Redwood Buys JBF Consulting to Add AI Readiness and Supply-Chain Advice

Redwood Logistics is promising to help shippers turn AI plans into measurable results by acquiring JBF Consulting and launching Redwood Advisory on October 1, 2026. Its own research illustrates the challenge: Redwood says just 13% of shippers deploying AI are generating quantifiable results. The acquisition adds people to advise on strategy, technology and adoption—not evidence that the new practice has already improved those outcomes.

Buying a seat before the technology decision

JBF is a supply-chain technology advisory firm based in Guilford, Connecticut, with more than 20 years of logistics experience, according to the announcement. Redwood is using that acquisition to add advice before customers commit to a transportation management system—a system for managing transport operations—or an AI program.

The practice’s remit starts with decisions about a shipper’s network, future operating model, technology selection and data readiness. Redwood’s technology delivery teams, managed operations and RedwoodConnect integration platform then provide the execution layer. The company says this arrangement lets a shipper move from strategy to implementation without handing the plan to a new team.

The proposed relationship also extends beyond launch. Redwood Advisory will stay involved through adoption and ongoing improvement, measuring whether a change delivered what its business case promised.

Our customers kept asking us to get involved before a TMS selection or an AI program was locked in. Now we can do that with a team that has been doing this work for two decades.

Erin Breen, chief growth officer, Redwood Logistics

AI readiness reaches beyond software

Redwood Advisory will use the company’s AI Readiness Scorecard to assess organizational structure, data foundations, technology architecture, change management and governance. Redwood says the assessment will help shippers identify high-value uses for AI and build a path to measurable adoption.

The announced work spans three stages

• Assessment and design: logistics health assessments, supply-chain strategy, and the design of future operating models, organizations and processes.
• Technology and data decisions: selection of transport, warehouse and global trade management systems, plus AI use-case priorities, data governance and integration foundations.
• Delivery and follow-through: transformation leadership, implementation guidance, adoption support and continuous improvement, with attention to whether the promised business value materializes.

The company’s rationale rests partly on research from both businesses. In a March 2026 survey of senior supply-chain, logistics and technology leaders, JBF found nearly 42% lacked confidence in their organization’s ability to independently evaluate complex logistics technology. Only 4% strongly agreed that their organization clearly separated a technology business case from its broader supply-chain strategy.

Redwood’s own AI report identifies data quality and integration gaps as the leading barriers to quantifiable results. Those findings support its emphasis on foundations before deployment.

Vendor-neutral advice inside an implementation business

Redwood says the practice will retain JBF’s vendor-agnostic approach: recommendations should fit each shipper’s network, including its existing systems and partners. That promise sits alongside Redwood’s own implementation capabilities. The intended distinction is between advising customers on what fits and requiring them to adopt a particular technology stack.

Customers can hire Redwood Advisory on its own or use it as the first step toward a broader fourth-party logistics relationship, in which Redwood brings together logistics execution, technology and integration.

JBF founder and CEO Brad Forester and strategy principal Tara Buchler are joining Redwood with the JBF team. The advisory practice will operate within Redwood’s Innovate business unit.