Automation vs AI: How Logistics Keeps Mixing Them Up (and Why It Matters)

This entire blog started because of my inbox. Specifically: PR emails.

If you work in or around logistics media, you know exactly the ones I mean. The subject line “AI Powered”. The whole email is full of AI this and AI that. And yet somehow, after reading the email three or four times, I still can’t tell what the product actually does.

Is it AI?
Is it automation?
Is it a well-organized workflow with a buzzword glued on top?

Because honestly, how can every new tech and platform be AI?

The more pitches I saw, the more obvious the real issue became: as an industry, we’ve blurred the line between what’s simply a fast, reliable automated process and what is actually intelligent technology capable of learning, adapting, or predicting. And that distinction matters, not just for accuracy, but for budgets, expectations, and whether a team ends up with the right tool for the right job. So let’s talk about it properly, without the jargon-y nonsense.

What Automation Actually Is and Isn’t

Automation is the workhorse of logistics. It’s all the things that happen because you told a system, at some point, “When this happens, do that.” It’s consistent, dependable, and usually the hero behind the scenes making sure teams don’t drown in repetitive tasks.

But here’s the key: automation doesn’t think. It doesn’t learn. It doesn’t adapt unless someone tells it how. It executes the same way every time, on purpose. And that’s not an insult. The logistics industry runs on repeatable processes. Automation is the backbone of a lot of what keeps us sane. But it’s not AI.

So What Actually Counts as AI?

AI is different because it isn’t following a script, it’s recognizing patterns. It takes in information from different places, interprets it, and makes a judgment call you didn’t pre-program.

AI is the part of a platform that can say, “Based on what I’ve seen before, here’s what’s likely to happen next,” or “Something about this looks off and deserves attention.” It creates outputs you didn’t explicitly write for it.

And that’s where things often fall apart in PR pitches. The description will promise AI, but everything they describe is just structured rules dressed up with fancy adjectives.

A Few Clear Real-World Differences

To make this less abstract, think about something as simple as email. When your system automatically sends an update at the same time every day, that’s automation, predictable, rule-based, and exactly what you told it to do.

But when a platform drafts a reply to a customer based on your writing style, past interactions, and the context of the conversation? That’s AI stepping in. It’s not following a schedule, it’s interpreting patterns from your behavior.

Or take rating freight. A TMS pulling a rate you’ve already entered is automation. A tool that can look at pricing trends, performance history, lane volatility, and seasonality to suggest a rate to start negotiating at? That’s AI. One is following instructions. The other is making a judgement for you.

And then there are documents. Uploading a POD and having fields extracted is automation. But a system that can detect when something about that document looks unusual, maybe a missing reference or an unexpected classification, is doing more than data transfer. It’s understanding context.

Why This Matters More Than People Realize

The problem isn’t vendors using marketing language (though yes, they absolutely do). The problem is what happens inside companies when the terminology gets fuzzy. Teams buy software expecting it to “think,” only to discover it can’t operate outside the script. Leaders assume they’re investing in intelligence when they’re really investing in speed only. And because expectations were misaligned from the start, they end up disappointed, not by the tool, but by the assumption of what it was supposed to be.

Automation is incredible at eliminating busywork. AI is incredible at reducing uncertainty. But when you ask automation to act like AI, that’s where things will get messy.

The Simplest Way to Make Sense of Any Tech Pitch

After months of reading PR emails full of AI glitter but offering very little clarity, I landed on one question that cuts through everything: Does this system learn, or does it follow instructions?

If it learns, you’re in AI territory. If it follows instructions, even beautifully,  it’s automation. Everything else is marketing smoke and mirrors.

The Bottom Line

Logistics doesn’t need more hype. It needs clarity.

Automation and AI are both powerful, both useful, and both essential to the future of the industry, but for completely different reasons. One speeds up the work. The other improves the decisions behind the work. And when you know which one you actually need, it becomes a lot harder for buzzwords to derail your strategy.

Hopefully the next time an “AI-powered solution” hits your inbox, you’ll know exactly what to look for and exactly what questions to ask.