WiseTech’s 32-Year Data Trove Is Now Its Logistics AI Edge

WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) CEO Zubin Appoo published an essay on the CargoWise site this month arguing that the real logistics AI edge sits in 32 years of proprietary customs, freight, and compliance data, not in any frontier model. The argument lands on top of a February 1H26 print of revenue US$672 million and net income US$68.1 million, alongside about 2,000 role cuts over two years as the company folds AI through its logistics software stack. Appoo’s data frame now sets the terms for how the market reads the e2open integration, the CargoWise Value Packs transition, and a new round of regulatory friction in Australia.

The 1H26 briefing reaffirmed FY26 revenue guidance of US$1.39 billion to US$1.44 billion and EBITDA of US$550 million to US$585 million, alongside a fully franked interim dividend of US$0.068 per share payable on 10 April 2026. At TPM26 in Long Beach on 5 March 2026, Appoo told freight forwarders the code is “one-tenth” of the real challenge of rebuilding global logistics platforms. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, meanwhile, accepted an undertaking on 30 December 2025 that forces WiseTech to divest Expedient as a new merger regime took effect on 1 January 2026. Appoo reinforced his own conviction with his wallet, buying A$1,000,049 of shares on market immediately after the trading blackout ended.

1H26 Numbers and the 2,000-Role Reset

WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) reported revenue of US$672 million and net income of US$68.1 million for the half-year ended 31 December 2025. Net income was lower on the print. The company reaffirmed FY26 revenue guidance of US$1.39 billion to US$1.44 billion and EBITDA of US$550 million to US$585 million. The board declared a fully franked interim dividend of US$0.068 per share. The full release sits in the 1H26 Appendix 4D and financial report.

The same briefing pinned about 2,000 role reductions over two years to the AI rollout and the e2open consolidation. Appoo was blunt at TPM26 in Long Beach on 5 March 2026. “Writing code is no longer something humans do,” he told the ‘Buy versus Build’ panel.

He followed the line with a caveat about where software engineers are spending their time now. The annualised cost-synergy target from the e2open integration was US$50 million. A company note filed with the 1H26 results says the business “successfully achieved the FY27 cost synergy” ahead of schedule. Roughly 95 percent of CargoWise customers moved to the new Value Packs commercial model on 1 December 2025, when AI tools also went live inside the platform.

• 1H26 revenue: US$672 million
• 1H26 net income: US$68.1 million
• FY26 revenue guidance: US$1.39 billion to US$1.44 billion
• Interim dividend: US$0.068 per share, fully franked, payable 10 April 2026
• Planned role reductions: about 2,000 over two years

The 32-Year Data Stack Beneath the AI Bet

Appoo published his full data argument in June 2026, in the CargoWise essay on data beneath AI. He wrote that large language models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others “are increasingly commoditized” and that “the capability gap between them narrows with every release cycle.”

WiseTech’s data sets are 32 years old. They span customs filings, freight movements, carrier connections, compliance records, and operational workflows across countries representing 80% of global trade flows. The result, in Appoo’s framing, is a layer that any off-the-shelf model can read but that no new entrant can rebuild overnight. Appoo carried the same line into a TPM26 panel in Long Beach two months later.

Data becomes king. The only way we can make intelligent decisions here is by applying that LLM layer to that data.

Zubin Appoo, CEO of WiseTech Global, made the point in his June 2026 essay on data as the foundation for supply chain AI. He expanded on it during TPM26 in Long Beach, calling the model only a layer on top of proprietary operational inputs.

Appoo spelled out the practical shape of that idea in the same essay. “When a freight forwarder is managing hundreds of shipments through a geopolitical crisis, or a customs broker is working through complex classification decisions under mounting regulatory pressure, the last thing they need is to go hunting for information,” he wrote. The point lands beyond a logistics pitch and echoes a broader cloud and data debate in markets such as Pakistan’s Cloud First accreditation push, where providers are being vetted on where data is stored and who can reach it. For WiseTech, the proprietary data is the asset, and the model sits on top of it.

Sixty Acquisitions Built the Domain Layer

WiseTech did not assemble that data stack by accident. The company has acquired nearly 60 businesses over the last decade, per the same CargoWise essay, each deal framed around domain expertise as much as technology. “We’re acquiring people who know what Belgium customs looks like because that’s what they’ve lived and breathed for the last 15 years,” Appoo wrote, and those acquisitions delivered rule-sets and operational knowledge that no AI model can infer on its own.

That domain layer came into sharper focus at TPM26, where Appoo and fellow panelists pushed back on the idea that AI lets freight forwarders rebuild platforms from scratch. “The code is one-tenth of it,” Appoo said at the ‘Buy versus Build’ panel, with the remaining nine-tenths sitting in commercial relationships and regulatory navigation. Pallet founder Sushanth Raman offered a concrete failure case from the same panel: an AI model processing a bill of lading hit “around 69% accuracy,” far below the level required for automated logistics workflows. The Loadstar’s coverage of the session captured the panel’s shared view that established platforms combined with AI tools are more likely than full replacement.

The e2open acquisition, completed on 4 August 2025 for an enterprise value of US$2.1 billion, extended that domain layer beyond freight forwarding. The deal added a network of more than 500,000 connected enterprises across manufacturing, logistics, channels, and distribution, a footprint WiseTech now leans on to argue its AI outputs are grounded in real trading activity. The same e2open footprint is what gives the company a reach that generic AI tools cannot replicate, per the CargoWise essay.

• 32 years of accumulated customs, freight, carrier, and compliance data across countries representing 80% of global trade flows
• Domain expertise from acquired specialists who understand regional logistics rules that AI models cannot infer on their own
• Network density from the e2open integration: more than 500,000 connected enterprises across manufacturing, logistics, channels, and distribution

80% of Manufactured Trade Flows Through CargoWise

CargoWise sits at the centre of that data universe. Appoo told the TPM26 panel that 80% of manufactured trade flows through the platform. The platform serves more than 22,000 logistics companies and other industry participants across 193 countries, per the 1H26 announcement lodged with the ASX. The customer roster includes 46 of the top 50 global third-party logistics providers and 23 of the 25 largest global freight forwarders worldwide.

The same panel session put a number on CargoWise’s reach, captured in Appoo’s TPM26 panel on CargoWise share and build-vs-AI. The CargoWise platform has absorbed more than 6,300 product enhancements over the last five years, per the 1H26 investor briefing. Those same features are what Value Packs customers now access inside the bundled commercial model that took effect 1 December 2025.

Cost Cuts and Regulatory Scrutiny on the Same Path

The same AI push that produced the CargoWise Value Packs rollout and the 2,000-role reset has also drawn the line at WiseTech’s market power. On 30 December 2025, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from WiseTech and its subsidiary BluJay Solutions to divest Expedient. The full undertaking is laid out in the ACCC’s media release on the Expedient divestiture.

ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the underlying concern was straightforward. “The ACCC considers that WiseTech already has substantial market power in the supply of logistics software, and the acquisition has the effect of removing the competition between CargoWise and Expedient and significantly reduced the choice available to Australian customers,” she said. The undertaking closes an enforcement investigation that began after WiseTech completed the e2open acquisition on 4 August 2025 without ACCC clearance. The completion now sits under a new Australian merger regime that took effect on 1 January 2026.

Cost cuts landed. WiseTech has absorbed roughly US$50 million of annualised e2open cost synergies ahead of schedule, with management flagging further reductions through 2H26 into FY27, and Meta’s parallel AI workforce shift has routed half of content and ad reviews through AI and is targeting 90 percent by year end.

The 1H26 results show the operating pressure already in motion. Net income was lower on the print, a function of higher costs tied to the e2open integration. Investors will be looking to the FY26 final print for the next check on whether the synergy curve bends as management has guided.

Recent Network Gains for the CargoWise Stack

The same period that brought job cuts and regulatory friction also produced a steady drumbeat of network additions. On 10 February 2026, WiseTech and Hapag-Lloyd launched an IoT container tracking pilot that pulls location updates from Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet of 2 million containers directly into the WiseTech ecosystem, extending the footprint unlocked by the August 2025 e2open deal. The deal is detailed in WiseTech’s announcement of the e2open acquisition. On 1 April 2026, E2open was named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Transportation Management Systems for the fourth consecutive year.

May 2026 added two more connections. American Airlines Cargo connected to CargoWise on 19 May 2026 to enable real-time eBookings inside the platform. Two days later, WiseTech joined DCSA+, the digital container shipping standards body, with the framing of bringing operational reality into the standards development process.

Hapag-Lloyd separately announced support for publishing electronic bills of lading via Galileo, allowing customers to handle eBLs within CargoWise, INTTRA, or directly within Galileo. The wider network effect is what Appoo leans on when he tells investors the AI bet is really a data bet. At TPM26, he joked that “maybe the title of this session should be buy versus AI” before arguing that combining established platforms with AI-built tools is the path forward. Management expects further reductions in product, development, and customer service through 2H26 into FY27, even as the network footprint keeps growing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much operational data does WiseTech actually have?

WiseTech’s data sets have been accumulating for 32 years, spanning customs filings, freight movements, carrier connections, compliance records, and operational workflows across countries that represent 80% of global trade flows, according to a June 2026 essay by CEO Zubin Appoo on the CargoWise site. The set is proprietary, accumulated through internal use of CargoWise and the company’s nearly 60 acquisitions over the past decade.

What did WiseTech’s 1H26 results actually show?

For the half-year ended 31 December 2025, WiseTech reported revenue of US$672 million and net income of US$68.1 million, alongside a reaffirmed FY26 revenue guidance of US$1.39 billion to US$1.44 billion and EBITDA guidance of US$550 million to US$585 million. The board declared a fully franked interim dividend of US$0.068 per share, payable on 10 April 2026.

What is the CargoWise Value Packs transition?

Roughly 95 percent of CargoWise customers transitioned to a new commercial model called CargoWise Value Packs on 1 December 2025, the same date AI tools went live inside the platform. The model replaces and enhances the prior seat-and-transaction pricing, with bundled access to the full range of CargoWise functionality across forwarding, customs, warehousing, and land transport.

Why did the ACCC require WiseTech to divest Expedient?

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission concluded that WiseTech already has substantial market power in logistics software, and that the e2open acquisition removed the constraint CargoWise and Expedient had placed on each other. The 30 December 2025 undertaking restores Expedient as an independent competitor in the Australian and New Zealand market.

What AI-related job cuts has WiseTech announced?

WiseTech plans to cut about 2,000 roles over two years, tilted toward product development and customer service, as it folds AI through its logistics software stack and continues the e2open integration. The cuts were first disclosed alongside the 1H26 results on 25 February 2026 and have been tied to AI-driven productivity changes since.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Stock investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Figures quoted are accurate as of publication and may change. Readers should consult a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decision.