AI reshapes logistics as Alpha Augmented reports growing demand

AI reshapes logistics as Alpha Augmented reports growing demand
AI reshapes logistics as Alpha Augmented reports growing demand

As labor shortages, geopolitical shifts, and changing sourcing strategies impact the global supply chain, logistics providers are racing toward automation—and fast.

Few companies are seeing that shift as clearly as Alpha Augmented Services, a Switzerland-based AI optimization platform that said demand for digital decision-making is accelerating across all major business regions.

“We see inefficiencies every day, and the main driver is people and the decisions they make,” CEO Massimo Rossetti said during an interview with FreightWaves. “Experience that used to anchor warehouses is disappearing. The workforce is changing and companies need a way to capture decades of knowledge before they retire.”

Alpha Augmented, winner of the 2025 Digital Innovation Award at the Logistics Cluster Forum in Basel, Switzerland, last month, leverages AI to optimize logistics processes, including packaging and shipping, for businesses of all sizes and across all major modes of transportation, including air, sea and road.

The company claims its software can reduce logistics costs and CO₂ emissions by up to 20%, while increasing productivity by up to 40%.

Rossetti said an emerging trend in global logistics is the growing experience gap within warehouses.

In Europe, North America and Asia, veteran warehouse workers with 30 to 35 years of tribal knowledge are retiring, while younger staff tend to view logistics as a short-term stop, not a long-term career. That turnover, Rossetti said, is undermining consistency and quality in daily operations.

“All of our clients have the same challenge,” he said. “They’re losing people who knew how to pack freight the right way for decades. The transition to less experienced workers is where inefficiency really grows.”

Alpha’s platform attempts to standardize those decisions by digitizing a company’s operating rules, integrating logic and security requirements into automated workflows, ensuring that even inexperienced workers follow optimal patterns.

Rossetti and COO Amjad Ladak said many companies seriously underestimate the data requirements needed to operate the “warehouse of the future.”

Rossetti pointed to Adidas’ new largely automated facility in Mantua, Italy, which reduced its workforce from 3,500 to about 700. While automation drives massive productivity, “what they’re missing most of the time is data,” Rossetti said. “How do I power these machines? Where do I get the data?”

Alpha prepares companies for that transition by collecting and maintaining shipping-level data as part of its optimization process, Rossetti said. Even clients still using paper spreadsheets can quickly achieve measurable gains.

“If they have everything ready, we will be able to incorporate them in four to six weeks,” Rossetti said. “But most don’t have complete data. That’s why it’s good to start early: we maintain them while they modernize.”

Ladak and Rossetti said North American companies are adopting logistics AI the fastest.

“The United States, by far,” Rossetti said. “They want to try something. If it helps, great, let’s do it.” Europe lags slightly behind due to heavier administrative processes, while Asia adapts quickly because many global freight flows originate there. The Middle East, backed by strong investments, is also moving forward rapidly.”

Ladak added that consolidation across the supply chain is pushing more companies toward technologies that can help them reduce costs.

“As that consolidation occurs, larger and larger, massive-scale companies are emerging that already deal with some of the largest carriers in the world,” Ladak said. “They are able to scale the automation that you see. Some of the bigger ones are already focused, whether it’s AI or optimization tools. Everyone is looking at how they can become more competitive because in this environment, everyone has to become more competitive.”

Rossetti said logistics volume weakened for six to eight months but is now recovering, although the peak season exceeded expectations.

Some industries experienced a decline in demand, but improvements are emerging as tariffs are eased on certain trade routes, particularly flows between Europe and the United States. “Most clients expect the first quarter and especially the second quarter of next year to return to the numbers they had before,” Rossetti said.

When asked which emerging technologies will come to mainstream logistics first, Rossetti pointed to autonomous delivery vehicles, which are already rolling around U.S. cities in pilot operations.

“These little autonomous vehicles for city deliveries… we’ll see more and more of that,” he said. Quantum computing is also on the horizon, especially as supply chains accumulate massive data sets that exceed the limits of traditional computing.

Ladak highlighted digital twin technology as the near-term game changer.

“Digital twins allow companies to simulate cost savings, close sourcing strategies, tariff impacts, geopolitical shocks, everything,” Ladak said. “It’s extremely critical for larger organizations.”

The post AI Reshapes Logistics as Alpha Augmented Reports Rising Demand appeared first on FreightWaves.

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