TAKEAWAYS
OVERHEARD
Once the seasonal shopping rush subsides, attention shifts to the post-holiday returns season. We asked the Inbound Logistics LinkedIn audience about their top priorities and greatest challenges as they work through the onslaught of both in-store and online returns—and a clear winner emerged. Turns out, if customers ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. CUSTOMER FOCUS TOPS RETURNS PRIORITIES
“This is definitely controversial, but I don’t think the industry is fully ready for AI. 2026 will not be the year of AI transformation in ecommerce logistics, but rather the year of AI enablement.” —Tiago Paiva Head of MEC Global Product at Maersk, on emerging trends in ecommerce
What’s your biggest challenge during the post-holiday returns surge?
33%
CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
AUTOMATION’S NEXT LEAP
26%
REVERSE LOGISTICS COSTS
21%
Business automation continues to accelerate, and supply chain organizations are seeing real returns. Nearly all companies (95%) surveyed in Camunda’s 2026 State of Agentic Orchestration and Automation report business growth from process automation in the past year, as automation expands into high-impact areas such as onboarding, claims, order fulfillment, and fraud detection. TThe next major boost is expected to come from agentic AI. However, many organizations are not yet ready to scale this shift, according to Camunda’s research. While 71% of respondents already use AI agents, only 11% of agentic use cases have reached production, and 73% report a gap between their vision for agentic AI and current reality. The study also details the importance of AI orchestration for maximum benefit. ( See chart for more details .)
INVENTORY VISIBILITY
21%
STAFFING CAPACITY
What’s your top priority when returns volumes surge?
32%
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
29%
36 Inbound Logistics • January 2026 AI in the Future 90% > 88% > 73% >
SPEED OF PROCESSING
of respondents say AI needs to be orchestrated like any other endpoint within automated business processes to ensure compliance with regulations say AI needs to be orchestrated across business processes if they are to get maximum benefit from their investments
22%
COST CONTROL
16%
RESALE RECOVERY
are looking to use AI to better analyze and improve processes
Source: Inbound Logistics LinkedIn poll
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