70 percent of German logistics companies are in favor of looking into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to see if it offers them any market opportunities. 64 percent of specialists and executives consider self-driving cars in particular important to their future business success. However, managers also feel that AI may be associated with risks when it comes to acceptance—both among customers as well as their own employees. Those are the results of the LOGISTIC Trend Index 2017, a survey conducted on behalf of the world's leading trade fair transport logistic in Munich from May 9 to 12, 2017.

Logistics platforms in the Cloud and big-data applications such as those that MAN will have on exhibit at transport logistic are the first milestones on the road to digitally revolutionize the third-largest industry in Germany. Decision-makers in the logistics industry consider AI an important future technology when it comes to teaching vehicles to structure their surroundings and react to street traffic in real time. Delivery services along the last mile to the customer or control systems for route planning would profit from it.

However, 82 percent of German logistics specialists are also of the opinion that intelligent machines should not take over tasks currently performed by people completely, but should only assist them. In fact, the vast majority (70 percent) of industry experts have noticed that employees are reluctant to accept artificial intelligence. That is why specialists and executives feel that education and training may offer a number of opportunities to better address future interaction between man and machine: A large majority wants to focus on determining the skills that are needed for man and machine to collaborate in their own companies (85 percent). Within the scope of employee training, they see a need to professionalize data evaluation (87 percent) as well as the ability to make more efficient decisions in the digital transformation (86 percent). The opportunities associated with digitalization can only be realized if the necessary skills are anchored in companies.

According to Robert Schönberger, Exhibition Group Director at Messe München, “Experts from the commercial, scientific and public sectors will discuss the digital visions of logistics in the future in the conference program of transport logistic 2017. The Federal Ministry of Transport, Bitkom, the Fraunhofer Institute, the German Aerospace Center and a number of industry experts involved in various aspects of logistics will discuss skill assessments and solution strategies.”

Messe München GmbH