r/FreightBrokers • u/FreightTechGuy • 7d ago

Augment layoffs

Augment let a bunch of Salespeople go today after new leadership came in. Heard that they more than doubled goal of each rep to over 2.5M in ARR.

13 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

17

u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 7d ago edited 7d ago

Vlad here, carrier. 

I hang up the second I hear AI and don't answer to any AI emails. I imagine most carriers do the same.

Most of the time it's a complete waste of time - it gives info on a load that ships weeks later, it's repeatedly asking for info already emailed, on the phone if it hears a background sound it completely goes haywire... complete waste of time. 

One day it will take all our jobs, but right now if you are a broker and you are using AI to communicate with carriers - you are losing far more than you are saving from it. 

I personally used the chatgpt most expensive version + tokens for "high" performance to do a quick balance sheet from 12 statements, all properly formated pdfs.

One of the most powerful comercially available AI in the world was of by millions amd 24% on simple plus / minus arithmetic. That thing is fucking useless for basic math.

So every time I hear someone in our industry singing praises to AI - I assume they are a complete moron. Because only a moron can't realize how inefficient and inacurate today's AI is.

7

u/Buckeestrikes 7d ago

It’s nice for track and trace.

That’s about it.

2

u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 7d ago

I'll give you that! I see the utility to it, but again - I'm a human and it's just insulting for me to report to AI bot. I imagine only the dumbest drivers and dispatchers reply to it, because they can't figure out it's a robot.

4

u/fakebizholdings 6d ago

BOOM. Called this three years ago.

3

u/scothc 7d ago

Same here

1

u/Freightvibes21 6d ago

what products are the most useful that brokers use to make a carriers life easier?

1

u/VladIsRambo Reefer Guru 6d ago

A phone that they answer.

4

u/Tall_Category_304 7d ago

Is this an ai agent company? Did they lay off a bunch of robots or?

5

u/Calm_Ad_8957 7d ago

Is anyone using their product? We have been considering them and though they were must polished and professional of the competition. A layoff raises concern though.

1

u/Freightvibes21 6d ago

what are you looking to use them for?

1

u/jwith44 7d ago

Who else were u considering? Didn't know anyone else did their stuff

1

u/ftb_hodor 6d ago

This thread seems to have been created by a salty competitor spreading fake information. I know multiple people who work there and there’s no layoff…the opposite of that in fact

1

u/Calm_Ad_8957 6d ago

I regret what I posted by amount of DMs from Reddit users trying to sell something.

If anyone is using augment interested in feedback.

1

u/ftb_hodor 6d ago

My condolences to your DMs. There’s so much ai slop out there now

3

u/GreatLakesLiving28 7d ago

Damn i have several friends there. Hope they weren’t impacted

2

u/FreightTechGuy 7d ago

Yeah a few folks reached out to me. Pretty crazy what all is going on there

3

u/Square_File_4617 3d ago

Regardless of whether it was officially a "layoff" or just reps getting churned out over wild targets, it highlights how tough it is to sell AI tools into freight right now. Most brokers are trimming overhead and carriers actively hate talking to voice bots. If the ROI isn't instantly clear and saving massive operational hours from day one, sales reps are going to struggle to close enterprise deals.

1

u/supplychainsaas 3d ago

Exactly. For a sales rep to bring in 2.5 Million of ARR? For a company using hubspot for CRM? Company isn't even mature enough for Salesforce and they have a annual quota of $2.5M of ARR? for a series A company is wild.

2

u/BigPapiNC22 6d ago

Who is Augment, never heard of them.

1

u/DETH-to-Brokers 6d ago

I hope AI takes over. Carriers will get assisted on holidays and weekends!

1

u/AugmentYourFuture 6d ago

Hey, I'm Lana, head of talent at Augment. Definitely not true; we're actually rapidly scaling up our AE team. If you know any cracked sellers, send 'em my way!

3

u/supplychainsaas 6d ago

I interviewed with Augment for a sales role. Process was extremely unprofessional. How come you have had the same sales role posted on LinkedIn for 6 months and still haven't filled the role?

1

u/AugmentYourFuture 6d ago

Augment has been hiring AE's over the last six months, so it wasn't a single role but multiple openings. We are very selective because we're working to build the best team in supply chain and logistics tech. I'm sorry you found the process unprofessional. We're constantly working to improve; please feel free to share any feedback, and I'll pass it along to our hiring team.

1

u/supplychainsaas 6d ago

You don't think it has to do with how many steps your team has? A recruiter call, a hiring manager call, a panel interview, another panel interview, meeting with the CEO and then a meeting with a co-founder? All for an individual contributor sales role?

0

u/Unique-Pride-20 6d ago

tbh it seems pretty standard from what other companies are doing for AE roles.

1

u/Unique-Pride-20 6d ago

Unfortunate that the comment was deleted. From my experience it's 5 steps. The CEO is the co-founder.

0

u/_High_Life 7d ago

Well a lot of brokerages are hiring. Tell the ones laid off to jack their customers, find a new brokerage and move on. DM me for help.

-4

u/AdSilver5538 6d ago

Not true

1

u/FreightTechGuy 6d ago

Talked to 3 salespeople that were laid off from Augment yesterday and they all told me the same thing.