Benefits Of AI In Logistics
AI has made logistics more efficient and accurate, facilitating savings in cost and time in service delivery and transportation. While AI in supply chain management is very much still adapting and evolving, as it pertains to logistics, AI has already proven to be an important tool that can be used to overcome challenges and innovate.
There are many ways to implement AI into logistics models, offering many advantages. Here are the benefits of AI in logistics.
1. Faster Deliveries
AI is used as a key component in third party logistics company operations. Almost nine out of every ten businesses have reported that AI resulted in faster deliveries. This positively reflects on your brand and, most importantly, makes customers happy.
2. AI Chatbots in Customer Support
Another key element of high customer satisfaction is reliable, effective customer support. AI chatbots are notably changing how customer support is delivered in logistics, improving communications between company and customer.
3. Customer Delivery Notifications
Have delivery notifications sent to customers as a product goes through the supply chain, passing key checkpoints along the way. Likewise, AI can intervene and offer custom recommendations if another type of shipping would prove less costly or more efficient for a customer order.
4. AI in Route Optimization
For delivery fleets, imagine being able to select the best logistics route based on current conditions. AI can easily do that. With this, transportation costs can be reduced. Analyzing these savings over a year can be a sizeable amount of money a company can reinvest.
Additionally, expect a higher degree of accuracy. When AI is there to oversee order processing, it statistically results in fewer processing errors made by a human worker in its place.
5. Personalized Recommendations
Though existing software can provide personalized customer recommendations, AI can take it further by analyzing customer demographics and past purchase histories. This maximizes every sale, ensuring a company does not leave any money on the table.
6. AI for Inventory Management
A common use of AI in logistics is in managing inventory. AI software can track stock levels and automatically replenish orders based on sales and customer demand patterns. No human intervention is necessary. No human monitoring is required.
7. Ensure Products Are Always In Stock
The ultimate result of this style of AI inventory management is that products are always available when customers need them. This ensures a company can sell more, move products quickly, and replenish to maximize their numbers without wasting inventory purchases.
8. AI Real-Time Tracking
AI will play a meatier role in the years ahead with real-time tracking of shipments, aiding company owners and management to see where specific orders are, how much time has passed since the order was received, and providing an accurate delivery date.
9. Analytical Decision-Making
AI can examine the analytics and real-time data you have acquired and provide recommendations on decision-making that serve your logistics plan. A part of this is done with predictive analytics, using vast amounts of data to predict future patterns in all aspects of supply chain management.
10. AI for Safety and Compliance
AI can be programmed and educated on the latest in health and safety standards, government regulations, industry compliance, and ethics. It monitors logistics status in real-time and can flag errors and concerns about safety and compliance violations. Also, AI can analyze data from security sensors, warehouse cameras, and RFID tags to detect potential thefts, hazards, heightened risk of an accident, and more.
Implementing AI and maintaining these systems requires a logistics service to look at their cybersecurity, ensuring robust measures are in place to mitigate the risk of a cyber-attack. Data breaches and system failures are always a possibility. If you aren’t already prioritizing online security, committing to making a change is integral.
11. Clear Advantage Over Competitors
Large corporations are already using AI. They are finding major cost savings and gaining clear advantages over their competition. AI is becoming essential for businesses looking to have the same competitive edge.
AI will also allow companies to scale quickly. While AI is not quite there yet, as it gets closer to normalizing autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots, scaling operations in logistics will prove to be a much faster, more cost-efficient process for AI-friendly companies.
12. Predict and Prevent Supply Chain Disruptions
Disruptions are an inevitability. AI may not be able to prevent them at every corner. Still, AI can predict them, notify relevant stakeholders when they occur, and even engage in decision-making to produce one or more recommended responses.
Despite AI’s benefits in logistics, human oversight is still required to navigate careful situations, such as international operations cross border logistics planning, and to guarantee full adherence to all laws and regulations.