AI Helps Multinationals Ease Supply Chain Pressures

Artificial intelligence isn’t new to shipping, but the way some companies are using it is.

That’s according to a report Saturday (Aug. 12) by the Financial Times, which finds that companies like Maersk, Siemens and Unilever are using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to source new supplies, finalize contacts and make sure they aren’t doing business with companies tied to environmental and human rights abuses.

The report notes that new supply chain laws in countries like Germany, requiring companies to track environmental and human rights issues in their supply chains, have fueled interest and investment in the sector.

Navneet Kapoor, Maersk’s chief technology officer, said “Things have changed dramatically over the past year with the advent of generative AI,” which can generate conversational responses to human prompts.

In December, the report said, Maersk helped provide $20 million in funding for Pactum, a San Francisco company that says its ChatGPT-like bot has negotiated contracts with suppliers for Maersk, Walmart and distribution group Wesco.

“When there is war or COVID or supply chain disruption, you need to reach out to suppliers,” Kaspar Korjus, Pactum’s co-founder, told the FT. “[With] one disruption after another these days, it takes humans too much time. Walmart doesn’t have time to reach out to tens of thousands of suppliers.”

As PYMNTS noted in April, this shift is happening at a time when shipping and logistics businesses are seeking smarter ways to operate.

Zvi Schreiber, CEO of trade tech solution Freightos, described to PYMNTS in an interview in March how the international freight market being a “largely offline endeavor” has led to “tens of billions of dollars of waste.”

That same offline, highly intermediated nature of global freight, Schreiber added, has been a crucial factor in all the supply chain problems seen in recent years.

“Fortunately, even the most entrenched and traditionally manual industries are now wising up to the benefits of modern technology,” PYMNTS wrote.

For example, critical business operations, such as price setting, already depend on technical processes and tools that are steadily turning more digital and more efficient.

“A next-generation cohort of business solutions are bringing to market solutions that layer artificial intelligence (AI) over those existing data flows to vastly improve the efficiency and impact of operational processes,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the shipping industry is under increased pressure as global demand for moving containers by sea continues to decline.

Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said earlier this month that customers have been reducing their inventory and there is no sign of this trend ending any time soon.