HYPE VS. REALITY
Artificial Intelligence in the Supply Chain
media. The software considers current demand for service across the United States, and how well Senpex is meeting that demand, to determine how many couriers to hire in various locations. AI plays a supplemental role in sales at Senpex, too, retrieving information to help sales agents serve customers. The company would like to use AI bots to acquire new customers and interact with existing ones. But right now, its bots aren’t sophisticated enough to offer information and services to meet the needs of demanding customers, based on data analytics. “When educating the AI, we need to explain not just how to do the sale, but how to do the sale based on the data,” Mammadov says. YOU’VE GOT MAIL AI-based applications draw much of their data from the digital systems that shippers and service partners use to run their organizations. But even in an age of web portals, apps, and APIs, many
AI Recommendations & Optimizations AI Risk Models Virtual Assistants
Automations Through AI Digital Transformation
Source: Output from Inspectorios AI powered Quality Risk Management solution
Senpex has also trained AI bots to hire new drivers and bring them onto its platform. When a driver uses Senpex’s app to apply to the company, a bot conducts an interview while verifying the person’s ID and physical location and doing a background check on social
“That bot not only informs or helps with messages, but it also does actionable items, like canceling routes and giving them to someone else,” he says. This kind of automation is critical when managing as many as 50,000 local couriers, especially during rush hour.
SEVEN QUESTIONS TO ASK AI VENDORS By ERICA FRANK, VP of Marketing, Optimal Dynamics It can be overwhelming to receive emails and phone calls from artificial intelligence (AI) vendors who claim their technology is the solution to all your supply chain problems. But companies can find themselves deep into a big investment without knowing the exact problem the software will solve. These seven questions are the perfect starting point to ensure you end up with the right AI solution to solve your specific challenges. . Can you demonstrate how your platform solves my problems? Once you’ve done the prep work internally to determine exactly what problem you need to solve and how technology can help, then it’s time to start exploring how AI-based software could be a solution. A vendor should be able to demonstrate, using proven customer data, how it can solve your challenge and the potential results you can expect before the purchase process begins. This is also the right time to involve multiple members of your team from di erent departments as they might have di erent perspectives on the problem to solve. It’s helpful to see how a vendor tackles addressing the di erent perspectives within your company as well.
. How does your platform help users in my industry? If the vendor has no experience within the supply chain or transportation vertical, it should be an immediate red flag that it might not be the right fit. Without past examples of success, the amount of customization to make it work for you can become pricey fast and you don’t want to end up as the guinea pig either. The vendor in question should have past case studies and success stories to share focused on companies within the supply chain, logistics, and transportation space. If possible, they also should have one for a company with a use case like yours, before moving forward. The vendor’s software should also be easily customizable to match your organization, network preferences, and any capacity restraints. . Can you explain how it works? There is a di erence between an AI technology vendor that has built an algorithm or a set of tools that analyzes data and one that uses AI to advance that data. Asking these “how” focused questions can help draw a clear connection between the application’s use of AI and the solution to your problem that launched your search for a vendor in the first place. Understanding “how” the algorithm works and why it’s providing certain recommendations will help foster trust and confidence in the tools. Confirming concept and proof of value within your own data (see question #1), is essential. This step will confirm that the vendor is using the right tools to power a real application that delivers benefits, value, and solutions to its users and is more than just hype. . Is the solution integrated with our current tech stack? This is a key question because the answer will also determine how fast
(Continued on pg. 108)
106 Inbound Logistics • January 2025
Powered by FlippingBook