A webinar on the important of AI for fleets has found an overall willingness by fleet managers to explore the use of artificial intelligence to make their businesses more efficient, but many currently feel there is a lack of knowledge or expertise to incorporate AI into their operations at present.
Hosted by fleet management and fleet intelligence software company Tranzaura in partnership with FleetWise, an independent, one-stop information and insight hub for fleet professionals, the webinar looked at the ever increasing ways AI is changing our everyday lives and how it can help the fleet sector. “AI is no longer a future concept – it’s a present day advantage,” said Emma Gill of Tranzaura who hosted the webinar.
Research by FleetWise company FleetTrends in March of this year looked at the challenges and concerns that fleet managers have in adopting AI within their business models. Ian Richardson, co-founder of Fleetwise explained that the survey involved a hundred fleets representing SMEs, mid-corporates, and large fleets, providing a really good sample of data.
The survey found that 39% of those surveyed are already using AI for operational tasks, with another 14% planning to commence within 12 months and a further 13% envisaging using AI within 1 to 3 years. However 34% of respondents said they had no plans to adopt AI as of yet.
Better market intelligence, improved energy management, predictive maintenance capabilities, route asset and optimisation, and compliance and safety were among the areas where fleet managers felt AI would offer operational advantages.
Among the adoption barriers for fleets, 27% cited data privacy and security as a concern. Implementation costs were seen as more of an issue, with Ian noting that around half of respondents see this as a factor. “Many believe that AI is expensive to deploy, although we think this may currently be a perception because until you understand the value that AI can bring, you can’t really make a clear judgment of the cost in place.”
Another area of concern is the complexity of AI. “Around 50% of fleets are currently unsure on how to use AI and the technologies around that, and they are citing that it’s potentially quite complex,” said Ian, but noted that with around the same number of respondents identifying lack of internal expertise as an issue, this may be more of a perception that a real concern. “So if a fleet has a team, maybe their team members don’t currently understand AI and it’s a lack of internal expertise. If you’re not using it in your current day-to-day life and activities, you’re probably not embracing some of the opportunities.”
Stakeholder resistance was also identified as an adoption barrier. “At the moment we’re seeing that 55% of fleet managers are stating that their internal stakeholders are not helping with AI adoption,” noted Ian.
The big takeout from the survey though was that the biggest concern for fleet managers with regards to the adoption of AI is themselves, specifically their own lack of AI knowledge. “91% of fleets have currently rated their own knowledge less than six out of 10. So it’s a really honest appraisal.”
The survey looked at what is necessary in order to drive greater take-up of AI. 91% of fleets feel that they would benefit from some form of AI training, while 82% felt that AI could provide benefit in automating admin tasks and 45% feel it will improve productivity. “The really interesting point here is the number one fleet management pain point is the admin burden and how they can reduce that. And 45% of these already recognise that there will be productivity gains from AI. This could be around file management. It could be about compliance,” observed Ian.
Looking at how AI applies to Fleet Management, Emma and Ian highlighted how broad a scope the technology can have in making a business more efficient. This ranges from providing insights, trends and patterns at speed to predictive maintenance of vehicles. Optimised routing, driver behaviour monitoring, fuel efficiency, fleet utilisation and asset tracking, AI dash cams, fleet monitoring and decision making are all aspects of the day-to-day fleet management business that can be enhanced through AI.
Emma Gill concluded that Tranzaura can work with fleets to ensure they can adopt AI into their business models. “We’re going to give the industry access to better information so they can make quicker, real time, or proactive decisions. So the potential is there to change the way operations measure their fleet performance, but only if they have the need and the right data infrastructure and systems set up in the first place.”
Report by Cathal Doyle, Fleet Transport
