Artificial intelligence is set to eliminate repetitive tasks in freight forwarding and logistics, shifting value from manual system navigation to analytical questioning and strategic judgement, reports London's Air Cargo Week.

Archival Garcia, chief executive of Fluent Cargo, said the first workflows to disappear will be manual rate checks, tracking updates and report compilation. Mid-sized forwarders will collapse multiple system queries into single conversational requests, reducing reliance on institutional knowledge of system navigation.

Mr Garcia cited the Red Sea crisis as an example of AI's value, enabling operators to evaluate alternative routes and ask "what if" questions in minutes rather than waiting days for reports. He stressed that clean, integrated data is essential, noting that fragmented multimodal datasets remain a barrier to meaningful AI deployment.

Workforce roles are shifting from task execution to decision quality, risk mitigation and customer impact. Performance metrics will evolve to focus on customer satisfaction and cost improvements rather than tracking updates or report speed. Curiosity and the ability to interrogate AI outputs are emerging as key differentiators.

Mr Garcia said transparency is non-negotiable, with logistics leaders needing to understand whether recommendations are based on real-time data, contract rates or industry averages. AI also enables disruption management to move from reactive to anticipatory, allowing operators to model alternatives continuously and inform customers proactively.

In 2026, AI will be baseline infrastructure for freight operations, with customers demanding real-time tracking, instant quotes and proactive alerts. Mr Garcia predicted predictive capabilities will be the next