26 American Journal of Transportation American Journal of Transportation ajot.com from siloed robotic controls to intelligent orchestration layers. These systems serve as the operational “brain” of a facility, enabling different makes and models of robots — AMRs, AGVs, and AS/ RS systems — to function as a single, coordinated work- force with minimal manual intervention. Gray continues, “The focus has evolved beyond the hardware itself to how these systems communicate and make decisions together to optimize the entire facil- ity in real time. What we are achieving today in automa- tion efficiency would not have been possible just two to three years ago. AI is being layered onto existing solutions across our operations, significantly elevating the quality and speed of decision-making at every level of the warehouse.” According to the 2025 Third-Party Logistics Study from NTT, 3PLs are also using AI to improve predic- tive maintenance on fleet vehicles, which improves uptime and prevents delays. “Engines, telematics devices, ELDs and safety technology all transmit data. One of the challenges with large amounts of data is that it can create noise. However, when ana- lyzed, it can predict potential failures, when they will occur and the root cause of the fail- ure so providers can get ahead of issues before they create more significant problems.” Improving Customer Service “AI is fundamentally chang- ing how our teams spend their time — and that directly ben- efits our customers,” Gray from NFI confirms. “We are streamlining a wide range of back-office activities, enabling our people to move away from manual, non-value-add tasks and redirect their energy toward strategic, high-impact conver- sations. Within our engineering group specifically, AI is reduc- ing the administrative burden on our design teams, free- ing them to develop a deeper understanding of each cus- tomer’s unique challenges and rigorously pressure-test alter- nate solutions. The outcome is better-designed supply chain solutions and faster time-to-im- plementation. When our people are empowered to think rather than administrate, the quality of our work improves across the board.” Rather than reacting to disruptions after they occur, Gray says NFI can model the downstream impact via AI and present clients with actionable options before a situation escalates. “The result is a more proactive partnership with our custom- ers — one that drives mean- ingful risk mitigation and measurable cost reduction.” Since 2023, C.H. Rob- inson has been building AI agents that perform real- world shipping tasks and operate their customers’ global supply chains, in contrast to building simple chatbots for customer interaction or que- rying data. That has grown to an ecosystem of hundreds of orchestrated AI agents embed- ded in critical workflows, including AI agents that help the AI agents. “Customers get premium service round the clock, and they get a more intelligent supply chain that operates with greater speed, reliability and efficiency,” Albrecht from C.H. Robinson reveals. “Our latest stats show that when our AI is applied across con- nected steps, it results in up to 23% faster speed to market for shipments. The faster we can process a customer’s order, the faster we can secure an ideal (EMBRACE – continued from page 24) Leveraging AI against supply chain volatility AI is moving from experimentation to operational decision support across supply chain planning, and is being used to counter supply chain volatility, according to the State of Supply Chain 2026: Volatility, Trade-Offs & the Rise of AI report from RELEX Solutions. By Pete Goldin, AJOT (LEVERAGING – continued on page 28) “Most companies today have accepted that volatility is now an expected part of their operations,” explains Max Forsius, Product Director, AI Innovations at RELEX Solutions, and 44% of leaders cite consumer demand vol- atility as a top challenge over the next three years, according to the report. “The challenge is that many supply chain decisions are still made in disconnected ways, even though forecasting, replenishment, allo- cation, and execution all directly affect one another,” Forsius continues. “AI helps orga- nizations connect those decisions so they can adjust plans continuously as demand, inven- tory levels, supplier constraints, and operating conditions change.” In fact, 67% of retail and manufacturing leaders say their confidence in using AI for supply chain decision-making has increased compared with last year. Based on this sen- timent, organizations are increasing future investment in AI capabilities, with 71% plan- ning to invest in generative and agentic AI and 60% in predictive AI over the next three to five years, according to the report. Forsius says AI helps organizations eval- uate trade-offs much faster and with greater precision, allowing companies to react more effectively while maintaining service levels, controlling costs, and keeping inventory better aligned with actual demand. Forsius points out that most organizations are not aiming for fully autonomous supply chains, however. Instead, they are building systems where AI generates recommendations, and humans remain accountable for the final decision. The report found that 54% prefer (EMBRACE – continued on page 28)
View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.