Artificial intelligence attempts to transform the supply chain and logistics. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the logistics world. That may seem like a cliché, or hype, or buzz, but it’s real. The technology is greatly changing the way packages move around the globe, from predictive analytics to autonomous vehicles and smart roads.
As the world is moving at a fast pace, AI is trying to take over every part of our life. Every day, we get to hear stuff about machine learning and robotics technology making a world-wide impact by optimizing our everyday tasks. As it saves time and performs tasks more efficiently. Now, AI is taking over the logistics industry as well.
Here are the top six ways in which Artificial Intelligence transforms the logistics industry as we understand it.
AI now facilitates self-driving vehicles, which implies improving the supply chain and reducing costs for the logistics industry. Driverless cars are good, but there are many other vehicles that can be autonomous. For example, trucks or vans that deliver all the needed products, as well as buses, can profit from self-driving opportunities. These cars can function alone or in collaboration with a human driver. However, many countries’ government claims the driver must be in the self-driving car to control the situation on the road. This decision can be revised in the future. The logistics sector will definitely benefit from the integration of driverless vehicles. These vehicles provide a chance to reduce driving time, optimize routes and reduce fuel consumption.
AI transforms all warehousing operations from information collection to inventory procedures. This technology allows to strengthen the effectiveness and boost profit.
Various logistics companies have already designated robots to automate the process of product sorting and packaging. Robots have been programmed to pack products and sort them based on the delivery requirements. It also enables the management and performance of several daily tasks. In addition, new technologies will facilitate quality control to be managed without employee supervision.
Apart from that, whether the company has one or more warehouses, AI will provide an opportunity to interact with them to find the best solution to transport the good.
When talking about AI in logistics, back-office operations cannot be forgotten. The quality of work gets impressively better with the help of AI and RPA (Robotic Process Automation). All those repetitive and boring task gets taken over by the robots.
Because back-office operations companies are automated with supply chains, they can save money and boost precision. Cognitive automation is the new technology that goes two steps ahead. It helps businesses save time, spend less money, and increase productivity along with accuracy. It basically replaces office employees with robots. A lot of people do not embrace this technology as it will eventually replace human staff with software robots. But these robots will help in cost reduction and eliminate human-errors.
Businesses should be aware of and predict the number of goods needed. If the inventory is limited but the demand is high, the business will have to face severe losses.
Artificial intelligence can also assist you in predicting trends with the use of AI algorithms. Various studies have revealed that AI predicts better than most human experts.
AI tracks and measures all the required factors which results in improving the accuracy of demand prediction. With the help of this data, warehouse management becomes simpler. Moreover, AI can bring beneficial improvements to the customer experience. Integrating this technology implies personalizing the experience of customers and, as a result, customer loyalty is improved. The collaboration between DHL Parcel and Amazon are a great example of personalized customer experience.
Some businesses are working to develop smart roads. They grant some unique solutions depending on regional requirements. As a result, in some areas, there are highways built with solar panels and LED lights. These roads can generate electricity as well as using lights to warn drivers about crucial changes in road conditions. Moreover, the solar panels are heated to prevent the road from becoming slippery in the winter. As a result, the logistics industry gets some advantages as there are no delays in the supply chain owing to weather conditions.
Artificial Intelligence is also getting a hold on voice assistants in logistics. Amazon’s Alexa is one such instance that is assisting t customers to track their orders placed. You can ask Alexa about your package and it can readily tell you where it has reached. Also, it can even route calls to the courier’s customer support if the customer faces issues with their package. AI has a part to play at every stage of logistics.
The logistics industry can take benefit from AI in a number of ways. Warehouses use AI to automate and interconnect inner procedures within them. Advanced techniques such as geocoding and location intelligence are used for optimum results. The B2B and B2C industries also use AI-based systems to allocate vehicles and select the most optimized routes for cars.
Today, this technology plays a significant role in logistics solutions. It improves efficiency and automates many time-consuming operations on a daily basis, saving time and lowering costs. The world we live in leaves a digital footprint in almost all operations and that serves as a stepping stone for machine learning algorithms. It’s about time that AI takes over manual choices and delivers packages more efficiently.