PROBLEM A 2-day quote lost the deal to a faster competitor
Kazakhstan’s grain exporters compete on speed as much as price. Here, a freight quote for an international buyer took up to 2 days to piece together across rail-wagon availability, port handling fees and FX rates — and by the time it landed, the buyer had often already signed with someone faster. Contracts, customs declarations and phytosanitary certificates were retyped by hand for every shipment, in Russian only, which left English-speaking buyers in new markets waiting longest of all.
✕Freight quotes took up to 2 days — manual calls to rail operators, ports and forwarders;
✕Contracts and customs paperwork retyped by hand for every shipment, no reusable templates;
✕Russian-only communication left English-speaking buyers in new markets waiting longest;
✕Only 5 export markets active — sales capacity was the ceiling, not demand.
SOLUTION · 14 WEEKS A trade portal with an AI that quotes freight in minutes
We built a bilingual RU/EN trade portal with two automations at its core: an AI assistant that prices freight in minutes, and a doc-flow engine that turns a signed deal into export-ready paperwork. Buyers now self-serve quotes instead of waiting on a phone call.
WEEKS 1–2
Discovery & data architecture
Mapped rail tariffs, port handling fees and FX feeds; designed the bilingual RU/EN data model for lots, buyers, quotes and contracts.
WEEKS 3–6
Bilingual trade portal
Built the RU/EN portal with a live grain-lot catalog, buyer accounts and RFQ intake, so international buyers could self-serve instead of emailing the sales desk.
WEEKS 7–10
AI freight-quote assistant
Shipped an assistant that pulls rail-wagon availability, port tariffs and FX in real time and returns a priced freight quote in minutes, not days.
WEEKS 11–14
Contract doc-flow & rollout
Auto-generated contracts, customs declarations and phytosanitary paperwork from deal data; trained the sales team and onboarded 6 new export markets.
RESULT · 6 MONTHS Quotes in minutes, paperwork cut 70%, six new markets
| МЕТРИКА | БЫЛО | СТАЛО | ДИНАМИКА |
|---|
| Freight quote turnaround | 2 days | 40 min | −99% |
| Active export markets | 5 | 11 | +6 markets |
| Manual paperwork hours / week | 40 hrs | 12 hrs | −70% |
| RFQs processed / week | 35 | 210 | ×6 |
| Export document rejection rate | 21% | 3% | −86% |
“We used to lose deals while a quote sat in someone’s inbox for two days. Now the assistant prices freight before the buyer’s coffee gets cold.”
Head of Export Sales GRAIN EXPORT · ALMATY
