FourKites announced what it claims is a major new step in revving supply chain technology with artificial intelligence (AI).
On Wednesday, the company introduced Intelligent Control Tower, which melds its network of real-time supply chain data, digital twins, and a new digital workforce of AI agents.
The Intelligent Control Tower is a network of real-time supply chain data that tracks more than 3.2 million shipments daily in over 200 countries and territories on the ground, water and in the air, as well as more than 1.1 million carriers. The tower’s continuously updated digital twins brings visibility into real-world operations for shipments, orders, inventory and assets. A new digital workforce that includes AI agents perform autonomous action on routine tasks and decisions, from track-and-trace to supplier management, appointment scheduling, and order management.
FourKites is offering eight Intelligent Control Tower packages: streamlining inbound supply collaboration, optimizing purchase order performance, automating inbound scheduling experience, transforming yard logistics operations, preventing supply chain metric OTIF (On Time In Full) fines, delivering a seamless pickup experience, enhancing cross-dock performance; and automating customer appointment scheduling.
“Real-time transportation visibility has become table stakes, and companies are striving to derive greater value from supply chain data,” FourKites CEO Mathew Elenjickal said in a statement. “We’re taking the next step in FourKites’ evolution by moving the industry from seeing data to automating actions.”
Shippers and 3PLs are convinced AI is pivotal in automating data analysis, identifying patterns, solving problems and automating repetitive tasks. Indeed, a new study on logistics from Penn State University, in collaboration with NTT DATA and Penske Logistics, found shippers (61%) and 3PLs (73%) say supply chain change management is vital, according to the annual survey. Among respondents, 58% of shippers and 76% of 3PLs are deploying a change management framework.
“We need intense security over our supply chain. It is of national security concern,” Lucas Tesler, a partner at Silicon Foundry, said in an interview about the state of the worldwide network of supply parts. “AI will help in analyzing millions of data points.”
Indeed, President Biden’s recent executive order on AI security exposes deeper concerns around critical infrastructures that rely on complex software supply chains, says software supply chain security expert Mike Lieberman.
