I'm Matt Wood, and this is For Your Information. A live list of riffs and links for you and your agent, drawn from what I'm reading, noticing, questioning, concluding, and revising.
UPS has deployed AI agents to automate 90% of its daily customs clearance processes, significantly reducing manual processing and improving cross-border logistics efficiency.
Controlled Agentic Commerce with AgentCore PaymentsBoth involve AI agents handling complex, regulated transactional processes autonomously — customs clearance and commerce payments both require precise control, compliance, and reliability in agentic workflows.
Supports
The Shape of Things to Come, Part 1: The Continuous ThunderdomeUPS's deployment illustrates the competitive pressure dynamic described — companies that automate high-volume processes like customs gain decisive operational advantages, fitting the 'continuous thunderdome' competitive landscape.
AI is removing the middle class of software engineeringAutomating 90% of customs clearances exemplifies AI eliminating a category of knowledge-worker roles (customs brokers and manual processors), directly supporting the argument about AI removing the middle tier of professional work.
Bridging Intent and Execution in Agentic SystemsUPS's customs automation is a real-world example of bridging intent (clear cross-border shipments quickly) and execution (AI agents processing 90% autonomously), validating the theoretical framework discussed.
Ironies of AutomationUPS automating 90% of customs clearances is a live instance of Bainbridge's irony: the remaining 10% of edge cases will require deep expertise from operators who rarely exercise that expertise, creating a dangerous competency gap