It is near impossible to find an industry at the moment untouched by the transformative potential for AI application, and, I am really happy to say logistics is no different. According to EY, 40% of logistics organisations are investing in generative AI development specifically, while AI adoption for sustainability tracking and measurement of emissions stands at over three-fifths across the industry. And, just like the logistics industry itself, this AI integration into the supply chain shows no immediate signs of slowing down. In fact, as the industry continues to develop at pace, the complexity of the challenges faced on a daily basis and the amount of data to be interrogated and understood, means that having AI capability to process and manage that information quickly and into a digestible form will likely become an imperative and very much the norm.
While the sector has been a little slower than many other industries, in the main for valid reasons, to grasp the potential for AI development, the opportunities AI deployment presents within the logistics industry are enormous. Building upon the potential of machine learning, AI solutions are ideal at untangling and sorting vast troves of historical data, market trends, and the constant flow of real-time information into businesses to spot patterns, and predict fluctuations and flows in demand with remarkable efficiency. While a human might get lost in the vastness of such a database, an AI can swiftly digest the data and provide well-structured and valuable insight. Within logistics, this means that businesses can proactively adjust inventory levels, optimise warehouse space and ultimately ensure that products can be readily available to meet customer demand precisely when and where they are needed. Surely the nirvana for producers and customers alike.
In a world where global supply chains are facing unprecedented delays and knock on effects from geopolitical factors, AI-powered logistics capabilities facilitate continuous monitoring of inventory management, fleet operations and the impact of such disruptions. This means that companies can react faster, keep their customers more informed on progress, reroute and minimise delays, creating a much more responsive and adaptable process from end to end. AI can also provide granular insights into individual routes or journeys, allowing managers to optimise routes and select the most cost-effective transport options. Often overlooked is the sheer volume of administrative burden this can eliminate and free up resource to focus on personal customer satisfaction and similar value add activities. Fast and accurate data interrogation is a clear and obvious use case for the application of AI, however the potential to step change the automation of operational execution is massive. Rather than something out of the Matrix, the current AI experience eliminates guesswork and assumptions from operations management, ensuring that the supply chain runs as smoothly as possible, and provides companies with unparalleled levels of confidence.
With all this raw processing power now at our fingertips, it’s clear that businesses who are already harnessing AI’s capabilities are well on the way to gaining significant competitive advantage in today’s dynamic marketplace. Our own AI offering exemplifies this trend, providing AI-powered solutions that optimise logistics operations, pushing productivity to completely new levels and empower businesses to navigate the complexities of the modern supply chain landscape with ease. At Zeus we have identified this as an excellent use case for AI, which can benefit the users and the industry, as a whole, beyond what we could have imagined.
We’ve addressed this central challenge by digitising logistics, developing AI’s potential to support and help companies to practically and materially benefit from the power of AI. Zeus AI is designed to streamline supply chains by hyper-automating tasks and efficiently addressing logistical management issues and exceptions. Our role at Zeus has always been to smartly deploy technology to help our customers find efficiencies, and extending the offering into the AI space is facilitating just that
The future of logistics where there is a very close and dependent relationship with AI solutions makes it look exceedingly bright – removing many of the pain points and obstacles the industry has faced for decades and putting the right information at people’s fingertips in true real time for possibly the first time. However, it should be clear within the supply chain community that all the shiny new technology in the world won’t be effective without that integral layer sitting just underneath, connecting the various data dots together to provide a powerful and responsive view of the whole logistics picture. The diverse and complex industry of logistics is the perfect beneficiary of technological innovation, where AI sits front and centre.
