Knowledge on AI in the warehouse

All articles

• AI in the warehouse: where it helps and where to start

  For operations managers and controllers in warehousing and 3PL. Where AI in the warehouse takes over work today, where it gets you nothing, and how to start with one process.

• 3PL billing: from rate card and WMS to an invoice that adds up

  How a logistics service provider bills its clients, charge by charge, where the monthly invoice quietly drifts from the contract, and how a system prepares the invoice lines from the WMS for a person to approve.

• Automating returns processing in fulfilment: from parcel to credit note

  What you record around a return, from the parcel on the returns desk to the line on your invoice to the webshop, where the hours go and which part an AI system can take over.

• Automating customs documents: AI prepares, the declarant decides

  A system reads the commercial invoice and the packing list, sets them against the order and suggests a commodity code for each line. A person confirms, and the declarant gets clean data instead of a pile of PDFs.

• GDPR and AI in logistics: what can you do with personal data?

  What the GDPR asks once an AI system reads your orders, consignment notes or clock data, with the articles alongside. This is an explanation, not legal advice.

• The EU AI Act in logistics: what it asks of your warehouse

  Most AI around the administration of a warehouse is not high-risk. That changes once a system allocates work or assesses people. For those systems the heavy rules apply from 2 December 2027.

• e-CMR and eFTI: what the digital consignment note changes in your paperwork

  The e-CMR has been allowed in the Netherlands since 2011 and is not mandatory. From 9 July 2027 authorities in the EU do have to accept electronic freight information. If you stay on paper, eFTI puts no new duty on you.

• Automating logistics customer service with AI

  An AI system can answer the recurring questions in your shared inbox from your own systems and your carriers’ tracking, with a person who approves the drafts. Questions that involve money or a complaint stay with that person.

• What is an AI agent? An explanation with examples from logistics

  An AI agent is software in which a language model chooses the next step itself and carries it out in your systems, such as creating a draft order in the WMS. In a warehouse such an agent mostly does administrative work, within limits you set beforehand.

• Checking freight invoices against your own shipments

  You set every line on your carrier’s or courier’s invoice against the shipments that actually left your building and against your rate agreement. First as a one-off over the past year, then as a fixed step for every new invoice.

• Document processing in logistics: reading CMRs and packing slips automatically

  How a system reads consignment notes, packing slips and proof of delivery, sets them against the order in your WMS and shows a person only the exceptions. Plus what goes wrong and how you measure whether it works.

• AI in logistics: nine examples and what they do not solve

  Nine places where AI in logistics and in the warehouse is actually running today, from demand forecasting to invoices. For each one, what it does, what you need for it and where it stops.

• Unbilled work: extra handling that never reaches an invoice

  Work that was done but never billed does not show in your revenue, and nobody on the floor sees it either. This is how you match the work carried out against your invoices and rates every day, and what to do with the gap.

• Checking staffing agency invoices against your own clock data

  First a one-off check over twelve months of invoices, then a fixed step for every new invoice. Plus what the Wtta asks of you as a hirer.

• Connecting your WMS, TMS and ERP: one layer for EDI, API, files and email

  Every client and every carrier sends its data in its own way. One layer between your systems absorbs that, with only the access it needs.

• Orders from email, Excel and PDF into your WMS automatically

  Automating order entry starts at the inbox where your orders land today. A system reads those orders, checks them against the agreement with your client and places them in the WMS. A baseline up front tells you whether it works.

• Custom or off-the-shelf software in logistics: how to choose

  For your WMS and your accounts a standard package is usually the right call. For the work between your WMS and your clients often not, and then you keep a custom project small by starting with one process.