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As artificial intelligence moves deeper into daily operations, transportation industry leaders are finding that managing the human element is just as important as finding the right technology. Focusing on employee engagement, investing in practical skills and giving people a clear stake in the outcome can all garner support.

“Change management is the foundation of any successful technology rollout,” said Matt Godfrey, president of ABF Freight.

The less-than-truckload carrier involves teams early, creates feedback loops and ties every initiative to specific business goals.

“While not everyone needs to be an AI expert, we focus on building skills that make AI practical in daily work,” Godfrey said.

Data acumen and the ability to interpret and make data-driven decisions are becoming increasingly important.

“Teams require foundational skills in data literacy, prompt design and an understanding of how AI models work, so they can use them effectively and responsibly,” said Rohit Talwar, senior vice president of software engineering for Penske Transportation Solutions.

Technical training at Penske emphasizes model training and monitoring, integrating models into applications and ensuring data quality, governance and security.

“Successful AI adoption is as much about culture as it is about technology,” Talwar said. “We must ensure that to build an AI-first culture, our teams should feel supported, trained and part of the journey.”

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Sandhu

When deploying AI, think of it like hiring a new team member, said Annalise Sandhu, CEO of AI-powered visibility firm Chain.

“Smart, fast, never sleeps, but they still need to be trained on your way of doing things,” she said.

While there is concern about AI eliminating jobs, some executives believe AI could actually improve worker retention.

“AI can help by taking on tasks people don’t want to do,” said Beth Young, account executive at technology deployment company Velociti.

Dylan Dameron, VP of operations for Axle Logistics, said automation and AI can offload high-stress, repetitive tasks.

“Think about all those high-stress or redundant, repeated tasks you had to do over and over and over. … Well, here are some tools that will help you with those,” he said.

At the same time, reduced turnover could help deepen customer relationships.

“We’re keeping people around longer, and they have more time to talk and get to know people,” Dameron added.

Chain’s Sandhu said the best AI doesn’t require companies to restructure teams or overhaul operations.

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Deep Dive

►Putting AI to Work in Trucking
►AI Adoption Raises Stakes for Data Security
►AI Rollouts Depend on People as Much as Technology

“It fits into how teams already work by reading the same data, following the same rules, handling the same repetitive tasks employees used to do manually,” she said. “If a company needs a reorg to make AI useful, it’s probably the wrong tool.”

Because AI and humans have to work together, Sandhu recommended starting slow.

“That means taking it one step at a time: Offload a task, see how it performs, refine the process, then move on to the next,” she said. “The teams seeing the best results aren’t trying to automate their whole operation at once. They’re picking one pain point, automating the hell out of it, and using what they learn to go deeper from there.”

AI is excellent at summarizing and reframing information but not at inventing truly new ideas, which means humans need to stay in the loop, said Dave Yoder, group director of analytics and product innovation at Ryder System.

“Novel ideas don’t come from a chat agent. Great summaries from your novel ideas come from a chat agent,” he said.

Yoder suggested pairing subject matter experts with people who are unfamiliar with a given process to challenge assumptions and avoid simply automating the “as-is” workflow.

Humans also need to provide oversight in specific applications.

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Driegert

Bill Driegert, executive VP for the Convoy Platform at DAT, expects human workers to remain involved even as AI tools increasingly inform pricing decisions and automate processes.

“If I am a relationship-driven carrier or broker, I want to have those relationships,” he said. “I want to get on the phone. I want to talk to people because that’s the value I bring.”

Because AI-driven systems have to be accepted and used by humans, management needs to think carefully about the overall strategy, said Ben Wiesen, president of TMS vendor Carrier Logistics.

“Will some employees be concerned with this change? Undoubtedly. But that isn’t a reason to hold off on implementation,” Wiesen said. “It is a reason why executive strategy is important and why solutions can’t just be released without careful orchestration.”

Penske’s Talwar said successful AI adoption is as much about culture as it is about technology.

Teams should be part of the journey and trust that the technology is there to support their expertise rather than replace it.

“The key is helping associates understand how AI reduces repetitive work, helps them upskill and frees them to focus on higher-value tasks,” Talwar said. “Change management efforts should focus on helping the impacted individuals understand what’s in it for them.”

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