AI in Logistics: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Transportation Industry

Technology impacts the world in many ways, and the transportation and logistics industry is no exception. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) can help transportation and logistics companies plan optimal routes, track inventory, and more.

As this industry has seen major increases in demand for soft skills like interpersonal interaction, A.I. offers these skills without the need for direct human interaction and at optimized costs, where it makes sense.

What is A.I.?

Artificial intelligence, or A.I., is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines. It has been used in many industries and across many applications, from medicine to manufacturing. It is also seen within the transportation and logistics industry and can be used in a variety of ways.

How does A.I. work?

Put simply, A.I. works when machines or computers are given goals or tasks and then begin working without being told how to go about achieving them. Given a situation or problem, A.I. will try different things until it comes up with a solution.

For example, a self-driving car or truck may have an autonomous mode that enables fully automated driving from point A to point B. The system would use sensors such as cameras and lasers to "see" other cars and obstacles in its way to plan a route and safely drive the car, or in the case of this industry, a semi-truck.

How is the Industry Using A.I. to Make Life Easier?

A.I. is becoming more and more integrated into the transportation industry. The use of A.I. can simplify many of the jobs or tasks in the field.

For instance, many companies are using A.I. to figure out optimal routes and keep track of inventory.

These tasks require a high level of problem-solving skills and intuition; A.I. cannot do them all without requiring human interaction, which means workers do not need to worry about becoming obsolete and can instead lean into the technology to improve efficiency and speed to complete their work.

How can A.I. help immediately in the logistics industry?

One of the biggest ways that A.I. can help is in planning and tracking routes. With this technology, a business can easily map out an optimized route. This will save both time and money, as drivers will not be using more gas than necessary or repeating routes because they were unplanned or inefficient.

Another way A.I. is helping logistics and transportation businesses is by predicting when customers will need, or be ready for, their goods. Google's predictive analytics feature uses machine learning to predict consumer buying behavior based on previous data. T

his allows companies to stock the right amount of inventory at the right time so that they are not wasting time and money on over-or understocking inventory.

How Will A.I. Impact the Transportation Industry in the Future?

As the use of A.I. continues to grow, it is taking over many tasks that used to require human intelligence or interaction. This means there could be a decrease in employment, but this decrease comes as a tradeoff for the increase in convenience and efficiency.

There are still jobs being created by this new technology, but they require different skill sets than what was necessary before. For instance, there has been a high demand for soft skills like human interaction and empathy because these skills can not be grasped by A.I. (yet!)

It is not just business-related skill sets that are in demand - workers who can provide technical and mechanical assistance and those with scientific knowledge and expertise will also be key for the future of the supply chain.

As the industry continues to grow, new job opportunities will become available along with new tasks for existing workers.

Artificial intelligence is the future!

Artificial intelligence has the potential to make transportation and logistics much more efficient. It can help companies optimize routes, track inventory, and predict demand for goods - all without nearly as much human interaction.

As artificial intelligence becomes more and more integrated into this industry in the future, there could be a decrease in jobs that require soft skills like interpersonal interactions or problem-solving but an increase in overall efficiency.

Companies are already seeing how A.I. is changing their lives with increased demand for technical assistance as well as scientific knowledge or expertise.

As A.I. continues to increase in the transportation and logistics industry, it will also change the skill sets needed for employment.

Currently, soft skills like interpersonal interactions are desired by companies while technical or mechanical proficiency is not necessary; as time goes on, however, more jobs will require scientific knowledge and expertise while interpersonal interaction becomes less important.

With this new technology, human workers can expect an increase in efficiency and a decrease in employment. And to be honest, what is more likely to happen is businesses who use A.I. well will actually be in a position to hire more people because they have replaced dangerous, hard-to-fill jobs with A.I. and robots, leaving humans to work on safer jobs that keep them happier.