The role and application of AI in the maritime and logistics industry will be described quite differently depending on the time horizon (short-term versus distant future), functional domains (sales/operations/pricing/management/market intelligence) and organizational level. Nevertheless, three critical truths are evident.
First, a substantial portion of traditional junior-level work can already be performed by AI more efficiently. This includes news summarization from industry sources, report writing, data retrieval and refinement, code development, and research synthesis. Data cleansing, market trend consolidation and preliminary analysis are now within AI's capability.
Second, and more importantly, while significant portions of workflows can be automated through AI, complete automation of any specific role or function remains impossible. Pricing decisions, carrier negotiation strategies, capacity forecasting and contract structuring require human judgment. AI provides data; humans provide decision-making. The difference between 'excess capacity is worsening' and 'we must shorten contracts and introduce dynamic pricing mechanisms to respond to rate fluctuations' is the difference between data and strategy.
Third, therefore, competitive advantage for maritime and logistics companies lies in deploying AI for rapid, broad information gathering while allocating more personnel to higher-quality work: analysis, judgment, design, negotiation and strategic decision-making. This reallocation determines the competitive positioning of each company.
To achieve this requires redesigning work and organizational structures. The critical factor is “strong leadership capability” that can decompose tasks both vertically and horizontally for comprehensive understanding while simultaneously integrating them holistically.
In areas requiring such high-level, multidimensional judgment and design, I believe the potential for work that only humans can perform is quite significant. This is where, again, human value becomes increasingly irreplaceable in the AI era.