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How would humans cope in that scenario, given that passing over decision making to (for instance) AI tools could impair our ability to think critically and solve problems? Besides which, poorly trained AI could make worse decisions than a human would.

“This is very much true in today’s sense,” More believes. “People are chasing AI to a significant extent. As on date, for anything and everything the world is running after AI. This over-reliance might have detrimental effects, and it can also open up to data breaches.”

Despite these concerns, however, “IT is the backbone of air cargo – without it, nothing moves,” says Breithaupt.

Jettainer boasts 99.9% system availability. It also runs regular audits and has strong business continuity plans, supported by Lufthansa’s expertise.

“Digital reliance is a reality, but we’re fully prepared to keep operations resilient,” Breithaupt declares.

That will remain a key focus going forward, as with its new JettwareNG architecture and advanced tracking in place, the company’s next big step is integrating AI in 2026 to further enhance ULD balancing and operational efficiency.

Kale, meanwhile, has established an AI development centre that identifies opportunities for large-scale AI intervention in the logistics and supply chain space.

“However, the utility has to be sustainable,” More points out, touching on the environmental impact of the industry’s increasing use of digital solutions.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) states: “The proliferating data centres that house AI servers produce electronic waste. They are large consumers of water [for cooling], which is becoming scarce in many places.

“They rely on critical minerals and rare elements, which are often mined unsustainably. And they use massive amounts of electricity, spurring the emission of planet-warming greenhouse gases.”

Air cargo, of course, accounts for only a fraction of global data centre usage – but as governments develop regulations around AI and sustainability, companies including airlines, forwarders and the like may be required to disclose and/or mitigate the environmental impact of any AI-based products and services.

Nonetheless, it is clear that the air cargo industry is moving toward a future where digitalisation and automation “will define the next generation of air cargo operations”, IATA concludes.

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ONE Record: a game changer

IATA’s ONE Record initiative develops standards and guidelines for using data sharing technology to digitalise airfreight and provide end-to-end data access and visibility to all stakeholders in the air cargo supply chain, the association outlines.

Explaining the significance of the programme, Jan-Wilhelm Breithaupt, chief executive at ULD management company Jettainer, says: “The current messaging standard, CIMP, was developed by our grandparents in the last century and is now over 50 years old. It is based on purely text-based messages that are passed from one stakeholder to another. In the process, a lot of information gets lost due to the ‘Chinese Whisper’ syndrome and cannot be restored in a digital world.

“One Record is a real game changer here,” he goes on. “The data is stored de-centrally with the data producer (shipper, forwarder, airline) and can always be reassembled into the shipment record. In addition, you can transfer all linkable data – any type of documents, certificates in PDF format, images, videos, and of course IoT tracking data.”

Amar More, co-founder and chief executive at IT provider Kale Logistics Solutions says: “ONE Record is a revolutionary framework set by IATA, which has so far standardised processes in the air cargo sector. This is a strategic benchmark that would be hard to achieve in the years to come for other modes of cargo transportation.”

But he points out that in order to participate in ONE Record, a basic level of digitalisation must be in place – and this is lacking in some locations.