{"post":{"id":"3bbf1c5c-85af-4cde-87e4-6a42ff14ecac","slug":"practical-ai-and-automation-in-drayage-key-takeaways-from-draytech26","title":"Practical AI and Automation in Drayage: Key Takeaways from DrayTECH26","body":"It was an honor to moderate the \"Beyond the Hype: Practical AI and Automation for the Modern Motor Carrier\" panel at the Harbor Trucking Association DrayTECH26 conference last Friday. Now, a few days removed from moderating the panel with Walker Banks, MBA of PortPro, Dennis Lane of WiseTech Global, and Dhaman Rakhra of Melrose, I am left with some key takeaways. \n\nThe takeaways that won’t leave my head:\n\n 1. We aren’t even in the bottom of the first inning. We’re watching the first pitch of the game.\n\n 2. Effective AI requires three things: an identifiable problem and desired solution, people who can navigate the process and define the outcomes, and tribal knowledge plus data. Miss any one of those and you’re lighting money on fire.\n\n 3. AI won’t replace people. People who know how to leverage AI will replace the people who don’t. (Jensen Huang, CEO at NVIDIA)\n\n 4. The cost of AI is being subsidized right now. The true cost in five years will be dramatically higher. Build the muscle while it’s cheap.\n\n 5. Vision and adoption start at the top. If your executive team doesn’t use AI and believe in it, no one else will either.\n\n 6. The Wharton School stat: if you’re not leveraging AI for 30–50% of the menial functions you were doing five years ago, you’re already behind. Over the next five years, this is where the winners and losers in our industry get sorted.\n\nThanks to Walker, Dennis, and Dham for a great conversation; and to the Harbor Trucking Association for continuing to put real conversations in front of this industry.\n\nIf you are interested in a deeper dive, check out my conversation with Jonathan Rosenthal of Saybrook and ESP Logistics Technology on the \"On the Waterfront\" podcast, sponsored by Waterfront Logistics.\n\n📺 https://lnkd.in/gvmq6QMT\n🎧 https://lnkd.in/gT8wfzim\n\nWhich one of these hits hardest for you? And what would you add to the list?\n\nLet's keep the conversation going!\n\n#Drayage #AI #Logistics #SupplyChain #DrayTech","topic":"ai","byline":"weston","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-52/posts/?feedView=all","media":[{"h":1017,"w":1547,"id":"beeb274d-9563-400e-b870-044198c284bb","alt":"A man talking","ext":"jpg","mid":true,"kind":"image","bytes":851368}],"published_at":"2026-05-16T19:31:00+00:00","updated_at":"2026-10-14T00:28:23.546656+00:00","card":null},"prev":{"slug":"draytech-2026-exploring-practical-ai-and-automation-in-drayage","title":"DrayTECH 2026: Exploring Practical AI and Automation in Drayage"},"next":{"slug":"sustainability-and-ai-bridging-policy-and-real-world-logistics","title":"Sustainability and AI: Bridging Policy and Real-World Logistics"}}