AI in logi­stics — oppor­tu­ni­ties, out­look & fears

The use of arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence (AI) is a topic of incre­asing inte­rest in the logi­stics sector.
Alt­hough the poten­ti­al for incre­asing effi­ci­en­cy, impro­ving per­for­mance and deve­lo­ping new busi­ness models is huge, only around 15 per­cent of com­pa­nies are curr­ent­ly actively using AI tech­no­lo­gies in their logi­stics processes.
A recent stu­dy by the Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tu­te shows that 56% of logi­stics com­pa­nies see the indus­try as a pio­neer in terms of digi­ta­liza­ti­on — com­pared to only 32% in the eco­no­my as a whole.
This fin­ding under­lines the high poten­ti­al of AI in logi­stics, which should be inte­gra­ted even more stron­gly into prac­ti­ce through agi­le and prag­ma­tic approa­ches. The logi­stics industry’s posi­ti­ve atti­tu­de towards AI is also reflec­ted in the con­vic­tion that this tech­no­lo­gy can con­tri­bu­te to sus­tainable and cli­­ma­­te-fri­en­d­­ly mobility.
In par­ti­cu­lar, the self-lear­­ning sup­p­ly chain made pos­si­ble by AI pro­mi­ses to opti­mi­ze logi­stics pro­ces­ses in such a way that bot­t­len­ecks and wai­ting times are mini­mi­zed. Chal­lenges and solu­ti­ons Despi­te the reco­gnizable bene­fits, com­pa­nies face con­sidera­ble chal­lenges: The high cost inten­si­ty of tech­no­lo­gy invest­ments and the need to impro­ve data qua­li­ty and utilization.
Net­wor­king bet­ween play­ers in the logi­stics pro­cess also requi­res invest­ment in high-qua­­li­­ty interfaces.
Ano­ther obs­ta­cle is the lack of inter­ac­tion bet­ween the par­ties invol­ved in the inter-com­­pa­­ny trans­por­ta­ti­on process.
This can be part­ly explai­ned by a lack of tech­no­lo­gi­cal pos­si­bi­li­ties and high invest­ments.  Fear of the new — a his­to­ri­cal phe­no­me­non Skep­ti­cism towards new tech­no­lo­gies is not a new phenomenon.
Even when the rail­road was intro­du­ced, the­re were fears about the new, fast and noi­sy method of transportation.
This his­to­ri­cal per­spec­ti­ve reminds us that fears of chan­ge can be over­co­me and that inno­va­ti­on can ulti­m­ate­ly bene­fit everyone.
Ste­phen Haw­king, the famous Bri­tish phy­si­cist, once said: “Intel­li­gence is the abili­ty to adapt to chan­ge.”
This quo­te should ser­ve as a gui­ding prin­ci­ple when we think about the use of AI in logi­stics. Con­clu­si­on The use of AI in logi­stics offers num­e­rous oppor­tu­ni­ties, but also poses chal­lenges and rai­ses fears.
It is time to use this tech­no­lo­gy in a prag­ma­tic and tar­ge­ted way to lead the logi­stics indus­try into an effi­ci­ent, sus­tainable and future-ori­en­­ted future.