How AI is changing work
Logistics
Planning smarter, with people who know the puzzle.
In logistics, AI mainly helps with planning, forecasting and sorting: routes, busy periods, stock and the handling of aircraft and ships. Use is still low; most companies are at the stage of interest and first trials. Planners and skilled workers remain necessary to deal with the exceptions.
What changes
- Schedules are prepared with algorithms instead of entirely by hand.
- Cameras and AI see what happens on an apron, quay or sorting belt and predict delays.
- Robots with image recognition take over sorting and picking work in warehouses.
- Customer questions and administration increasingly go through AI assistants.
Where people make the difference
- Stepping in when reality differs from the plan: weather, breakdowns, colleagues off sick.
- Weighing up speed, cost, safety and workload.
- Working together across the chain, with carriers, customers and drivers.
How AI is already used
Sorting and planning routes
PostNL already uses AI in customer service, in its app and for sorting and planning routes for letters and parcels, and wants to scale this up in the coming years.
Emerce, 2025The downside on the route
According to the FNV trade union, delivery workers' experiences with PostNL's AI route planning are not encouraging: fewer people and a higher workload.
FNV, 2025Robots that recognise products
In its warehouse in Waalwijk, Bol is testing robots that use image recognition to identify and sort products, and to set aside items with, for example, unreadable labels.
RetailTrends, 2025Train planning from days to hours
NS, ProRail, Utrecht University and TU Delft are working with AI to reduce two days of planning work per railway junction to one hour. Full automation is not possible because of all the uncertain factors.
NWO, 2026Cameras on the apron
Eindhoven Airport, together with Schiphol, uses cameras and AI to record the start and end times of aircraft handling, so it can be predicted when an aircraft can depart.
Eindhoven Airport, 2023A digital twin of the port
The Port of Rotterdam Authority is building a digital version of the port and expects some jobs to disappear and new ones to emerge, for example in cybersecurity, error checking and supervision.
Havenbedrijf Rotterdam
Where the sector is heading
Transport and storage uses little AI: in 2025, hospitality, transport and storage, and construction were at the bottom with 16 to 21 percent of companies (10 or more employees), against 70 percent in information and communication.
CBS, 202660 percent of companies in trade and logistics are interested in AI, but only 7 percent have a concrete AI policy. Almost two thirds cite a lack of knowledge as an obstacle.
evofenedex, 2025Transport and storage companies that use AI most often use it for administration and management tasks (41.4 percent in 2024), not yet mainly for the logistics itself.
CBS (Statistics Netherlands), AI monitor 2024
What a maker can do for you here
- “Build a dashboard that predicts busy periods and delays in our warehouse.”
- “Connect an AI assistant to our customer service for questions about shipments.”
- “Automate the processing of consignment notes and customs documents.”
- “Make instruction videos for new employees in several languages.”
Researched on 5 October 2026. Know a good example from the Netherlands? Let us know.