From Three Weeks to 45 Minutes: AI at JAXPORT with Jeff Price

Jen sits down with Jeff Price, Marketing Director at Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) and one of the four finalists selected for the AI & Tech Showdown opening keynote at TMSA ELEVATE.

Jeff shares how his team is using AI to turn complex maritime trade data into actionable sales intelligence and how a newly developed “digital worker” is helping their marketing team accelerate research, reporting, and content creation without increasing headcount. With more than 20 years of maritime industry experience combined with hands-on AI development, Jeff offers a practical look at how emerging technology can help sales and marketing teams move faster and work smarter.

In this conversation, Jen and Jeff discuss the real-world challenges that led to these tools, the measurable results already being seen at JAXPORT, and what attendees can expect when he takes the stage at the AI & Tech Showdown at TMSA ELEVATE.

Check out the Transportation Sales and Marketing Association (TMSA) website or engage with us on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Setup

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 0:23

Hello, everyone, and welcome to On the Move, a show where we share transportation sales and marketing success stories. I am Jennifer Carpis Romaine, Executive Director here at TMSA, a trade nonprofit, educating and connecting marketing and sales professionals inside transportation and logistics. And today I'm excited to have on the show Jeff Price, Director of Marketing at Jacksonville Port Authority, also known as Jack's Port. Welcome to the show, Jeff. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Doing great, Jen. Thanks so much for having me.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 0:55

Awesome to have you back on the show. And today I want to talk about all things marketing and maritime logistics, AI, all of the things, because that's all the things that you're super

Jeff’s Path Into AI Marketing

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 1:06

passionate about. So, how has your career led you to this intersection of marketing and maritime? And now being kind of known for your AI AI prowess.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Well, thanks, Jen. Yeah. And you know, I started my career um almost 30 years ago, and uh that's about the time that I built my first website. And in fact, my first job was at the city of Jacksonville in uh Jacksonville, Florida, helping update their website, writing stories for their magazine. And uh fast forward to the introduction of social media. I started up social media at Jacksport in 2008. So my career has always been involved with communications and marketing and technology. And so when AI, when I was first really exposed to AI in 2022, uh working with um what's now known as Jasper and spinning up my own little blog post writer, uh, that seemed like a natural extension to kind of uh take it to the next level. Um, of course, and I've shared this with TMSA before, but in 2022, I thought that you know it was going to take a few years for AI to really take off. But then ChatGBT came out, of course, later that year, and uh and everything changed. And I and I knew immediately that I needed to upskill, I needed to dive in because this was going to be uh a real, a real game changer for everybody, and obviously it has

Elevate AI Tech Showdown Preview

SPEAKER_00 2:27

been.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 2:27

Yes, absolutely. And I'm so excited to announce that you are one of our finalists for the AI and tech showdown keynote at Elevate this year. So, in case people don't know, we decided to create a competition for our opening keynote. We will have four finalists that will take the stage and showcase in eight to ten minutes the cool tech that they are doing at their companies. And I'm super pumped about it. Um, whoever wins this will be the mic drop winner for tech. Um, and the audience gets to vote live. So it's a cool and innovative way for TMSA to kick off our show. If you want to join us, we will be this will be at Elevate June 7th through 9th in Denver. You can register at events.tmsa today.org. But you are the first one. I will interview all of our finalists on the show, of course, but you are the first one. So I want to talk about what made you decide to decide to submit your use case and kind of show people what it is that you're really doing with AI.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Absolutely.

Building In-House AI Data Tools

SPEAKER_00 3:33

So, you know, we work uh here at a port authority, and so we're um selling and marketing to the same individuals, the supply chain professionals, making those um transportation decisions as uh a 3PL, as a warehouse, as a trucking firm, and and other and rail carriers and other members of TMSA. And uh that said, you know, we we go about it perhaps a little bit differently. So um we're swimming in data here at Jacksport, and uh and most port authorities find themselves in that in that instance. And so, how can we leverage our data in the best way possible to help our sales and marketing effort? And uh, we've engaged in specific projects that um that where we've built our own tool set. So we're kind of moving to this world where you don't necessarily have to rely on somebody else to build the tool for you. Um, you can actually build your own tools. And so we're gonna share that that story. I'm gonna um uh share that story and and uh hopefully inspire people, um, challenge you know everybody's notion of uh perhaps the very nature of work itself, and um and to not be scared, but to embrace this this time of exponential change and um and how you can leverage you know these uh technologies to help you in your sales and marketing effort.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 4:48

Absolutely. And one of the problems you described here is that there's a lot of data, but never enough time or capacity to really turn it into insight if you're just doing that all manually. And so, how common of a challenge do you think that actually is across logistics organizations? I'm gonna guess pretty common, but we'll love your perspective on that as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah, I agree. I think it is it is pretty common. And uh at Elevate a few years ago, we heard from ITS and and lead coverage in a story of how they utilize their data to get tremendous reach with a public relations effort. And uh, and so that's uh that's inspired some of our own efforts in in a different um vein, but um it's a pretty common challenge. So, you know, but we don't necessarily want to share our data with third parties either. And so the the type of activity that I'll be talking about is um is uh how we build our own tools to um with AI to then analyze our data in-house so that we're not um sharing data, you know, uh in in a way that we don't want to, but in a way that's actually effective and can actually help our efforts. So um so it is uh it is about balancing the the strategic and the short-term interest that we have. Um the specific uh challenge that we've had has been um uh the project takes so long. It it took so long previously, where um the particular report looking at trade flows and understanding, okay, who's using this other port, but not necessarily Jacksport. Or it might be saying, hey, you know, are are these businesses growing in volume at Jacksport or are they are they declining? And that tells a very different story when when you have your sales um you know executive speaking with that company. It's either a thank you, you know, for the additional business over the last few months, or it's uh, hey, how could what can we do differently to earn back your business? And so that's the type of um translating that data over to the actual sales conversation. And and then it of course helps with our ABM effort as well on the marketing front.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 6:57

And so

Turning Trade Data Into Sales Leads

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 6:58

you were able to kind of reduce a report that once took three weeks to create down to 45 minutes. That's great, that's insane. That's like, whoo! So I would love you to walk us through how you actually achieved that because like those numbers seem insane.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah, and that's the type of scale and efficiency that you can achieve when when you apply AI to a problem set. And and uh that's gonna be the key. Everybody's you know has different problems, right? But but utilizing the AI to help you solve your problem. And maybe AI is a part of it at the end, at the end result, but sometimes it isn't. But you need the AI in the front end to help you get to the solution on the back end. So specifically with this, with this problem, um, the three-week uninterrupted work. So it's you know, we have a business analyst on staff, um, and uh she'll be at Elevate as well. And uh, you know, she she doesn't she gets so many report requests and also serves as a logistics provider liaison working with the warehouses and the trucking firms here in Jacksonville to make sure they have the info they need uh from Jack's port. So, you know, to have her just block out three weeks of time, um, you bringing down uh data from a system called Peers, which is an overlay over US customs trade data, um, it's just unrealistic. And so it had been four years since we even ran the report. So we just weren't running it. But um, these comparative reports and and understanding who's growing, who's declining, this is very valuable information for a marketing and sales effort. Um, but we just didn't have the time. We didn't have the budget to outsource this work either. So it was like, okay, well, what are we gonna do? Let's have a dedicated effort, let's meet once a week, let's work with the AI chat apps, let's figure out a solution. And that's how we came about um with a uh with a workflow using it's a little bit programmatic, you know. So um, so I'm not gonna get into the tech heavy details, but in terms of um sifting through this data and getting another and getting insight on the back end, that was the key. And that's what now takes 45 minutes a quarter.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 9:06

And so one of the first things that you did, well, first off, that's just amazing. And just thinking about having three un three weeks of uninterrupted workflow is just that's impossible for anyone to do. So, like having to have that analysis like broken down and like now having all that time back for her to do all the other things um is amazing. I know one of the first things that you really worked on was then turning that complex trade data into sales ready leads, like being able to actually help sales and and revenue, which is a huge part of what you know sales marketing wants to do is bring in that business. That's you know, how we get there is different, but that's the ultimate goal for anyone. So, what did that workflow look like before AI entered the picture? And then how did AI really help make that transition happen?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Yeah, and so in the immediate past, we just hadn't run the report at all, but um uh but now we're able to do so. Um, what I can say is that, and what what I'll share about the keynote in June at Elevate is that this is not a story of picture perfect success either. You know, we've had failures along the way. I'm going to be documenting those so that you know everybody understands that there isn't um uh you know a silver bullet that just solves everything, right? But it does take a dedicated effort, and it is possible. It is possible to achieve some really amazing things with the use of AI to help you solve whatever problem you might be facing at work. So uh so with that in mind, um, you know, sales team, our sales execs, they they really didn't want you know another spreadsheet, even though it had amazing data and it it it would inform the conversation. So um, so I'll be sharing the story of how we pivoted to meet them where they're at so that they can be enabled and not be overwhelmed and actually have this actionable insight that they can take and start using right away.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 11:00

And I'm sure, yes, like you would share that spreadsheet, didn't see a lot of traction because nobody wants to look at a spreadsheet or figure out what it means and like how to get that data, move it into actual insights. So when you then started to be able to bring those results to them in a quicker, faster way, what did you learn about how or what insights needed to be delivered to actually drive action for your sales team?

Sales Enablement Through Salesforce

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, so here at Jacksport, we we use Salesforce to tracker opportunities. And so it became um under the leadership of our chief commercial officer, Robert Peake, who um uh I might uh just break away on an aside for a moment, who through TMSA conversations more than 10 years ago um was exposed to a story where you had a large organization and their sales team and their marketing team were um were just not aligned and they were not even talking to each other. And so here at Jacksport, um what he's really wanted us to do is have just one revenue generation unit, have sales and marketing working hand in hand and and uh and complementing each other so that we can go to market together. And I think that we do a good job. I don't think that we we have everything solved, you know, it's a it's always um uh a relationship build and and uh understanding you know where each is coming from so that we can uh deliver what they need in the best way possible. But uh, but this was the story of that effort and and how we met them, you know, where they're at, and uh using Salesforce so that they actually have some actionable steps to take um following this this analysis.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 12:39

I think that's amazing and really like thinking through, yes, like sales and marketing needs to be aligned. Like we said earlier, everybody's goal is to make revenue, and and your piece of the puzzle might be different, but that's the goal. And so if your sales marketing teams aren't viewing themselves really on the same team, then there's a lot of friction there. So I think anytime that you can create streamlined efforts and more information sharing to make that go smoothly so people aren't butting heads, the better. Um, so I think that's really effective and a great use. And I love that you have that support from um your higher-ups too, to be like, no, these teams should work together. Um, because that's a that's a huge piece when you get buy-in from above.

Digital Workers With Human Guardrails

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 13:19

Um, one of the other things that you talked about, and I know that you've done is kind of developed a digital worker. And so, like, I know that I use my ChatGPT and I call her Atlas because I had her name herself, and she said her name was Atlas because she helps guide me and all of that. It definitely streams line my workflow, especially because I she's very sassy, and I'm like, oh yes, this this is created in my image, too. But I love putting her on sparring mode too, so that you know she's just not agreeing with what I say. But, anyways, you've actually developed a full digital worker. What does that actually mean in practice for your marketing team to kind of have this digital colleague working alongside you?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Absolutely. So, this is the really exciting piece for me as we move kind of into this next phase of real um AI development and implementation in the workforce. Um, so you've talked about Atlas, uh, Jen. Now imagine if Atlas could come back to you with proactive suggestions and you didn't have to prompt Atlas. Oh, I would yeah, that's the world that honestly already exists. And, you know, this came into the um sort of the zeitgeist in in February of this year, another sea change as big as Chat GBT. I'd say only probably the more technically inclined, the ones who are really deep into AI are are really utilizing this a lot. But but that's what we're onboarding right now is basically a worker that can work 24-7, provide that insight and analysis, but also take very strict guardrail direction from the humans, you know, and um, and just be a force multiplier for us. We we work at a government agency that, you know, we're not adding headcount, our budgets are set. Um, so it's difficult to, you know, expand that that workforce to compete um with larger ports that have more resources that we do than we do. So um, so this is one of the ways that we're looking at um at having that force multiplier and being able to accomplish more in a faster way, efficient way, and still have the appropriate guardrails, still have human oversight.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 15:30

I I think that's a really important piece, and I love that you brought it up, the human, like the human oversight, and then it's still taking directive from the humans because I know we talk a lot about like will AI or technology replace humans, but I still think that the best AI tools, the best technology tools, equip our teams to do their job better. Like we talked about before. In the past three weeks, this wonderful human would have to sit there with all of this data. Now it's done in 45 minutes, so then she can analyze it, like not spend the time sitting in putting plugging the numbers and getting to the result so that she can analyze it so that business decisions can be made. She has more time to do that part of it, which I think is really important because I do think that part of the conversation falls out too often when we're talking about the tools. It's not just having the tools, it's how can you use them effectively? And if you're not doing that, and if you're not remembering that it is a robot and it's taking directions from you, and so if you're not putting those guardrails in, if you're not giving proper directive, it's not going to give you the output that you're looking for. You still need you to be the expert.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

You're 100% right. And for anybody that's managed, or if you haven't managed yet and you think about your relationship with your boss, you know, a great employee has certain skills, right? And is autonomous to a large degree and surfaces suggestions and insights and surprises the boss, you know, with, hey, look, we should do this initiative or we've accomplished this thing. And so um, if you think in that framework, it's not too different from when you're working with the AI workers themselves as well. So as the year goes on, I suspect that the big AI companies are going to release more tools that make this more accessible. But uh what I'll be sharing is a demo of software that I've built that allows you to do this exact thing.

Asoba Demo With Practical Takeaways

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 17:24

I love that. And so speaking of that, for people that are attending Elevate, what can they expect to see when you demonstrate this workflow live during the AI tech showdown as our opening, one of our finalists for the opening keynote?

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah, so um we're gonna dive into Asoba, which is the open source software that I build on my own time, on on uh uh you know, my own resources, but uh we're leveraging that here at Jacksport, and we're giving um uh a system to the AI to uh to be able to um basically complete marketing tasks for us. And uh and uh I'll demonstrate this workflow, what it looks like, some of the tasks that that we've um been able to accomplish, how it's helped us, and uh and and hopefully you know have people have some real concrete takeaways um from this session so that they can start applying it at their business right away.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 18:18

I love that. That's the whole purpose of the keynote is we were really sitting in the education committee and being like, what could we do as a keynote that's really impactful? And one of the things that we really came about, and then I was like, we need to turn this into a competition because immediately people have better stage presence when you make it a competition, but there's so much technology out there, there's so much AI like going to manifest last month and just like walking down the tracho floor. AI was everywhere, technology was everywhere, but like what is the differentiators to that and how do you actually use it? Like, I feel like there's a lot of conversations about like what's coming or what people can do or how we might be able to use this, but I wanted this conversation to be like what is being used right now, and how can people immediately apply it? So I love that this use case will be a part of that, really showcase, like and you said, like this is something that you're passionate about, and you started, you know, tinkering around with it on your own time, but then made it applicable to Jack Sport. And then now anyone that's going to elevate will be able to learn those tools as well. And I do think, as we talked about too, like this is a piece of helping your sales and marketing teams move faster, quicker, really in a way to support your team. So, with this, you've actually generated 13 sales qualified leads that represent about $250,000 in potential business from this process so far. So, from your perspective, what does that mean about the role that AI really can play in supporting sales and marketing teams today?

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yeah, it goes beyond just doing things faster and gaining those efficiencies. That's helpful and we can quantify that. But you know, to actually have a revenue impact, that's that's really impactful. And and that's and and that specific um uh revenue that you just cited, that's that's from the peers reports that we've been able to um sift through and analyze and uh and pass those leads on to sales, um, which uh you know, as I mentioned, it was just not being done before. So uh so this is a this is again a force multiplier um for our team and uh and a concrete example of how using AI can help you impact that bottom line.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 20:35

Absolutely. I think yes, it's taking that information, plugging it in, letting it be a resource for your team, and then keep moving things forward. But I like what you said, it's not just about how quickly you can do something because it's still you still have to do it the right way and utilize that information properly. And that's where your humans come in. So awesome.

Getting Started With Chat Apps

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 20:54

I do think we talked about how like AI could be overwhelming. And so if somebody like you took to it and were able to create all these things, but if someone listening wants to start using AI in their own marketing or sales environments, but they just feel like super overwhelmed, they don't know where to start. There are so many tools, of course, beyond coming to elevate June 7th through 9th in Denver and learning, what else would be a place for them to start?

SPEAKER_00 21:22

I love this question because you know what? It may come as a surprise, but I felt the same way. Okay. Overwhelmed. Like, how do I start? Uh, you know, what should I be doing? Are my skills all outdated? You know, what have I been doing with my life? You know, all those types of questions, right? And and honestly, the best advice is just start using a chat app. Just start using it a few minutes a day. It doesn't need to be a huge commitment. You don't need to be a programmer. If you don't know where to start, do a little bit of a brain dump. Say, hey, look, I work in this role, these are some of my challenges. Help me, you know, what questions should I be asking in AI? And you can just start with there, and you're going to get incredible insight, incredible guidance, and um you'll you'll start down the rabbit hole and start being able to really use it in um in in more effective and advanced ways after that.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 22:19

I agree. Um, I would say I love to learn technology. I'm not super efficient, I'm no Jeff Price, but I I do use um Atlas all the time, and it is more sophisticated. My coworkers are always like, can we borrow Atlas? I'm like, you just gotta keep talking to her more, like yours more, because it's true. And then there's things that like I'll be like, remember this forever. Like this, like I hate if I'm writing sales emails. I say never put the words no pressure in this email because I hate that. Like you're trying to pressure them, you're but you're trying to have a real conversation. I just don't like the terminology, like it makes me, and I'm always like, I don't talk like a normal business professional, I'm always human first, so like I don't want that first draft to sound like somebody else. Like, always make it human first. I'm going to check in on a human before I try to sell them anything. That's just who I am. So she's better at remembering those things as we begin. And so, where at the beginning, she would always, you know, forget that, or even like I work to build these questions in her, and I'm she knows the last question that I ask everyone the first time, and now that which will be my last question I ask you because you've been on the show, the one I ask when people come back on the show, and just it creates such efficiencies in that because I don't have to remind her as much as I did at the beginning. And then I definitely personally love sparring mode because I think by nature the robots want to agree with everything that you say, but I don't want her to. I want her to poke holes in. I have a whole board of directors to report to, and I would like to have as many questions answered before I present things to them as I can. And that for me is what's most um efficient and like most helpful to me. We have a very small headquarters staff. The more I can poke holes in myself and my thought processes before I send it to anybody else, the better. So that's just my two cents and how how to get started is like the robots are going to agree with you until you tell them not to.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

And so that's a great point. And it's because the base instruction for a large language model is you are a helpful assistant. So if somebody's a helpful assistant, they're not going to automatically disagree with you. But what you found is that look, you can guide the conversation, you can simulate this conversation in a way that is helpful for solving the problem that you're trying to solve. And the other thing that strikes me about what you just mentioned is that you've personalized this in such a way, and that's what each and every person should be doing. So, you know, um, when somebody asks, hey, can I borrow Atlas? Really, they should be creating their own atlas, you know. And so start that question. Hey, um, I want to create uh, you know, a persona that is really helpful for me and my life and my business problem set. And uh, how can I even start? You know, that's that's just the first question to start, and then you can start to build off of that.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 25:08

Because

Personalizing AI For Your Voice

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 25:09

I definitely you can feel it be more in your vein and your style and your voice the more you use it. And so I still, you know, there's things about AI that I I don't like, especially as a parent, like it freaks me out, but like it can mimic my voice and things like that. But like using it for work and using it in a way that makes me move faster and really, yeah, like poke holes in my own process and like really think through things in a in a higher level way and like answering those questions or being able to write emails more efficiently, and and you everybody knows those things like tell her stop putting that dash in there. Everybody knows it means you wrote this, stop making it look like the robot, you know. But I think the more you use it, like you said, the more comfortable you get with it, the more you understand, but then you still understand the pieces that are you and that you're supposed to then take in. And I'll even tell her, like, if I'm writing an email and I need a gut check, I'll say, don't rewrite this. Just tell me if there's any glaring mistakes in it. And so then if there's like a grammar mistake or just like a point that is completely lost, she'll tell me that because their first instinct is to rewrite it. But I don't want you to rewrite it. I still want it to be me. I just want to make sure that this makes sense if somebody else is reading it.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Yeah, and real quick, I can add to that is that um using AI as a coach, as an educator is uh is another way that you can really gain a lot of advantages. So you don't have to worry about you know losing your edge or losing your ability or your skills. Um, but it's uh just like you would ask somebody else, another peer, you know, to review your work, you can ask the AI to do that as well. And that's another great use case there.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 26:48

Yep. I think especially for really small sales and marketing teams, you don't always have the luxury of being able to ask somebody, hey, can you look at this? And so having that ability to have another voice um kind of double check your sanity is always a plus. So I'm so excited to have you join the stage in that opening keynote at Elevate. Um I when you launch initiatives, you never know how they're going to work out. And I'm so excited about this one and seeing these finalists on stage and getting the audience to get to pick our first ever Mike Tech Drop a winner.

Time Travel Story And Farewell

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 27:28

So, last question for you because you have been on the show, you get my second question that I ask everybody. So, if you could live one day of your life over again, you don't get to change anything, you just relive it. What day would you go back to and why?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Well, Jen, you know, you keep pushing these time travel questions, and I I don't know, of you know, you're pushing the envelope with that. Go back to my prior answer on the time travel. But if I had to relive, uh, you know, my dad passed in 2017, and uh he and I, we like to go to the movies together, you know, throughout our lives. And uh one that that jumps out at me is uh the Ghost Protocol Mission Impossible film. We had a good time uh watching that film and uh hanging out before and after. So that that would be a day I would relive for sure.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 28:13

Well, I love that answer. I I just like to get to know people on a different level, and those last questions, I think, really achieve that. So thank you so much for coming on the show. If you want to hear more about Jeff's use of AI, join us June 7th through 9th in Denver at TMSA Elevate. You can register at events.tmsa today.org and come back to on the move in the upcoming weeks to check out our other finalists. Thank you so much, and see you guys next week.