Ashfaque Chowdhury

Well, I've had the good fortune to be involved in the logistics industry for a couple of decades here.

And over the years, I've always been fascinated by the different types of supply chains and the different ways we have evolved how we can meet customers' needs better and how automation and robotics has shaped that.

So both at XPO and at SIVA.

I have had the background of looking at hundreds of customer supply chains, which is very helpful as you start to build a robotic logistics platform like we're doing at Exxon and a lot of exposure to the

different types of automation and robotics as it has evolved over the last decade or two.

Well, I think most companies know that they need to

use automation as the demands for complexity and cost continues to rise in their supply chain.

But very few companies have the skill, the knowledge, sometimes the funding necessary to really develop and take advantage of the robotics and AI related advancements that are happening.

What Excel is doing is essentially providing that company a pathway to improve their supply chain, make it world-class by adopting our platform and being able to take advantage of robotics and AI.

Robotics platforms that are available today operate economically and operates well at a large scale.

And so by having a platform that efficiency that comes with automation, the efficiency that comes with scale is now available to customers.

They no longer need to have a very significant upfront capital if people wanted to build it themselves or get into a very long-term rigid contract, which as business changes or grows or how the evolution of somebody's business changes,

that locked in infrastructure sometimes does not fit.

So what we provide companies is the flexibility to grow and to very quickly adopt the automation that I think a lot of companies want.

Finally, one of the other aspects of this platform is as continued complexity is coming into the supply chain, for example, as new channels emerge, companies are now suddenly finding themselves having to fulfill from TikTok, for example.

A platform like ours enables them to continue to adopt those channels very easily, quickly.

Over the next few years, I think the logistics business will start looking more like cloud computing.

The best-run companies will stop asking whether they need to own every piece of infrastructure themselves and instead ask how to access the best infrastructure with the most control, visibility, and flexibility that enables them to make their supply chain better and grow the business.

Enabling is the ability for companies to manage their business with less reliance on labor.

And as you know, labor and availability of labor is a major challenge and a growing challenge in many people, in many supply chains today.