Download my FREE eBook. This is a MUST HAVE resource for anyone who is considering the freight broker industry (About 40 pgs, 19 Topics) Enter your email address and name for an immediate download.
I Left My Shopping List at Home – No Worries
Let me tell you why I won’t need to worry when I leave my shopping list at home.
Okay, you may be thinking, but what’s this got to do with freight brokering?
Well, here’s why I won’t have to worry … (to some extent) …
In the not-too-distant future, as you make your way to the local grocery store, one of the first things you’ll encounter will be a shopping cart that greets you by name!
“Hi, Mr./Mrs. So-and-So, how are you today?”
You’ll then encounter a pop-up screen on your cart’s handle bar and it has the “normal” shopping items that YOU usually buy.
It’s not just a list of items they have available and it’s not a sales pitch (that comes later as you begin shopping).
The shopping list that appears will be customized to YOUR buying habits because Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been implemented in collecting this information based upon, sometimes nothing more than, some daily habits that are captured by AI through, perhaps, your cell phone usage or perhaps from using other input from your doctor visits, etc.
Yes, I know there are profound ramifications here related to personal privacy – but that topic is for another day.
Oh, by the way, the greeting that you initially get from the cart was activated by a facial recognition scan that links to your personal data – again, very controversial, to say the least.
This shopping routine without a shopping list is integrating two things at the same time: (1) your normal shopping preferences which you are accustomed to, and (2) artificial intelligence.
It’s bringing your offline life and merging it with your online life – Artificial Intelligence.
Now, here’s where we can talk about freight brokering and we’ll do it by mentioning the supply chain.
The supply chain is all the points In the process of relaying freight from one stage to another – manufacturers, transportation, intermediaries (freight brokers), wholesalers or retail stores and customers.
Some of these points, or components, involve human intervention – increasingly, however, more and more components are non-human – it’s called technology, or artificial intelligence or block chain – whatever.
Yes, you could read and study all of this for your entire life because many of these occurrences are revolutionary and they are changing lives and how we live.
For example, retail stores with the help of AI will now be able to make major improvements, reducing food waste and increasing profitability. Sourcing and packaging items in a warehouse has been used with robots for some time.
Folks, I’m a “sad optimist” in that I’m very concerned about the future regarding our nation’s debt load and how it’s turning us into a second-rate country because there is NO WAY this debt can be repaid – NO WAY.
Other nations are lending money – the U.S. is borrowing it and the U.S. already is dependent on these lending countries.
Sorry, to get into all this but it’s scary, to say the least. I won’t feel the brunt – but my grandchildren and their children’s children will.
This is the sad side of me.
As an optimist, however, and while trying to be realistic, new innovations will help us all. New innovations are happening every day.
That’s the optimist side of me.
Lastly, I haven’t even spoken yet how Walmart has already used blockchain technology to dig deep into their supply chain to locate and specifically identify particular growers, and even individuals, when Walmart receives bad produce that may be severely infected.
This story too is for another day.
Bottom line – be ready to embrace some of the new innovations coming our way; also, be ready to reject, or refuse, others that don’t fit within your value structure.
Your comments/questions are always encouraged. I really don’t know that much about all of these goings-on. Help me out.