stops being a manual task.
What is a CargoWise AI layer?
A CargoWise AI layer is software that sits between your email inbox and CargoWise. It handles the coordination work your ops team currently does by hand: reading each inbound freight email, identifying which CargoWise job it belongs to, extracting the relevant fields, and pre-filling the CargoWise record so your team can review and approve instead of type.
It is not a TMS replacement. It does not change your team's workflow inside CargoWise. Your job management, billing, and customs filing stay unchanged. TIO adds the inbox-reading and pre-fill step on top of what you already have. The gap between the email inbox and the CargoWise record — the part that currently costs 15 to 30 minutes of ops time per email — is what TIO closes.
Three options after the CargoWise Value Pack change
WiseTech Global moved 95% of CargoWise customers to per-transaction CVP pricing on December 1, 2025. Small forwarders in the 50 to 200 container range are seeing 20 to 40 percent cost increases. That creates three realistic paths. For the full cost breakdown, see What the CargoWise Value Pack Change Means for Small Freight Forwarders.
| Option | What it costs | What it solves | What it misses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch TMS | 6 to 18 months of migration: data, retraining, reduced throughput | Eliminates the CVP per-transaction fee | Large one-time operational risk; team productivity drops during transition |
| Stay on CargoWise, hire more staff | Full salary plus onboarding; scales with volume | Buys more manual capacity short-term | $20/container software fee vs 15 to 30 minutes of staff time per container — the manual path is more expensive at volume |
| Stay on CargoWise, add TIO inbox layer | Sized to operator-hours saved | Recovers the 15 to 30 minutes of manual prep per email the CVP cost increase did not | Your team still approves every CargoWise write |
What TIO does on top of CargoWise
Inbox reads as emails arrive
Pre-alerts, booking confirmations, arrival notices, LFD notices. TIO reads every inbound freight email the moment it lands and identifies which CargoWise job it belongs to.
Fields extracted, record pre-filled
TIO pulls MBL, HBL, vessel, voyage, ETD, ETA, container, parties, and charges. It pre-fills the CargoWise record for your team with a confidence score and source text for every field.
Your team reviews and approves
Nothing writes to CargoWise without a human reviewing it. Your team sees a pre-filled record, corrects any flagged fields, and approves. The CargoWise workflow, billing, and customs filing stay exactly as they are.
Exceptions surfaced, not buried
TIO flags jobs that are missing an expected update, overdue pre-alert, or approaching an LFD date. Your team works exceptions instead of manually checking every open job.
How to add TIO as a CargoWise AI layer: 5 steps
- Connect your inbox. TIO connects to the distribution list where your pre-alerts, booking confirmations, and arrival notices land. No CargoWise configuration changes required. Your team's inbox access stays exactly as it is.
- TIO reads and binds. As each email arrives, TIO identifies which CargoWise job it belongs to. It uses reference numbers, vessel details, container numbers, and sender patterns to match the email to the correct open job.
- Review the pre-filled record. TIO extracts the relevant fields and surfaces a pre-filled CargoWise record for your team. Instead of 15 to 30 minutes of manual entry per email, your team sees a review screen with every field already populated and low-confidence values flagged.
- Approve the write. Your team reviews the pre-filled fields, corrects anything flagged as low confidence, and saves the record to CargoWise. Every write is human-approved before it posts. Nothing reaches CargoWise autonomously.
- Work exceptions, not inboxes. TIO flags which jobs have not received an expected update, are missing a pre-alert, or are approaching an LFD date. Your team works the exception list instead of manually checking every open job in CargoWise.
The math
A 200-container-per-month operation is paying roughly $65,790 per year in CargoWise per-transaction fees under CVP, per WiseTech's published pricing and industry analysis. At 20 minutes of manual data entry per inbound freight email, with three to four emails per container job, that same team is spending an estimated 200 to 267 hours per month on email data entry (illustrative, based on ops team feedback from active forwarding operations). At a fully loaded ops staff cost of $30 to $50 per hour (illustrative range), that is $6,000 to $13,000 per month in recoverable labor.
The CargoWise per-transaction cost is visible on the invoice. The email data entry cost shows up as payroll. Both are real. TIO addresses the payroll side — the part that grows with every new job your team takes on.
Common questions
What is a CargoWise AI layer?
A CargoWise AI layer is software that sits between your email inbox and CargoWise, handling the work of reading inbound freight emails, extracting the relevant fields, and pre-filling the CargoWise record for your team to review. It does not replace CargoWise or change your team's workflow inside CargoWise. Your team reviews the pre-filled record and approves every write. Nothing posts to CargoWise without a human reviewing it first.
Does adding an AI layer require migrating away from CargoWise?
No. TIO connects to your existing CargoWise environment without a migration. Your team continues using CargoWise exactly as they do today. CargoWise remains the system of record for all job data, billing, and customs filing.
How does the CargoWise Value Pack pricing change affect small forwarders?
WiseTech Global moved 95% of CargoWise customers to per-transaction CVP pricing on December 1, 2025. Under CVP, forwarders pay $19.95 per full import container and $9.95 per standalone customs entry, per WiseTech's published pricing. Small operations in the 50 to 100 container range are seeing 20 to 30 percent cost increases. An AI inbox layer recovers the ops hours the cost increase did not address.
What specifically does TIO do with CargoWise freight emails?
TIO reads each inbound freight email as it arrives, identifies which CargoWise job it belongs to, and extracts the structured fields: MBL and HBL numbers, vessel, voyage, ETD and ETA, container number, parties (shipper, consignee, notify party), commodity, and HTS candidates. It pre-fills the corresponding CargoWise record and flags any low-confidence fields for review. Your team approves every write.
How long does it take to add TIO on top of CargoWise?
Setup runs in days. TIO connects to your existing inbox and CargoWise environment via API. There is no data migration, no retraining project, and no CargoWise configuration change required for your team.