Questions and answers about AI in the warehouse

What warehouses and 3PLs ask us most, each with a short answer and a link to the article that goes further.

AI in the warehouse

What can AI do in logistics?

AI in logistics reads and compares: it takes orders out of email and PDF, reads consignment notes and packing slips, and puts invoices next to the agreements and the clocked hours.

That work sits in the office around the floor, where someone now retypes data or puts two lists side by side. Planning, routing and warehouse layout are calculation. Good packages exist for those, and a language model is not built for them. Examples per process are in AI in logistics: examples.

Where do you start with AI in the warehouse?

You start with one process that comes back every day, costs a lot of manual work and has a clear outcome, such as retyping orders from email.

Skip a process whose rules still live in someone’s head. What counts as right has to be written down first, and only then can a system check it. Count how much time it takes now, so you have a baseline to measure the result against. How to choose is in the guide to AI in the warehouse.

What is an AI agent?

An AI agent is software in which a language model picks the next step itself and carries it out in your systems, for example looking up an order in the WMS or preparing a draft email.

A fixed workflow follows the same steps every time. An agent decides along the way. In a business process it therefore gets limits: what it may read, what it may write and when a person approves. Often a fixed workflow is enough. More in what is an AI agent.

Does a person need to check what the AI does?

Yes. The system handles what matches the agreements and puts doubtful cases in a queue that someone on your team looks at.

An unknown item number, an unusual delivery address or an invoice line that does not fit the clock data never goes through unseen. You measure how much lands in that queue. That shows whether the system is getting better. How this works for orders is in orders from email into your WMS.

Can AI read a CMR or a packing slip?

Yes, a language model reads a CMR, a packing slip or a delivery note and prepares the fields you need, also when the document is a scan or a photo.

Ordinary code then checks whether what it read is right: does the shipment exist, do the quantities fit, does the sender belong to this customer. A handwritten remark or a hard to read stamp goes to a person. See document processing in logistics. It reads a commercial invoice and packing list for customs the same way, but the declarant lodges the declaration: see automating customs documents.

Can AI answer questions from customers?

Yes, for questions whose answer is in your own systems, such as the status of an order or an expected delivery time.

The system looks it up in the WMS or TMS and prepares a draft. A complaint, a damage claim or a question about money is decided by a person. If the system sends answers itself, the reader has to know they are dealing with AI. More in automating customer questions.

Integrations and systems

Does AI replace my WMS?

No. We build AI into the WMS you already have: the system reads the order or the file and writes into your WMS through the link that is already there, whether that is EDI, an API or a file.

Choosing or replacing a WMS is not something we do. What still happens by hand next to the WMS is the work we build. What such a link looks like is in connecting WMS, TMS and ERP.

Does it work with my current WMS or ERP?

Yes, as long as your WMS or ERP can take in and hand out data, through an API, EDI, an import file or a shared folder.

If an old system has no link at all, it can often still be read. Then we build a read layer and do not write into it. Your people keep working in the programs they already use, without a new login. Which package you run is something we look at in an introduction call.

How do you read orders from email automatically?

You let a system read the inbox: it takes the order out of the email or the attachment, also from PDF or Excel, checks it against the agreements with that customer and prepares it in the WMS.

It checks whether the item number exists, the quantity fits and the delivery address belongs to the customer. What does not match goes to a queue for a person. Start with the customer who emails the most orders. See orders from email into your WMS.

How do you connect WMS, TMS and ERP?

With one layer between your systems that translates every message, whether EDI, an API, a file or an email, into what your WMS, TMS and ERP expect.

Then you no longer build a separate link per customer or carrier. A new customer becomes a matter of configuration instead of a new build. How to set up such a layer is in connecting WMS, TMS and ERP.

What if a customer suddenly sends their file in a different format?

Then the system usually still reads it, because a language model recognises a shifted column or a different layout the way a person does.

Ordinary code then checks whether the order it read matches the agreements. Whatever is uncertain goes to a person. A classic integration breaks on such a change and has to be rebuilt. More in the guide to AI in the warehouse.

Invoices and checks

How do you check freight invoices automatically?

You put every line of the freight invoice next to the rate agreement with the carrier and next to the shipments that actually ran.

The system checks whether the rate, the surcharges and the number of pallets or kilos are right. It also checks that a trip is not on the invoice twice. Whatever differs goes on a list that someone on your team reviews before the invoice is paid. How to record those agreements is in checking freight invoices.

How do you check staffing agency invoices?

You put every line of the agency invoice next to your own clock data: hours, allowances and the rate per role.

Start with a one-off check over the past twelve months, which shows where the differences are. After that every new invoice goes through the same check before it is paid. Around a rate change, watch for an old price that keeps showing up. Which lines to compare is in checking staffing agency invoices.

How does a 3PL prevent unbilled work?

You put the work that was done next to the invoices that went out and the rates in the contract, every day.

Extra handling, returns put back into stock and rush trips are recorded in the WMS or on a work order, while the invoice is made in the ERP. A system puts whatever is missing on a list each day, so it can still go on the next invoice. More in unbilled work. With returns that work often sits at the returns desk, see automating returns processing.

How does billing work at a 3PL?

A 3PL bills per activity: every job has a unit and a price in the contract, and the invoice is what happened in the WMS that period, times the rate.

The rate card usually covers storage per pallet place or per m3, inbound and outbound handling, picking per order and per order line, value-added services, recharged transport and a monthly minimum. It often goes wrong where rates sit in a separate Excel file per client, or where a contract change never reaches the rate card. More in 3PL billing.

Does the check also look at past invoices?

For staffing agency invoices it does: the first step is a one-off check over the past twelve months.

For unbilled work we only look forward. From the start, the work done is set next to the invoices every day, so whatever is missing can still be billed. Which check comes first is something we choose together, as described in how we work.

How we work and what it costs

What does AI cost for a warehouse?

With us, an AI system for your warehouse costs a fixed price per process, which you see and approve before we build.

After that you pay a fixed monthly amount for maintenance, cancellable every month and without a licence per user. We do not publish a price list, because the price depends on the process, the sources and the systems. How the price is set is in how we work. In the introduction call we work out what that process costs you now.

How quickly does AI deliver results?

AI delivers as soon as the first process works, which is why you start with one process instead of a large project.

How long the build takes depends on that process, and you hear it before you approve anything. We measure the result against a baseline of how it goes now, so you see what it brings. Only when this process works does the next one start, as how we work describes.

Bespoke or off-the-shelf software: which do you choose?

For your WMS and your accounting, off-the-shelf software is usually the right choice, and bespoke work fits the work in between that runs differently per customer.

Around the WMS that is often where Excel and email now fill the gap. Keep bespoke work small: one process, in the systems you already have. What we make for you, you can take with you, also if you stop working with us. See bespoke or off-the-shelf.

Who is behind Pakr?

Pakr is Martin Veltman, who builds the systems, and Fried de Rave, who knows logistics from his own transport company.

There is nobody between you and the person who makes the system. Call or email and you get one of the two on the line. Pakr is a trade name of Winvent Group B.V. More about us.

Which companies is Pakr for?

Pakr builds for warehousing, fulfilment and contract logistics, cold storage included, from fifty people on the floor, with a WMS that runs and work around it that is still done by hand.

If you only do transport or forwarding without a warehouse of your own, or you are looking for a new WMS or routing software, it is not a fit. We say so in the first call. See who we build for.

What does the first call look like?

The first call takes 45 minutes, is free and is usually online, otherwise at your site.

We go through where the manual work is, such as orders from email, staffing agency invoices and work that never gets billed. You see a system that already runs. If it fits, we choose the first process together. The fixed price comes only after that, once the process is chosen. Book an introduction call.

What happens if the system does not do what was agreed?

If the system does not reach what was agreed in advance, you do not pay the final instalment.

Before we build, what the system has to do is written down, measured against a baseline of how it goes now. That document is signed. Your data and the output can always be exported. All the steps are in how we work.

What do you keep if you stop?

If you stop, you keep what we built, your data and your accounts.

Maintenance is a fixed monthly amount, cancellable every month. You get documentation, and your data and the output can always be exported. Afterwards we delete your files on our side and confirm that in writing. More in bespoke or off-the-shelf.

Privacy and regulation

Where does my data stay?

Your data stays inside the EU, is used only for your assignment and never to train an AI model.

We sign a confidentiality agreement before the first file, also if it stays at a conversation. Afterwards we delete everything and confirm that in writing. With any builder, put this in the data processing agreement, including for the parties they bring in. How we arrange it is in how we work.

May AI process personal data of drivers or agency workers?

Yes, if there is a legal basis under article 6 GDPR and the system only sees what it needs for its task.

A consignment note carries the driver’s name and licence plate, clock data the start and end times of agency workers. Clock data for invoice checks may not quietly become a performance measure per person (purpose limitation, article 5). With the builder you sign a data processing agreement (article 28). These answers are not legal advice. More in GDPR and AI in logistics.

Does my AI application fall under the AI Act?

Almost every business AI system falls under the AI Act, but the heavy requirements apply only to high-risk systems.

A system that reads orders or checks invoices is not on the list in Annex III. Using AI to allocate tasks based on a worker’s behaviour, or to monitor their performance, is. Those obligations apply from 2 December 2027. A system that communicates with people directly has had to make clear it is AI since 2 August 2026 (article 50). More in the AI Act in logistics.

Does the works council have to approve AI?

Yes, if the system processes personal data of your people or is suitable for monitoring their attendance, behaviour or performance (article 27(1)(k) and (l) of the Dutch Works Councils Act).

An invoice check on clock data shows per person who started and stopped when, so it can fall under that rule. Put the decision to the council in writing before the system goes live. Agency workers count for the act after 15 months. An example of such a check is in checking staffing agency invoices.

Is e-CMR mandatory in the Netherlands?

No. Professional road haulage needs a consignment note, but nothing obliges you to make it digital.

For international transport, an additional protocol to the CMR Convention covers the e-CMR. That protocol has applied to the Netherlands since 5 June 2011 and gives an e-CMR the same evidential value as the paper note. For domestic transport, the Dutch road haulage regulation also allows a digital consignment note. More in e-CMR and eFTI.

What is eFTI?

eFTI is the European Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 that lets companies show freight information to authorities digitally, through a certified eFTI platform.

From 9 July 2027 the authorities in every EU member state must accept that digital information. For companies, sharing it digitally stays a choice, and paper is still allowed. More in e-CMR and eFTI.

What does the Wtta change for a warehouse that hires agency workers?

From 1 January 2028 you may only hire workers from agencies with an admission or exemption from the Dutch Labour Market Admission Authority (NAU), unless a legal exception applies.

The act takes effect on 1 January 2027, and that year is a transition year. From 1 July 2027 the public NAU register shows whether an agency is admitted. If you work with an agency without admission from 2028, the Labour Inspectorate can fine you. That check can run with every invoice. See checking staffing agency invoices.

Does this sound familiar?

In a 45 minute first call we look at your own process and tell you honestly whether AI pays off there.

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