Global container shipping has long relied on manual processes, often involving emails and Excel files. However, shippers are now eager to embrace digital transformation. While some aspects have already been digitalized, automation remains limited due to complexity, unstandardized data flows and the prevalence of exceptions.
Today’s technologies, such as specialized container shipping management systems, offer the potential for automation, including planning and booking shipments. This automation can yield significant gains in both workforce productivity and process efficiency. For instance, shippers can now automate container optimum routing, vessel selection and bookings using technologies that consider factors like departure and arrival dates, pricing, allocation fulfillment and even carbon emissions to select the best vessel schedules. Furthermore, real-time visibility of container shipments has also become an automated process, seamlessly gathering data from various sources such as carriers, vessels and ports, providing shipment status updates and issuing alerts in case of any deviations.
This all appears shiny and fancy. However, the challenge shifts from merely collecting data and implementing automated processes to guaranteeing the highest-quality data possible and suggesting actionable steps even in exceptional cases.
This is where AI holds great potential for delivering significant value. By analyzing shipment patterns and identifying potential risks, AI-powered systems can initiate corrective actions before any deviations become costly problems during later stages of the shipment. Time is of the essence here, as the later a risk is identified, the more expensive it becomes to rectify. By harnessing the vast amount of data stored in current systems, AI applied to container shipping can detect early signals of risk and enable teams to react swiftly for all shipments at risk. Looking ahead, this level of automation has the power to significantly enhance shippers’ capabilities to insource the container shipping process, reducing complexity and cutting costs.