US software company Manhattan Associates announced the results of its latest transport management study in July, conducted in collaboration with research firm Vanson Bourne. As part of the global study, 1,450 decision-makers from companies in the manufacturing, retail and wholesale industries, the consumer goods industry, the food sector, as well as the food and beverage industry in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Australia were surveyed.
“Transport logistics is the backbone of supply chains and essential to ensuring goods are delivered on time to meet customer expectations,” says Bryant Smith, Director, Transportation Management Systems (TMS) at Manhattan Associates. “However, managing transport is becoming increasingly complex due to rising demands. These include shorter delivery times, capacity and cost efficiency, stricter sustainability regulations, and the growing need for end-to-end transparency across all processes.”
According to the study's results, the true value of transparency goes beyond simple access to operational data: 60 percent of companies surveyed state that improving transparency also leads to higher customer satisfaction through more accurate and earlier updates, even in the absence of disruptions, while 50 percent of
companies cite the reduction of transportation costs as the main benefit of increased operational transparency.
AI: Expectations and Reality Diverge
According to the study results, 61 percent of the companies surveyed expect fully autonomous, agent-based AI capable of independently acting to achieve specific goals within the next five years. However, only 37 percent of companies have already deeply integrated AI and machine learning into their TMS.
Although five years is a long time in the field of AI, expectations and current usage are remarkably far apart according to the study's authors, as implementation is rarely straightforward: Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents said they were already well prepared for autonomous agents by 2030. Nevertheless, virtually all companies (99 percent) reported facing or expecting to face hurdles. These include a lack of skilled workers (49 percent), integration difficulties (44 percent), and problems with data quality and availability (44 percent).
Ambivalent Attitude Toward Sustainability Regulations
The demand for more sustainable transportation is widespread. 69 percent of the companies surveyed report that sustainability is either a global goal or an area with
significant pressure to act, with 62 percent already implementing reporting under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Complying with complex and changing regulations remains a global challenge. Sustainability regulations are most frequently cited as an obstacle that will impact corporate performance in the next five years.
Bryant Smith summarizes:
“The study clearly shows that many companies are not yet prepared to meet the challenges arising from growing sustainability demands, expectations regarding artificial intelligence, and the need for more visible, useful data. By 2030, these demands will further intensify, increasing the pressure on companies to conduct transport operations in a smarter and more intuitive way.”
“87 percent of respondents expect challenges in areas such as operational transparency, AI adoption, and compliance with sustainability requirements to increase, so that their current transport management systems can no longer keep pace. If they do not act now, they face rising costs, questions about long-term efficiency, and the risk of failing to meet their customer promises,” says Bryant Smith.
Further Results at a Glance:
- 48 percent of companies lose more than ten percent of their
- transport budget to errors and disruptions.
- 78 percent see transport management as a strategic necessity for success. By 2030, this figure will rise to 86 percent.
- 61 percent expect fully autonomous agent-based AI to be used in TMS within the next five years – systems that independently achieve defined goals and require minimal human supervision. 50 percent report challenges in proactively rerouting shipments, while 49 percent struggle with optimal workforce planning at the ramp and in the warehouse.
- 82 percent believe that advances in planning, forecasting, and modeling will reduce freight costs by at least five percent over the next five years.
- Companies are still struggling to operationalize sustainability: only 34 percent say they consider sustainability in operational planning, 30 percent in procurement decisions, and only 31 percent offer carbon-friendly fuel solutions.
- While the majority have integrated their TMS into sales and operations planning systems (60 percent) and use predictive analytics or artificial intelligence (56 percent), far fewer companies utilize key functions such as historical trend analysis (38 percent), automated booking and bidding (36 percent), or real-time demand capture
