Fleet technology has entered a new phase of AI adoption.

Over the past two years, telematics systems providers, automakers, FMIS suppliers, and fleet management companies have announced and deployed generative AI within their traditional platforms. GenAI is no longer a novelty; it’s now table stakes.

Fleet managers can now converse with their systems to understand which vehicles are underutilized, which are driving up maintenance costs or idling too much, which are candidates for replacement, and which drivers are generating the most safety events.

Instead of requiring fleet managers to find the right report and interpret data on a screen, generative AI answers in seconds.

So far, that conversation has taken place at the fleet manager’s desk. But the next frontier is behind the wheel, using conversational AI to guide drivers through tasks that occur on the road and away from the office. Connex2X is one early example.

Conversational AI and the Driver

Connex2X’s generative AI assistant, NEXi, uses voice interaction to guide drivers through fleet-required processes. Fleets already have apps for inspections, incident reporting, and vehicle information. Connex2X offers a new way to make those tasks easier to complete — through a conversation.

Rather than opening an app and fat-fingering through a form, the driver talks with NEXi. The assistant asks the questions, walks the driver through each step, and records the answers. It can conduct the exchange in multiple languages while delivering standardized information to the fleet manager in English.

“A lot of these things are just an assembly of things that are already out there, provided by one point solution or another,” said Paul Porrini, co-founder, chief administrative officer, and board member at Connex2X. “But I think the big differentiator is voice-first—the safety, efficiency, and convenience of voice-first.”

Connex2X’s voice capability did not start in-house. Nick Porrini, CEO, chairman, and co-founder, said the company initially worked with SoundHound, whose technology is found in the Mercedes-Benz MBUX voice experience. But early versions had latency issues that made the interaction feel less conversational, he said.

Connex2X developed its current voice layer and said it had virtually eliminated the delay to make NEXi's tempo fully human conversational. The platform uses ChatGPT for its generative AI, although the company said it is building the architecture to work with other AI models.

While NEXi has functionality for trucking applications and CDL holders, it also serves fleet applications where drivers are sales reps, service technicians, installers, and supervisors — employees who use a vehicle to do their jobs.

These drivers often need to periodically inspect their vehicles. Opening the app and entering the information correctly is a hassle, especially when their job is to generate revenue.

Use Cases for Voice Interaction

NEXi can be configured around the fleet’s inspection requirements, with different questions for different vehicle types and use cases. A sales sedan would get a periodic condition report, while a service van inspection could include tools and equipment too.

In the app, the steps are presented in a conversational style, and the program collects the driver’s responses. Depending on how the system is configured, the process can incorporate photographs, driver input, and computer vision. Vehicle data can also be added through an OBD-II device.

The use cases are varied and specific: Oleg Cytowicz, business development lead, described one customer that wanted drivers to confirm that hand trucks had been returned to their vehicles after each use because too many were being left behind.

Connex2X maintains that voice interaction can reduce form-filling time and help drivers complete inspections more consistently. Of course, fleet managers still need to determine what should be inspected, and the process (like any AI-driven process) depends on the right configuration.

Guidance After Accidents

Accident reporting could be one of the clearest applications for the technology.

Everyone gets shaken up after an accident. But can you always find that printed accident checklist form, and are you composed enough to fill it out?

Voice-guided assistance can relieve some of this burden and go beyond a traditional checklist by asking whether emergency assistance is needed, prompting for photographs, and adapting the next instructions to the driver’s responses.

The workflow can be configured around the fleet’s own accident protocol, including who should be notified and where the information should be sent, such as the fleet manager, FMC, risk department, or accident-management provider.

Multilingual Capability

Language support could make the system more practical for diverse workforces.

A driver can interact with NEXi in a preferred language, while the information delivered to the fleet manager is translated into English. For companies with geographically dispersed and multilingual workforces, that could remove a barrier to completing inspections and incident reports.

Rather than simply translating responses, the platform guides drivers through the same workflow regardless of language, giving the fleet a more consistent process across a multilingual workforce.

“The driver can speak to it in any language they want, and NEXi will take that data and convert it into English,” Cytowicz said. “I asked NEXi to do my inspection in Russian, and it did the inspection in Russian for me.”

New Features, Future Plans

Connex2X remains in the early stages of introducing NEXi to the fleet market. The company has conducted public- and private-sector pilots and is using them to refine the platform and expand its track record.

Separate from the driver interaction, Connex2X said it just rolled out voice functionality that allows fleet managers to ask questions of the dashboard, for issues such as which vehicles have open recalls.

And as most fleet managers manage multiple dashboards, Connex2X says its information can be integrated with third-party providers and that the application can operate alongside existing telematics and fleet platforms.  

Joe Zucchero, co-founder and CTO, said the company's plans extend beyond inspections to vehicle-aware navigation that accounts for a vehicle’s dimensions, to optimizing delivery and service routes, and even to understanding real-time signal data that can advise drivers on speed to hit green lights.

Although Connex2X is still early in building its fleet track record, Cytowicz believes voice technology will become a larger part of fleet operations. "We want to be the number one player where we possibly can in voice streaming technology for the fleet industry," he said.