The port answers itself, so the planner can plan
Wout is a planner on the shipping desk of a large container terminal in the port of Antwerp.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
All day, colleagues message him the same questions. Which ships are waiting at anchor? Is the container ship from Singapore inside yet? Each answer means opening three screens. By evening he has answered sixty messages and planned almost nothing.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Wout built Comet. Comet is an AI employee: a flow of 5 blocks.
When someone asks a question in the team's Teams chat,
A question in Teams (Microsoft Teams event)
Comet works out what they need,
Answers like the desk (AI agent)
listens to the ships in and around the port right now,
Ships in the port now (Ships (AIS))
reads today's berth plan from the terminal's list,
Today's berth plan (My data)
and answers in the same chat.
Answer in the chat (Reply)
What it solves
- Sixty questions a day: solved by AI agent and Reply
- Three screens per answer: solved by Ships (AIS) and My data
- Planning left undone: solved by AI agent
The result
On Monday a crane supervisor asks which ships are waiting. Comet answers within a minute: four at anchor in the Scheldt, the biggest due at the Deurganck dock at two. Wout now gets five questions a day, and finishes the week’s plan by Tuesday.
Wout used to answer the port all day. Now he plans it.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
A question in Teams
Microsoft Teams event · Teams event
Starts the flow when something happens in Microsoft Teams: a new record, a message, a change.
- 2
Answers like the desk
An AI agent: for each incoming message it thinks, uses the blocks you link to its Tools port (data, xMap AI, lookups, your tables, other flows, apps), remembers the conversation and writes an answer in {{reply}}.
- 3
Ships in the port now
Ships at sea or in port right now, from AIS (the signal ships send with their position, speed and heading; live from AISStream): every vessel heard in the Area of interest before this block, or around a point.
- 4
Today's berth plan
Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.
- 5
Answer in the chat
Answers whoever started the flow, on the same channel: the app or system that called its Webhook / API gets the answer back, and a message from Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Teams, SMS, Outlook or Discord gets a reply in the same chat, through the account of the block that received it.
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- WhatsApp assistant for shop ownersAn AI agent that answers shop owners on WhatsApp from your product list.
- Chat about places near anyoneA chat for your customers that finds places near anyone, live.
- WhatsApp assistant with live placesAn AI agent that answers your WhatsApp messages with live places.
- Branch finder and menu chat for your websiteA chat on your website that finds the customer's nearest branch, live.
- Job search chat for your candidatesA chat where candidates find live jobs and get passed to a recruiter.
- Citizen services chat: nearest pharmacy or clinicA chat that finds residents the nearest open pharmacy, clinic or hospital.
Industries
Learn how it works
- AI agentAn AI that decides which tools to use to answer or complete a task.
- How to build a WhatsApp assistant that answers about placesCustomers ask on WhatsApp; an AI agent searches and replies.
- GeofencingA virtual boundary that triggers something when an item enters or leaves it.
- AI agents with tools and memoryAn agent that answers questions using your blocks as tools.
- Answer on WhatsApp, Telegram or SlackAn assistant that replies in the same chat.
- Zone alerts: know when something enters an areaShips, vehicles or any moving item crossing your zone.
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Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.