Artificial Intelligence and Automation Make Waves in Shipping

September through December are the busiest cargo shipping months of the year thanks to the winter holiday season, and in 2017, that was even more true than usual. The demand for shipping space on container ships, and the pace of arrivals at commercial ports, can hit companies with time-consuming and expensive issues: shipment delays, required changes in shipping method from marine to air, scheduling problems for the unloading and reloading of containers, and freight theft. In a retail environment where Amazon and other large retailers offer quick shipping, for free, manufacturers and retailers now risk losing money -- and customers -- if deliveries are delayed. Increasingly, the commercial shipping firms that retailers and manufacturers rely on to get products from A to B are turning to new technologies like artificial intelligence and automation to analyze the huge amounts of data generating in shipping, with an eye toward streamlining the processes, anticipating potential delays, and saving money. For an industry that has used some of the same systems for years, artificial intelligence and automation offer an opportunity for revolution.