VIEWPOINT [ INSIGHT ]
by Sean Wu CEO, uShip uship@diffusionpr.com | www.uship.com
Why I’m Still Betting on Humans Earlier this year, my son spent months saving for his first real piano. He knew exactly which model he wanted, found a used one online, and even borrowed some money from his grandmother to close the gap. Once he bought it, he came to me for help figuring out how to get it shipped.
those shipments, customers want a person on the phone who can not only solve the problem but also show that they understand the stakes. This is something a chatbot can’t do. In practice, the human element shows up when a driver arrives at a walk-up and realizes the “standard” doorway in the listing is actually a spiral staircase, and has to make a judgment call about getting a vintage armoire upstairs without damaging the item or the house. AI isn’t mature enough to take these nuanced, human steps, and these are exactly the moments where getting it wrong costs the most. This is also why logistics is becoming a genuinely attractive career path, even in an increasingly automated economy. While other industries worry about jobs disappearing to AI, ours is one where automation expands the market for skilled human work: driving, loading, problem-solving, and customer care. Logistics decision-makers don’t have to choose between automation and people. Use AI to compress the operational and mechanical parts of the process, such as pricing and demand forecasting, but understand where its limitations lie, especially when things don’t go according to plan. Marrying the two is a winning strategy as automation continues to shape our industry.
such as driver profiles and reviews are built into the experience, people who never bothered shipping a large item before start doing so. This unlocks demand that didn’t exist previously, meaning more shipments that still require the kind of hands-on judgment automation can’t yet replicate. Automation isn’t shrinking the pool of jobs in our industry; it’s expanding the market those jobs serve. BULKY AND PARCEL ARE NOT THE SAME This is particularly clear with bulky and oversized freight, which should always be treated as separate from parcel. If an Amazon package shows up damaged, most people shrug it off. It’s a toothbrush, and if it’s that big of a deal, the company will make it right with a refund. Big and bulky freight requires far more trust. We’re talking about long-haul moves, often 200-plus miles and crossing state lines, of things people can’t just reorder like a one-of-a-kind rocking chair that belonged to someone’s grandmother. When something goes sideways with
I initially got a quote from a traditional mover, and it was eye-wateringly expensive. But price wasn’t the only thing on my mind. This wasn’t just 800 pounds of hardwood, it was the piano my son had scraped together every dollar for, and I wanted whoever moved it to understand that. Then I found a bid that made sense on both price and care. That experience sits at the center of how I think about the role of humans and automation in our industry. To start, I’m not an automation skeptic. AI is already proving helpful across the sector by reducing transport costs and delivery times from AI-driven route planning, and cutting fuel consumption 15-25% from route optimization. It’s also proving valuable for demand forecasting and powering instant pricing so shippers can compare rates across carriers. But what a lot of automation narratives get wrong is that as pricing and administrative tasks get more efficient, demand for human-led logistics goes up, not down. Here’s what I mean: when quotes are instant and trust-building tools
22 Inbound Logistics • September 2026
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