AI-Powered Solution Proposal for the Transportation & Logistics Market
White paper proposal for Design’s role in creating an AI powered T&L Platform for a client (used with permission after removing the brand).
The Problem
What are the challenges facing the Transportation and Logistics (T&L) Industry today?
Chronic pain points for T&L customers:
Operational inefficiencies • Fuel and maintenance costs • Managing risks and regulations • Employee recruitment and retention • Speed and delivery times
Array of new T&L tech solutions drive efficiency and adds complexity:
Tracking and monitoring IoT to optimize routing, reduce fuel • Blockchain for secure tracking of goods • Autonomous vehicles to increase vehicle and labor efficiency • Robotics and automation • AR/VR for training and maintenance
Adoption and integration of new T&L technology solutions is a challenge; multiple technology stacks adding complexity.
Problem Statement for ABC Company: What unique value can an AI powered solution provide T&L that addresses these critical pain points and integrates and unlocks the value of other new solutions?
Why is this problem worth solving? Massive opportunity to help T&L to operate more efficiently, increase customer satisfaction, increase revenues, reduce regulatory and operational risks. Massive opportunity for ABC company to leverage its market and tech leadership into a complex yet large and needy market, that is very data intensive and ready to invest in new solutions. Statista estimates global logistics market to be $10.4 trillion by 2028.
Sources: Statista.com Sept 2023 Overview; PWC Future of the Logistic Industry; McKinsey report: Digital logistics: Technology Race Gathers Momentum; AI research tools; Endava Current Challenges in T&L 2022
Our Solution
An AI powered platform that optimizes planning, pricing, operations, and customer experience by using advanced analytics to process large data sets, and by integrating with other new technology such as transportation management solutions, warehouse management solutions, VR training tools, IoT tracking and various communications/GPS technologies.
We will deliver a dashboard/marketplace to run the entirety of the T&L supply chain along with platform and apps based around user persona’s, that manage specific T&L functions.
Examples of possible applications:
Demand forecasting: AI solution analyzes historical data and external factors to enable inventory management and resource planning
Predictive maintenance: AI solution integrates with IoT Sensors to enable proactive maintenance and minimize downtime
Supply Chain Visibility: AI provides real time visibility in entire supply chain, to support risk management, and increase efficiency and customer service
… and much more
Our Strategy
The Design Value Flow™
How do we build a best in class AI powered platform and dashboard for T&L?
Step 1: Research Pain points/current market • Assess competitive position • Assess ABC’s current unique strengths and refine our solution scope, blueprint, and positioning
Step 2: Consider a diverse set of personas and deeply understand how they will interact with the solution:
Fleet managers • Drivers <———> Supply Chain, Warehouse Managers < ——> IT, Compliance, Customer Service < ——> Executive Levels
Step 3: Develop a product roadmap that engages PM and design with key milestones. Assess where and how to engage select technology partners to build and scale the solution
Step 4: Test, test, test - product robustness, customer ease of use, integration with key existing solutions
Step 5: Pre-sell with select customers, develop best in class, AI-powered onboarding, training, support
How We Evaluate Success
We measure success of the strategy and of our design effort throughout the lifecycle of product development, deployment, and post sales through qualitative and quantitive means including the following:
User focus groups to gather feedback and measure user satisfaction with proposed design.
Trial to purchase conversion rates: Monitoring the impact of design on specific actions or goals such as sign-ups, purchases, or downloads. This can be measured through CRO tools
User engagement and satisfaction scores analyzing user behavior and interaction with design such as time spent on the site or app, number of visits, speed of adoption, speed of competency, and user retention rates. Also standard metrics such as SUS and NPS scores
User support feedback loops will be built into our solution. We will develop AI empowered, customer support capabilities that captures usage patterns, key issues and customer feedback
Industry analyst rankings: Forrester, Gartner Magic Quadrant, T&L Industry specific awards
Design awards: Red Dot, iF, Spark Design, CES, and more
