Despite carrying over 80% of global trade, maritime logistics continues to operate with siloed data across carriers, terminals, forwarders, etc. This fragmentation restricts transparency and responses to disruption and slows decision-making. As supply chains demand greater resilience, speed and predictability, artificial intelligence has emerged as a strategic accelerator to reshape the future of ocean shipping, addressing long-standing industry challenges rooted in fragmented systems, uneven digitalization and limited data interoperability.
AI applications fall broadly into two categories: analytical AI and generative AI. Analytical AI leverages structured data to identify patterns in it, improve forecasting accuracy, optimize operations and support risk management. Its value is particularly clear in route optimization considering traffic conditions and delivery priorities, inventory forecasting to prevent overstocking or stockouts, and loading optimization by transforming manual loading processes in a proactive and efficient manner. Generative AI, powered by large language models, expands intelligence into unstructured information. It can summarize market updates, detect emerging risks, extract information from emails or PDFs and respond to operational questions through natural-language queries. It also powers intelligent customer-service automation, allowing chatbots to manage routine inquiries such as tracking requests or schedule changes, freeing human expertise for more complex workflows.
The next phase of evolution will be AI agents capable of analyzing information and autonomously executing operational tasks. Routine tasks will be automated initially, and, over time, it will orchestrate entire logistics flows in a more integrated and holistic manner.
Ensuring timely and accurate data across non-standardized systems is essential to fully harnessing the potential of AI in logistics. That is, inaccurate or irrelevant information leads to flawed analyses, in line with the principle of "Garbage In, Garbage Out." Accordingly, third-party logistics providers must accelerate digitalization and build interoperable systems across the logistics ecosystem to drive genuine digital transformation.