“Industry is truly fragmented, which means there are a lot of opportunities,”
said Dawn Rasmussen, Managing Director of the start-up Problems Solved, which tailors artificial intelligence services to logistics companies seeking to increase efficiencies and cut costs – which are hand in glove.
AI – the so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ – has developed in leaps and bounds, and with it, affordability has increased exponentially. The tangible benefits are manifold, Rasmussen said, citing a case in which a logistics business had been saved $1.2 billion simply by deploying it.
Inspired by ants
Developers of artificial intelligence were actually inspired by ants, Rasmussen said.
Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) is now a well-known tool used in this sphere, where machines are programmed to work along the same principles that ants use.
“To find the quickest and most effective route to food, ants explore different pathways, leaving pheromones behind,” she said.
“Over time, they discover the shortest route and remember it – and this is what AI algorithms do.”
This can be used in so many ways – working out the best routes, how to avoid congestion, taking weather into account, and making predictions – and just like ants, the machine adapts to changing circumstances.
If efficiency is improved, costs are cut. AI can detect fraud, improve security, reduce human error, organise data – it can reduce the waste, for example, in moving empty containers around when a proper logistics plan has not been implemented.
Bottlenecks can be reduced, waste, deliver delays – all leading to saving money, Rasmussen said. And it also applies to the excruciating administrative tasks that are increasingly being done, such as orders, which can be processed simply by AI extracting the necessary information from an email.
“If a vessel has to be diverted to another port, does the cargo need to go by road, or rail? AI can optimise the supply chain, avoiding geopolitical issues like the Suez Canal, weather – and so on, avoiding knee-jerk reactions that humans often have,” Rasmussen said.
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