Transcripts
Welcome everyone to Unboxing Logistics.
Speaker:You know the drill.
Speaker:I'm Lori Boyer, your host, here from EasyPost.
Speaker:And today, we are going to be on the subject of, as you all know, one
Speaker:of my favorite topics, which is AI.
Speaker:Love AI, and we're going to be talking specifically about AI in the warehouse.
Speaker:So this is gonna be a really, really fun discussion.
Speaker:Everyone buckle up for this one.
Speaker:Get your notes out.
Speaker:You're gonna want to be paying attention fully for this one.
Speaker:But, to get started, I've invited a couple of amazing guests, who know so much more than
Speaker:I do about this topic, from Powerhouse AI.
Speaker:So I'm going to throw it over to them to introduce themselves.
Speaker:Henrik, let's start with you.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:So thanks for having us, Lori.
Speaker:My name is Henrik Bergsager and I'm the head of partnership and sales here at Powerhouse AI.
Speaker:And a little bit about me, I would say like for the last 10 years or decade or
Speaker:so, I've been working at startups that develop solutions for regulated industries.
Speaker:So for example, like distributional pharmaceuticals or perishable goods.
Speaker:Really cool.
Speaker:Kushal.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Kushal.
Speaker:I'm the director of Powerhouse AI.
Speaker:We have been running this company for the last three years now, and we have got into
Speaker:the space mainly because my background is in robotics and my vision was always to get
Speaker:software or robotics in the hands of humans.
Speaker:And that's how we started this company.
Speaker:And that's how we are here today.
Speaker:It is so fun, Kushal.
Speaker:I love, first, I love startups.
Speaker:I also love robotics.
Speaker:I go to a trade show and I'm instantly trying to find all the robots and
Speaker:all the cool stuff that's going on.
Speaker:So I am really excited to have you here today.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'd like to get to know you just a little bit.
Speaker:So I'm going to ask you a couple of questions, and then as we dive into our
Speaker:topic, I'm going to ask each of you to give us one or two kind of takeaways.
Speaker:So it's really important to me that our audience if they have to jump off or whatever the thing
Speaker:is, that if they only take away one or two things that they can remember from today's
Speaker:discussion, what it is you want them to remember.
Speaker:So I've been asking all our guests this season what their favorite comfort food is.
Speaker:So when you're having a long day, when it's just been whatever it is, because,
Speaker:you know, are you going for some pizza?
Speaker:Are you looking for some sort of warm drink?
Speaker:What, what is your comfort food you go to?
Speaker:For me, I would say like so I'm in New York, so I would say greasy Chinese food.
Speaker:I think that's, that's a good comfort food.
Speaker:Greasy American Chinese food, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I love that myself.
Speaker:So good.
Speaker:Kushal?
Speaker:For me, it's Mexican.
Speaker:I usually go for tacos.
Speaker:That's my go to food usually.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I love some good tacos, some chips and dip, all of that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Kushal, can you share with us a takeaway you have on the topic of AI in the warehouse.
Speaker:What, what do you want our audience to remember from today?
Speaker:I think one of my biggest takeaways, which I want everyone to take away, even our, even the
Speaker:people I meet in warehousing and everyone is, especially with the AI sense, is to start small
Speaker:with clear objectives and scale gradually.
Speaker:That's one of the key takeaways I usually emphasize a lot on throughout my journey.
Speaker:So that's been one of the key insights.
Speaker:The second thing would be not to complicate things too much, not to make it too
Speaker:complicated when you're starting off it, and because that leads to my third takeaway,
Speaker:which is like not having clear objectives.
Speaker:And you end up not having clear objectives on what exactly you want to get out of this.
Speaker:Okay, those are all fantastic points.
Speaker:And to me, honestly, if that's all you hear.
Speaker:Especially we're talking kind of smaller entry level, kind of small to med size,
Speaker:middle, medium sized warehouses, so critical to become overwhelmed really, really fast.
Speaker:Henrik, what do you have to add?
Speaker:Yeah, I think I want to like play on what Kushal said.
Speaker:And I think compared to like in the past, implementing like AI doesn't
Speaker:necessarily mean that you have to transform like your whole warehouse completely.
Speaker:I think AI tools are becoming more like focused, kind of like what Kushal said,
Speaker:like, like focusing on specific operations or, or resolving a specific issue.
Speaker:So they're all becoming a little bit more plug and play.
Speaker:So it's easier to kind of integrate with like your existing systems and it's, it's more affordable
Speaker:and it's faster to roll out and see value.
Speaker:So I guess my takeaway is that kind of don't be scared of kind of approaching AI because it's,
Speaker:it's definitely like the threshold of adoption is definitely lower than what it used to be.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I, I love that.
Speaker:I think that when some of us think AI, we just immediately think dollars.
Speaker:And hard and really complicated.
Speaker:And so that's super interesting.
Speaker:So I kind of referred to the fact that today's discussion is going to sort of revolve around that
Speaker:small to medium size kind of warehouse operations.
Speaker:Henrik, would you mind explaining to us?
Speaker:Let's define that.
Speaker:What does that look like to you?
Speaker:So when we talk about like, when we talk about small and medium sized warehouses, we
Speaker:typically refer to like operations, I would say between like 10,000-50,000 square feet.
Speaker:And they would be handling, like, I would say moderate volumes of inventory.
Speaker:And in terms of their function, their core kind of like, their service, I would say like more
Speaker:like regional supply chains, where you have maybe like some manual processes as part of your
Speaker:warehouse and some semi automated processes.
Speaker:Okay, Kushal, do you have anything to add to that?
Speaker:Is it usually just a single warehouse they would have or could they have multiple?
Speaker:They could have multiple.
Speaker:Usually it turns out to be having local goods, not like international goods.
Speaker:It's like local delivery goods, which is more confined within a single state or a single city.
Speaker:That's how it, that's how usually a small local warehouse works.
Speaker:I've been in multiple local multiple warehouses.
Speaker:I love to go on warehouse tours whenever I can.
Speaker:I don't know why, but they're so fascinating to me.
Speaker:I like that too.
Speaker:I like that, too.
Speaker:For some reason, it's just fascinating.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I miss this.
Speaker:So the smaller ones, I feel like, are often a little less tech friendly.
Speaker:You know, a little more elbow grease sometimes have been put into it,
Speaker:and, and maybe the processes aren't exactly the perfect process in place.
Speaker:So, when I see these warehouses, I think a lot of times they don't automatically think.
Speaker:You know, maybe I'm off on this.
Speaker:Maybe it's not how it is, but do you feel like that perception is changing?
Speaker:You mentioned that AI can be a good fit here in starting out.
Speaker:What, what is the reality when it comes to AI?
Speaker:And I'm going to start with Kushal on this and then we'll hit Henrik.
Speaker:When it comes to this kind of size of warehouse.
Speaker:So when it comes to AI and with respect to size, I think it comes to my first learning like
Speaker:usually when it starts out with small warehouses, people believe that it's, it's oh, it's a
Speaker:technology that is not fit for us, you know, we have to start, you know, from the scratch.
Speaker:It's because it's also the industry on, on the ages of which has been running for so long.
Speaker:That it doesn't, they don't really land on, like, okay, AI can, AI is not someone,
Speaker:first of all, they have a misconception.
Speaker:AI it's something that it's, it's not there yet.
Speaker:It can reach there, but it's not there yet.
Speaker:It's an, AI is an assistant.
Speaker:That's how it should be seen.
Speaker:So whichever task is mundane and it's repetitive, such tasks should be focused upon
Speaker:and that's where it should start off with.
Speaker:Okay, I love that statement.
Speaker:AI is an assistant.
Speaker:That's how it should be seen right now.
Speaker:It is not yet at the place where AI is here to replace your labor.
Speaker:So warehouse owners, runners, operators think that first, especially in this small to medium
Speaker:size, you're using AI as a tool to improve then Kushal, is what you're saying, kind of
Speaker:improve the processes and make the job easier.
Speaker:Henrik, is that, is that what you would agree with?
Speaker:The purposes?
Speaker:And just like your operation, just more cost effective because, because AI tools are more like
Speaker:agile now, so you can kind of target like the operation that is important for you to automate.
Speaker:So I don't think we should think about kind of AI as, okay, I have to like
Speaker:implement like full scale robotics.
Speaker:I think you can focus AI on tools related to like, let's say, inventory management, or like,
Speaker:let's say that demand forecasting, or if you just want to use it for like optimizing your storage.
Speaker:And by kind of focusing on these like smaller part or smaller cogs in the, in the warehouse,
Speaker:you don't need these like massive amounts of investments to kind of get up and running.
Speaker:I think that's, that's, that's important.
Speaker:I think that's also contributing to that, the perception is shifting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So start small is what we're saying.
Speaker:Like I have seen and again, my nerd mind gets blown, but you know, the
Speaker:fully automated warehouses where you're just like, well, what is happening?
Speaker:Am I living like a hundred years from now?
Speaker:But for our audience today, that is not what we're talking about.
Speaker:So start small.
Speaker:I love how you threw out a few of those kinds of areas.
Speaker:I'd love to dive into the really specifics.
Speaker:Where are the AI opportunities?
Speaker:What are the processes or tools that should be used at this stage?
Speaker:Kushal, do you want to start with maybe one or two, give us examples of where you can use AI.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So like something to start small of it, I would.
Speaker:I mean, what Hendrik just said, like, demand forecasting is definitely one thing that I
Speaker:would really recommend to start off with.
Speaker:That's something easy and it's easy access and it's always been around, like,
Speaker:Power BI, it's such a simple tool, like, everyone uses it, most of them use it.
Speaker:Even I guess, automating any repetitive task, even, like, invoices, deals,
Speaker:delivery orders, like, there are.
Speaker:Even ChatGPT can do it.
Speaker:You can just upload a delivery order on ChatGPT and it can transcribe it into text for you
Speaker:where you can just upload it to your WMS system.
Speaker:So it's, it's an easy way to quickly see quick wins, small returns and small changes.
Speaker:Like that's, that's the best way to start off with, which is scalable
Speaker:also for your own processes.
Speaker:Okay, I love that.
Speaker:Demand forecasting, automating things like your invoices, your delivery
Speaker:orders, using things like ChatGPT.
Speaker:I always any in any discussion I have on AI.
Speaker:Sometimes we just need to get familiar with using tools like ChatGPT.
Speaker:So if you're not using it and you need to just kind of get used to it, start using it and
Speaker:in regularly and you'll get more comfortable.
Speaker:Henrik, what else?
Speaker:What else can we use?
Speaker:I think, I think at this point there's so many options out there and there's a lot
Speaker:of like the startup scene when it comes to AI tools are just there, it's flourishing
Speaker:right now, so it's, there's a lot of options.
Speaker:So I think, I think you can kind of look at it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I have this specific issue that are very much like pertaining to how I operate.
Speaker:Let's say you're handling third party labels, right?
Speaker:And you need something to be able to read those labels.
Speaker:But you don't have a tool.
Speaker:You don't want to like redo your whole barcoding platform.
Speaker:Then you can kind of find a tool that does that and helps you kind of like plug
Speaker:that gap and provide you with that data.
Speaker:So it's a very, it's more customizable now.
Speaker:And I think that's really interesting.
Speaker:It's really exciting.
Speaker:That's really, really cool.
Speaker:So number one, what I'm hearing here, identify an issue you have.
Speaker:So maybe it was you mentioned around third party label scanning.
Speaker:For example, yeah.
Speaker:So, so walk me through that example.
Speaker:So let's, you know, I'm not exactly the warehouse expert here.
Speaker:So what kind of challenge that might you be having with third party label scanning?
Speaker:And then how would you then, you know, what kind of AI tools do you feel
Speaker:like there are to help with that?
Speaker:Yeah, so for example, with third party labels, right the most simple ones is mom
Speaker:pop stores, which we call it in Southeast Asia, where these small vendors are
Speaker:sending certain goods, selling their goods through big e-platform providers, right?
Speaker:They're trying to sell goods out there.
Speaker:So they have their own labeling system.
Speaker:They have their own labels put on the product, which is not well configured for that warehouse.
Speaker:So a certain warehouse where it's going for, like, for example, let's
Speaker:say you're selling it to on Amazon.
Speaker:So you're going to send it to the warehouse, sending it to the warehouse that they're
Speaker:going to distribute it from that they have to relabel it whenever it comes in, which
Speaker:so that the assistants can start reading it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Imagine this for a small medium warehouse.
Speaker:That's not possible.
Speaker:That's like too much hard labor.
Speaker:They have to reprint everything.
Speaker:So now with AI, we can actually use the same label to create a virtual label, which
Speaker:like stays behind it and stores information for every warehouse that it moves towards.
Speaker:So you don't have to change the label physically and it works with the same
Speaker:label that the mom pop store has put it in.
Speaker:So that's, that's like the basic example of how things can work.
Speaker:So Henrik, that brings up a great point.
Speaker:You mentioned there's a lot of startup kind of companies out there who are offering a
Speaker:lot of AI options and products like this.
Speaker:So, so let's say that we did have a company, we're going to keep on this example here,
Speaker:that exactly like Kushal explained, you know, they were having this label challenge.
Speaker:So what was the first step for them to try to figure out where they might find an AI
Speaker:product or solution or, you know, and this could be for anything that they were having.
Speaker:Maybe they're having demand forecasting and that's going to be an easier one, but, but
Speaker:maybe they've got a niche problem like this.
Speaker:Recommendations for people to go out and research where to find these
Speaker:kinds of things and what's available.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When it comes to like SaaS platforms.
Speaker:Especially like when in like distribution, like a TMS, WMS barcoding system.
Speaker:There are portals online that can help you find the right software specifically for you.
Speaker:You can, like it's simply, you can go to like websites like Capterra, SoftwareAdvice, G2.
Speaker:These are all platforms that kind of gathers all the softwares out there, and they'll
Speaker:provide you recommendations based on your need.
Speaker:And they're very much like customer friendly, like user friendly, so you'll be able to like talk
Speaker:to a person, explain what your challenges are.
Speaker:And they can kind of come up with some recommendations on, okay, this platform
Speaker:might solve that problem for you.
Speaker:So I think that would be a very, that's an easy way to kind of do some research.
Speaker:That's a great recommendation.
Speaker:I was going to say, I often just start straight with the Google search,
Speaker:but you know what's kind of funny.
Speaker:Kushal, I was thinking this.
Speaker:You could even use ChatGPT to probably put in, hey, do you know of any solutions
Speaker:that offer AI around these kind of tools?
Speaker:And then absolutely exactly what Henrik was saying.
Speaker:Every warehouse runs the weed in a specific manner, so the use case of the process of how it
Speaker:works, they're looking for different solutions, but even if the process is the same, like,
Speaker:for example, in a warehouse, it's one process which is inbound where they receive the goods
Speaker:and they import it within their warehouse.
Speaker:That, that same process is hugely different, even if the industry is same.
Speaker:So, it's very custom, and that's why the platform, which Hendrik suggested, works,
Speaker:because, you know, it's, you have a specific solution for your use case to how, so
Speaker:that it works perfectly for your finding.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's a great idea, and, you know, a lot of you work with partners all the time.
Speaker:This is something I hear about in this industry so much.
Speaker:You may have partners who would have ideas of people they know of.
Speaker:You know, if you come to EasyPost, for instance, we work with so many different vendors and groups
Speaker:and, and If you just ask your CSM, if you, you know, have you heard of any tools that work?
Speaker:You can get a lot of great ideas that way too.
Speaker:So Henrik, what are the objections?
Speaker:I think a lot of people feel scared then.
Speaker:So let's say that somebody now finds a great tool.
Speaker:It looks great.
Speaker:But I don't know.
Speaker:There's like a fear sometimes on implementing new things.
Speaker:What, what are the common barriers that you see when people are trying to implement AI?
Speaker:How can businesses kind of overcome those?
Speaker:I think like the first and foremost.
Speaker:That kind of like I see that are maybe applies for a lot of the smaller ones that hasn't really
Speaker:adopted technology like this in the past is that one thing you kind of have your like your
Speaker:management, like they want to solve an issue.
Speaker:They want to gather data on certain processes, right?
Speaker:I think first and foremost, when you're kind of incorporating and adapting
Speaker:technology into that something that is new.
Speaker:You kind of have to get like the rest of your employees on board.
Speaker:So I think like education around like why you're introducing these new technologies.
Speaker:Let's say, and you're in a warehouse environment, like you need to get all the
Speaker:warehouse workers kind of understanding why we're doing this, like what's the
Speaker:benefits of of introducing new technology.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Anything you have to add there, Kushal?
Speaker:So, getting everybody on board especially with the idea of we're not necessarily, we're not
Speaker:here to replace you, we're not getting this technology to replace you, but to help you.
Speaker:Anything else that helps them feel comfortable onboarding new technology like this?
Speaker:I think when they start focusing small, the key things that we start giving
Speaker:emphases on when they're adopting a new technology would be the KPIs.
Speaker:I think that's, that's like a very important factor when you're understanding on
Speaker:which technology you're trying to adopt.
Speaker:So what is the KPI you're trying to improve for your business with this technology?
Speaker:For example, with the label scanning solution that we were speaking about earlier, right?
Speaker:The third party label scanning solution out there, the key, the key answer for the KPIs
Speaker:would be accuracy and efficiency, right?
Speaker:It should be quicker and less error prone, right?
Speaker:That's the key issue that they are facing.
Speaker:So with the adoption of certain technology for that use case, they should measure,
Speaker:okay, what is their expectation with this?
Speaker:And what, it should not be unrealistic expectations that, you know, it should
Speaker:work, it should do everything for me.
Speaker:And I should not spend, I should spend zero human hour in this.
Speaker:No, because end of the day, you're still not buying a robot.
Speaker:You're buying a certain software, which does a job for you.
Speaker:So it should have realistic expectations with what you want to achieve.
Speaker:And that will also help them, you know, see quicker results, right?
Speaker:Because that's what I want to see.
Speaker:You don't want to invest in a technology which you're going to say it's going to come off in
Speaker:two years that you're going to have in return.
Speaker:You're going to have it in a few months.
Speaker:That's, that's the key intention I would want them to focus on.
Speaker:Okay, a couple of huge truth bombs dropped there by Kushal that I need
Speaker:to make sure that we reiterate on.
Speaker:So just because something is shiny and beautiful and exciting.
Speaker:If we can't like track its KPIs.
Speaker:And if we can't be able to see what kind of ROI we're going to get on this tool.
Speaker:It probably means that that's not a great investment for you to make right now.
Speaker:The second thing that I thought was huge that you said was the fact that we shouldn't overestimate.
Speaker:You know, this is going to be the silver bullet that changes everything in my warehouse.
Speaker:And so, Henrik, Kushal, both of you, what do you feel like are realistic
Speaker:ROI that people should be anticipating?
Speaker:Of course, this is going to vary massively from, you know, one warehouse
Speaker:to the next, whatever the tool is.
Speaker:But are there any guidelines you can give our listeners out there to kind of understand?
Speaker:Is a, is a 5 percent improvement something that would be good?
Speaker:When you're implementing AI, should you expect that within a week,
Speaker:everything's going to be changed?
Speaker:You know, what kind of guidelines could they look at to even know that they're right on, on track?
Speaker:Yes, I think it's, it's, it depends on what your starting point is.
Speaker:So where we see like, often you have like a drastical improvement, like a really
Speaker:good like return of investments is like the elimination of human error related to something.
Speaker:So let's say you go through your process, your operation, you see like, okay, we're
Speaker:struggling of, captioning correctly, like the count of boxes on a pallet, for
Speaker:example, and that is impacting our ability to have like, okay, what's our inventory?
Speaker:So by introducing like AI, you can have like 99.
Speaker:9 percent accuracy on the count.
Speaker:So you're eliminating that human error aspect.
Speaker:So the, the ROI is like very much like it's fast.
Speaker:You can see it right away after implementing it.
Speaker:So human error.
Speaker:So it kind of goes back.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I think that, I don't remember which one of you said earlier, the fact that you need to look
Speaker:at where your personal problems are going on.
Speaker:If you're having human error issues, you can see some massive improvement there.
Speaker:So human error kind of across the board, do you think most areas of human error in
Speaker:the warehouse, there are some sort of tools to help with that, or, or do you think
Speaker:there's anything that they should say, well, we're just in trouble in that area.
Speaker:I would say there's tools that like, like the elimination of human error or not elimination,
Speaker:but the minimization of human error.
Speaker:That's one of the main advantages of, of AI.
Speaker:Like the ability to gain control of your operation and gather all the data without exceptions.
Speaker:I think that's, that's one of the main kind of advantages when you start early
Speaker:that you can kind of see quick returns on.
Speaker:Kushal, anything around ROI that you can share?
Speaker:So based on my experience, I guess what I've seen, the key areas where most warehouses should
Speaker:start off with would be order accuracy, which is something that we spoke about, human error.
Speaker:Second would be inventory turnover.
Speaker:So like every inventory how long it's staying in your warehouse.
Speaker:And how long it does.
Speaker:It makes a huge difference because you are your warehouse is a space utilization
Speaker:You're renting space to a certain good.
Speaker:So it depends on which kind of warehouse you have, and then it's also with cost reduction.
Speaker:So that's everything, right?
Speaker:Like that's a number of hours you spend, number of reworks needs to be done.
Speaker:These three are the key main elements that I've seen where usually an investment
Speaker:or the ROI factor makes a huge difference with AI because how AI works, it's it's
Speaker:basically keeping your experience with you, no matter what task it's doing.
Speaker:So that's what it does.
Speaker:So what I mean by that is, if you put it in layman's language, it would be, if you give it to
Speaker:an experienced operator, or if you compare it to an intern, if you give the technology to any one
Speaker:of them, it's going to perform exactly the same.
Speaker:It's going to give you the same accuracy.
Speaker:And it'll improve.
Speaker:The more you use it, the better it becomes because it works on feedback.
Speaker:And that's where it makes a huge difference on your operations as well.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:One, it made me think as you were talking about the different team members, one of the questions
Speaker:I get a lot from people, especially when we're getting a little bit on the smaller side, is
Speaker:about what kind of tech staff is necessary.
Speaker:So if, if a warehouse is thinking of implementing new tools, you know, all
Speaker:of the excitement around data analytics.
Speaker:AI, all of this recently, you know, are we talking people need data scientists
Speaker:on their team to analyze data?
Speaker:On the smaller end, I guess, how tech savvy should companies be in order to start
Speaker:implementing basic AI, or if they're working, say, we'll say even just with the Powerhouse AI.
Speaker:You know, what kind of tech support available is that I think that scares a lot of people.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In all honesty, I think with respect to the customer, I would, or the warehouse
Speaker:itself, I would be, you just maybe as savvy as you're excited about using ChatGPT.
Speaker:Like that's the basics we need.
Speaker:And I think that's enough for you to get into the space of AI because most of
Speaker:the tools out there doesn't need you to know the deep details of how it works.
Speaker:It only needs you to, the only thing we need is what is the input and
Speaker:what do you expect at the output?
Speaker:The rest of the work is done with the system.
Speaker:So that's what is the beauty of it.
Speaker:Because previously that would be where consultancy used to come in, right?
Speaker:Where we have to sit with you, understand with you, build a whole system for that
Speaker:specific warehouse and then starts functioning.
Speaker:So that part is more taken out with this.
Speaker:To me, what I'm hearing is exactly why I think I personally love AI.
Speaker:AI's purpose is to make technology easy for the stupid people like me who don't
Speaker:know all the background and, and really brings all that data and that knowledge.
Speaker:Makes it accessible for just the everyday person like me.
Speaker:Is that kind of what you were saying there, Kushal?
Speaker:Yep, that's exactly what I was saying.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So that's perfect.
Speaker:I might not be as smart as Henrik and and Kushal, but I can jump in with AI and you should be able
Speaker:to, so I think that's a, a flag as well to look forward when you are looking at different tools.
Speaker:Is this easily understandable?
Speaker:Is this something that you shouldn't need to be hiring data scientists for in order to get it?
Speaker:Any tips.
Speaker:You know, we've talked about look at a problem in your warehouse, but are there any kind of, Henrik,
Speaker:low hanging fruit or easy things to kind of get your feet wet when it comes to AI in, in, in
Speaker:this kind of small to mid sized warehouse realm?
Speaker:Let's say you're just starting from scratch.
Speaker:I would choose whatever system you decide to do.
Speaker:Let's say you want to get like a WMS system, right?
Speaker:Or a TMS system.
Speaker:Choose a cloud based one.
Speaker:So that the data that you're collecting is more easily shared so that when you do decide to kind
Speaker:of incorporate some third party AI tool data is what's all about, like that's what matters.
Speaker:So then if you have that in a place that's easily shareable you can then faster get
Speaker:value out of whatever AI tool you choose.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:What about if you're thinking of growing?
Speaker:So one of the other things that I've seen, I was speaking with somebody recently at
Speaker:a warehouse that gotten a tool that they loved, but then they kind of outgrew it.
Speaker:You know, as they scaled and started growing, they ran into the challenge
Speaker:of they hadn't kind of thought ahead.
Speaker:And thought, oh, what, what will I need in five years?
Speaker:Any suggestions, I guess, for people when it comes to looking into the future and knowing I
Speaker:guess making sure their, their AI grows with them.
Speaker:I think first thing, like you've already taken the best step forward.
Speaker:Like when you start off with it, if you're building, if you're using a software platform,
Speaker:which is scaling with you, with its own API is having better solutions for you.
Speaker:And if you see that trend, and if you don't see growth in it, that's, that's a red flag where
Speaker:you should automatically start understanding because if they're not growing with, even
Speaker:with your current state, that means they are not growing beyond your current state also.
Speaker:So when you are there, they won't be ready.
Speaker:That's, that's the whole point.
Speaker:Like, so they need to be two steps ahead of you.
Speaker:And I think that's the flag you need to keep in mind all the time.
Speaker:Like, so for example, if you buy a software service, which is handling
Speaker:as simple as an Excel sheet, right?
Speaker:Like, which is there.
Speaker:And then you're like, okay, now I'm in the stage where I can't handle everything on an Excel sheet.
Speaker:You need to move that away for sure.
Speaker:So because an Excel sheet doesn't change anything, it's just columns
Speaker:and rows and formulas on it, right?
Speaker:But how can I further maximize my usage with respect to users, access, and so
Speaker:on and so forth, if that doesn't exist?
Speaker:So you'll have to use this software, which is always two steps ahead
Speaker:of you, so that you are ready.
Speaker:The software is ready when you are ready.
Speaker:And I think as, as I think it was Henrik mentioned earlier, there are a ton of startups out there.
Speaker:And the fun thing about working with startups is that they are so receptive to customer feedback
Speaker:and hearing what kind of tools are needed.
Speaker:So in this industry, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of creating good relationships
Speaker:with all the people you're working with, with your, you know, whether it's your WMS,
Speaker:whether you've got a shipping solution, whether, whatever it is that you're using,
Speaker:create those relationships and be vocal.
Speaker:I am the worst sometimes at sharing when I just like to complain about
Speaker:problems and I say, ah, my, my software doesn't do this instead of just asking.
Speaker:So I think that that is exactly right.
Speaker:But, you know, look for somebody who's going to work with you, grow with you.
Speaker:Henrik, what are you most excited about as we move into the future kind of of AI?
Speaker:What do you feel like are the next like big technological advances coming?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So before I jump into that, I do want to kind of like add to what you just mentioned.
Speaker:I think that's so important, Lori, is that for anyone who's looking to kind
Speaker:of adopt AI, like work with startups.
Speaker:Like they would be so much, they're, they want to work with companies.
Speaker:They want to get feedback on their solution.
Speaker:They want to learn how their, your operation is working so that they can
Speaker:learn more about the space so they can develop their own platform further.
Speaker:And often what you can do is that if you work closely with a startup, like you can get,
Speaker:I guess, insight into, like, what's coming in the future in terms of the pipeline.
Speaker:What are they developing?
Speaker:Where is the platform going?
Speaker:So that way you will have a better take on whether or not that kind of, like,
Speaker:correlates where you, where you're going, like, where your operation is going.
Speaker:I, I wanted to say as well, when you are kind of a smaller in the field, so you may have a
Speaker:smaller warehouse, working with a startup is so smart because when you go to the huge massive
Speaker:corporations, you're not getting discounts.
Speaker:You're not, you're, you're too, you're small fish, right?
Speaker:Where when you work with them, they're so excited and, and you really do feel like a big part of it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If you're open to kind of like taking that, like everything is not going to be as structured
Speaker:as a working with a big corporation, but you also will have the opportunity to have a say.
Speaker:In terms of like, you'll get some, you'll, you'll be able to give input on what's working for you.
Speaker:And maybe that will have like, that will maybe translate into their, their product being a little
Speaker:bit more customized towards how you're working.
Speaker:So you can get some advantages of working with startups.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:Yeah, no, you had my original questions about like, what, how I see the future
Speaker:and like AI and supply chain and what, what there's a lot of out there.
Speaker:So it's very like.
Speaker:There's a, there's a lot of kind of like to, to talk about, but what I think is
Speaker:interesting now is AI and, and, and how things operate is often dictate a little
Speaker:bit about guidelines and regulations, like state guidelines or like local guidelines.
Speaker:So for an example, what's interesting to see now you have like the FDA has come up with new
Speaker:guidelines that's coming into place in 2026 about the handling of perishable goods, right?
Speaker:Like how is this going to be stored, distributed and so forth.
Speaker:And that will kind of push everyone in the direction of adapting technologies that can
Speaker:give them that kind of control and security and provide that data and being compliant.
Speaker:So I think those kind of advancements are, are, they're very interesting.
Speaker:And I think that's going to be a big driver on where the technology is going and how the industry
Speaker:is, is adopting new technology to be compliant.
Speaker:That's such a great point, because I have had people say, so we often talk about the
Speaker:sustainability aspect and environmental stuff that's going on in this industry.
Speaker:It's so big.
Speaker:And, and a lot of that also gets driven by regulations and things that are coming forward.
Speaker:But some things that I know companies are doing is they look to countries that
Speaker:are a little bit ahead of like the US.
Speaker:So for instance, Kushal, you're in Australia, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Often we may look to Australia or we may look to Europe or you know, some of those
Speaker:regulations come in a little bit earlier.
Speaker:Do you feel like you see the same with AI or technology or any of those things?
Speaker:Are there places that people can look to to kind of keep an eye on,
Speaker:well, this is happening there now.
Speaker:So maybe in five years it might be happening here and I should start getting things in places.
Speaker:I think it's hard for AI at this stage because I think to be honest that it's
Speaker:the first regulations that are coming on AI is related to the finance industry.
Speaker:That's where it's starting because that's the most tricky industry to implement something,
Speaker:a technology that learns by itself and continuously grows by itself so that it has
Speaker:to be controlled in a fashion where it's still regulated within human rights, right?
Speaker:So, but that's Europe is the first place it's been implemented and they are implementing such rules.
Speaker:With respect to the general use of AI and how it's been adopted.
Speaker:That's mainly based, currently, it's based on state law or government laws
Speaker:of that country as this stage of today.
Speaker:But beyond that, I wouldn't.
Speaker:It's a concern, yes, but it should be a concern to a stage where you
Speaker:are doing something beyond your control and at this stage, it's not there yet,
Speaker:at least with the current technology.
Speaker:So it's an assistant, as I said, so it's not going to take over anything as of today.
Speaker:I think it's still a really great piece of advice.
Speaker:Let's maybe look outside of our industry.
Speaker:There could be other industries that are seeing advances more quickly or, you know, different
Speaker:regulations even, more quickly than we are.
Speaker:And so look at those and kind of keep an eye out on on what might be coming.
Speaker:Okay, we're almost out of time.
Speaker:So I want though for you to share to our audience a little bit about who Powerhouse
Speaker:AI is and what it is that you offer as well.
Speaker:So that if they're, you know, if you're listening today and you are wanting
Speaker:to explore some AI options, these, this is an absolutely amazing company.
Speaker:So I would love to hear from you.
Speaker:Whichever of you wants to take over this first, go for it.
Speaker:Yeah so we at Powerhouse AI, what we do, we are basically building the next generation scanner.
Speaker:When I say that, that means it's the Google Lens for warehouses.
Speaker:So you take a picture of anything in your warehouse, it'll know
Speaker:exactly where it is supposed to be.
Speaker:Is it in the right quantity in the right place?
Speaker:That's what it does.
Speaker:So with just a single picture, you can understand everything about your goods and it keep track
Speaker:of everything that you get in your warehouse.
Speaker:That's what we do.
Speaker:That's, that's super cool.
Speaker:Henrik, what are some of the most common questions you get about it?
Speaker:I think it's questions about when we talk to potential customers is like, how does
Speaker:it incorporate with our existing systems?
Speaker:Like how flexible is it?
Speaker:What are the limitations?
Speaker:Those kind of things.
Speaker:Okay, great.
Speaker:And I think your first question, that's when I hear constantly, integrations
Speaker:with other technology and software.
Speaker:So where, if people did have questions, they wanted to learn more about you, learn
Speaker:more about your scanner, different things that works with AI, where should they go?
Speaker:So they can just hit www.powerhouseai.com and they'll have all the information they need.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:If people are interested in connecting with you personally, you know,
Speaker:are you, are you two on LinkedIn?
Speaker:Are there areas where people could kind of follow you, learn from you, kind of get those sort of
Speaker:insider insights into what's happening with AI?
Speaker:Henrik, we'll start with you.
Speaker:Are you on a how can people reach out to you?
Speaker:Yeah, I'm on, on LinkedIn and feel free to kind of reach out just to kind
Speaker:of talk about AI and warehouses and.
Speaker:Yeah, it's just it's an exciting space to be part of right now.
Speaker:So yeah, just sharing information and getting some use cases.
Speaker:That's always interesting.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Kushal, what about you?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Even I'm on LinkedIn.
Speaker:You can just search my name, Kushal, Kushal Blake, be able to search me.
Speaker:And I would be happy to talk to you or even understand if you have any
Speaker:situation you are in, in a confused way, what to use exactly to start off with.
Speaker:I would be happy to talk to you and help you out of there.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Again, as we mentioned earlier, these gentlemen were so good about reminding us to reach out to
Speaker:your partners, ask people if you're trying to find solutions, a lot of people know what is going on.
Speaker:So this has been a really helpful discussion, really good specific takeaways.
Speaker:I appreciate that so much for those in the warehouse industry.
Speaker:The biggest takeaway I had was just start.
Speaker:Try something, start small, don't get too crazy and think you're going to create
Speaker:an entirely robotic warehouse to start.
Speaker:But find something and become part of these opportunities.
Speaker:So anything else that you want to add?
Speaker:I want each of you have a chance to say goodbye.
Speaker:I, I think just, just, if you kind of just are very new and you just want to
Speaker:learn about AI, I would, I would look into like, there's a lot of like AI courses on
Speaker:platforms like Coursera and edX that you can, kind of get inside and learn a lot from.
Speaker:And as we mentioned, like LinkedIn, there's a ton of LinkedIn groups there
Speaker:within every and, and like every niche little market so join those groups.
Speaker:They usually have webinars that are posted there.
Speaker:So you kind of listen in and learn and, and kind of see what other
Speaker:companies are doing in your space.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Kushal.
Speaker:I think the same advice goes here.
Speaker:Start small, start simple.
Speaker:You just go on YouTube, search something small, whatever you have an understanding
Speaker:of AI, start with that keyword and let, let the internet take you where it's supposed to
Speaker:take you and understand that on what AI runs.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Thanks so much.
Speaker:And we'll see everybody next time.
Speaker:Bye bye.
