Investment in transportation management technology has increased substantially over the past decade as shippers and logistics service providers place greater emphasis on automation, visibility and artificial intelligence.
Descartes Systems Group published its tenth annual Global Transportation Management Benchmark Survey. It examined how transportation technology priorities have changed.
Among North American respondents, 78% said their organisation planned to increase transportation management technology investment in 2026. This is in comparison to 53% in 2017. The research also found that 85% now regard transportation as either a competitive tool or customer-service differentiator.
The survey covered 600 senior transportation decision-makers globally, including 300 respondents in the US and Canada, split between shippers and logistics service providers.
AI adoption remains limited
Despite growing interest in AI, widespread operational deployment remains relatively limited.
Only 19% of shippers and 15% of logistics service providers reported using AI at scale. Data quality was identified as the biggest barrier by 33% of shippers and 45% of LSPs. Meanwhile, integration complexity was cited by 39% and 38% respectively.
Companies already applying AI reported operational benefits. Some 55% of shippers identified lower administrative and labour costs as their biggest realised benefit. 53% of LSPs cited improved service and 46% reported freight cost reductions.
Visibility remains another challenge. Shippers most frequently identified full truckload transportation as the mode needing better real time visibility, with 57% of shippers and 43% of LSPs citing it.
Cost and visibility pressures
Freight cost management ranks as the largest transportation challenge for 35% of shippers and 25% of logistics providers. Meanwhile, 58% of respondents prioritise increasing AI adoption over the next two years. This figure narrowly exceeds the 57% prioritising lower freight costs.
This creates an important procurement consideration. Businesses considering transportation management systems and visibility platforms may increasingly need to examine the quality and integration of underlying data alongside headline AI functionality.
The research by Descartes Systems Group indicates that the next stage of transportation digitalisation will depend less on experimentation and more on whether businesses can integrate systems, improve data quality and automate processes sufficiently to deploy AI effectively at operational scale.
