The latest FreighTech 2025 convention as soon as once more introduced collectively a mixture of carriers, forwarders, BCOs, lecturers, and tech suppliers to listen to the newest and share insights round, logistics know-how and the way it can profit the freight business.
Key Tech Traits for World Freight in 2026
From AI to ocean freight innovation and tendering methods for 2026, listed here are a few of the key takeaways from this 12 months’s occasion.
- AI is already having an impression, particularly in information processing and buyer help, with expectations to handle 20% of human duties inside 5 years – although most organizations aren’t absolutely AI-ready but.
- Knowledge high quality challenges and few requirements stay an impediment for tech implementation, together with for AI tasks.
- Ocean freight digitalization is progressing, with improved provider APIs anticipated to set off a digital transformation just like what’s occurred in air cargo.
- Strategic approaches to tendering are maturing, as know-how instruments for pricing visibility and charge discovery are serving to corporations transfer away from underutilized contracts on low-volume lanes towards a extra balanced contract/spot technique – as MIT analysis introduced on the convention recommends.
- Index-linked freight contracts are gaining traction as these versatile agreements are proving useful for all events,typically providing higher prices, income, and reliability than conventional fastened contracts.
AI-Powered World Freight: Potential, Actuality, and Finest Practices
Key Takeaways:
- AI is already getting used aggressively, principally with information processing, automation and front-line buyer help.
- It’s nonetheless simply getting began; leaders have excessive expectations to deal with extra duties in coming years with human roles principally evolving, fairly than being eradicated, in consequence.
- Many are satisfied that AI can have a web damaging impression on sector employment.
- Leaders don’t really feel fully prepared but
AI was, as anticipated, a scorching matter this 12 months and high of thoughts for many in attendance. However dialogue focussed on separating present sensible AI purposes for logistics from the hype, setting practical horizons, and sharing classes realized to this point.
An viewers ballot confirmed expectations that inside the subsequent few years AI will deal with a significant share of present logistics duties at present performed by people – over half of leaders imagine that not less than 20% of present roles might be dealt with by AI within the subsequent 5 years.
However there was additionally consensus that, together with some admitted discount in headcount, human roles will evolve together with AI advances. Logistics professionals will leverage AI to allow groups to do extra, and add extra worth for purchasers in new methods – simply as many logistics tech introductions to this point have enhanced as an alternative of eradicated human roles.
Freight is difficult, nevertheless, and audio system agreed that AI can’t do all of it, and never immediately. On the identical time, AI is already being utilized in a number of methods throughout the freight panorama, particularly for mundane and repetitive duties. Some examples embrace utilizing AI to:
- Detect information anomalies or course of unstructured information
- Create content material
- Allow automation circulate between programs
- Energy brokers (and even voicebots) that deal with routine buyer inquiries or inner processes.
They nonetheless aren’t prepared although.
That being stated, solely a few third in attendance think about their organizations AI-ready.
As such, finest practices for AI funding, improvement, and introductions for logistics from these already on the forefront focussed on the next important suggestions:
- Downside Mapping: Determine high-impact, high-frequency issues the place AI is already possible so as to add worth
- Begin Small: Start with clear use instances and broaden primarily based on success
- Focus: Construct AI capabilities in areas the place your organization has deep area experience, and purchase options for every thing else
- Experiment and share: Make AI instruments out there to groups for experimentation and facilitate data sharing.
World Freight Knowledge High quality – the Persistent Roadblock
Key Takeaways:
- Lack of requirements and inconsistent information stays a irritating roadblock, together with for AI
- Deal with information that does work; scale from there
However even alongside the joy surrounding AI, there was a well-known chorus that poor information high quality – typically from information acquired from companions within the provide chain, and attributable to the continued lack of freight information requirements – continues to frustrate some logistics tech aspirations, together with AI tasks.
“Discovering one thing you possibly can’t do proper now can be necessary, and opens new alternatives to do this factor, and perhaps extra, sooner or later. On this case it confirmed the worth of investing in high quality information.” – Robert Khachatryan, CEO FreightRight
Robert Khachatryan of FreightRight shared a case research of the forwarder’s try to construct an AI-driven predictive pricing system pilot with information scientists from USC. However the undertaking needed to be scrapped once they realized that a lot of their mandatory historic freight charge information – the place the inputs are advanced and various – was not clear sufficient to allow AI to achieve the duty.
The lesson realized was that investing in information high quality now will allow profitable tech, together with AI, sooner or later.
“On the provider facet, we’ve established a shared understanding of what info we will simply change proper now, and so we deal with that out there information for digital options, to enhance our effectivity and the shopper expertise.” – Helge Neumann-Lezius, Head of FCL, Hellmann
Helge Neumann-Lezius from Hellmann provided Hellman’s comparable pragmatic method to tech funding and roll outs: deal with constructing across the high quality information you’ve got now, whereas taking steps to enhance information high quality in different areas.
Ocean Freight Innovation: Nearing a Digital Tipping Level
Key Takeaways:
- Ocean liners are starting to enhance entry to APIs
- It will possible assist gasoline the identical surge in connectivity that airline APIs have provided.
An instance of this technique is Hellman’s deal with extra real-time information change with ocean carriers, leveraging improved API connections with carriers to allow real-time charge and monitoring information.
So whereas ocean freight’s digital adoption has lagged air cargo’s – the place API-enabled dynamic charges, market intelligence, and eBookings, together with by third celebration platforms, have gotten increasingly more prevalent – a number of audio system instructed that ocean is approaching its tipping level.
The logistics provide chain is usually solely as digitalized as its least digital accomplice, in order ocean provider connectivity improves the close to time period is more likely to see a surge in digital ocean freight, together with real-time charges, on-line bookings and TMS integrations.
Freight Tendering in 2026: Discovering the Proper Steadiness
Key Takeaways:
- Long run contracts are assumed to be the default answer for tendering however might be unreliable or underutilized
- Spot freight – used strategically – can cut back prices and save time
- Index-linked contracts and even hedging are gathering momentum after a few years of debate.
Looking forward to 2026, a number of discussions on ocean freight tendering for the approaching 12 months revealed fascinating suggestions for hanging a contract vs. spot stability, explored the rising prevalence of index-linked contracts, and shared how tech is enjoying a bigger function right here as nicely.
Dr. Angi Acocella of MIT’s Middle for Transportation and Logistics shared her latest analysis displaying that shippers in each FTL and ocean depend on long run contracts for the massive majority of their volumes, utilizing spot to handle uncertainty – principally for surprising volumes, one-off shipments or lanes, or when contracted carriers are unavailable.
However the analysis additionally confirmed an 80/20 cut up: 80% of shipper volumes go on 20% of the contracted lanes, leaving many contracts for lower-volume lanes underutilized. Unused contracts not solely value shippers within the type of wasted time and sources on negotiations, but in addition typically entail increased charges for shipments moved on these lanes – typically at ranges above spot prices for these shipments – and barely increased contract charges on excessive quantity lanes as nicely.
As such, she recommends analyzing lane volumes, contract charges and spot utilization and prices from the earlier 12 months. Shippers are suggested to focus contracts on the upper quantity lanes, and rely extra on spot for the lengthy tail.
Analysis additionally exhibits the rising place for index-linked contracts in freight, and proof that index-linked contracts profit each carriers and shippers within the type of decrease prices, elevated income and higher quantity reliability than non-linked contracts or the spot market.
A number of audio system famous the significance of belief for index-linked pilots – belief between the companions, within the charge information chosen as the premise, and within the contract mechanism. As these develop, index-linked contract adoption is anticipated to develop as nicely.
Lastly, audio system touched on the elevated significance of know-how to procurement. Instruments that enhance pricing/quantity visibility, charge discovery, and the velocity and effectivity of communication between carriers/LSPs/shippers already contribute to the flexibility to make higher and strategic tendering choices. Tech-enabled enhancements in these areas are serving to shippers and LSPs make the procurement course of – for each tenders and spot shipments – more cost effective, quicker, extra environment friendly, and extra dependable.
If you happen to loved this, you may additionally get pleasure from our latest digital summit, which included discussions of digital freight transformation, spot/tender balances, and extra. See it right here.
