Many different transportation and trucking industry focused technology companies have announced their plans on investing in artificial intelligence in the next few years of their businesses. In many of their plans, the companies state that they are seeking to further their products and the industry in the future. Most of the AI projects revolve around the safety and productivity sectors of the trucking industry.

The role of artificial intelligence in the trucking industry is still regulating itself as it is slowly being introduced.

Currently, projects are being tested that incorporate AI into the driver safety and efficiency as well as maintenance of vehicles and business operations. The AI being tested and/or fully operationally used is still quite simple and small, working in conjunction with several other major components to make it functional. The CEO of McLeod Software, a trucking industry tech leader, Tom McLeod, said in a statement that they have had to work hard in the last few years to have the capacity to even work with AI. He spoke of how they have had the “compute power and the enormous storage requirements for these technologies to work,” only in the last few years. He went on to explain that they have not reached a point within having the abilities to work within AI to also make the work more affordable, enticing trucking companies to look into it more seriously.

McLeod Software is specifically looking to incorporate simpler processes for data analysis in the trucking industry with their AI.

According to McLeod, having certain processes automated in the routine of trucking will ease the workload of many, allowing them to instead focus in their work on more particular and demanding tasks. Experts have spoken on the matter, describing the AI as “co-pilots” to truckers. Those who work the more office based jobs in the industry are being told that artificial intelligence will allow them to focus their work more on the customer interfacing parts of the job, such as sales and customer service. The tech companies have advocated for their beliefs that these changes will allow the industry to flourish as the AI will help streamline the work and the shift in customer service skills will better their interactions.