The theme of the ACAAI Convention is “AI The Game Changer – Embracing the intelligent future” and today, most of the business sessions at the convention centred around “Artificial Intelligence”. It was the talk of the town, indeed!

The Day two began with the first business session on “Tradition to Transformation- AI in Air Cargo”, chaired by Afzal Malbarwala, Immediate Past President & Member, Board of Advisors, ACAAI. The speakers for the session are Joshua Law, Head of Commercial, MAS KARGO; Prasad Gengusetti, Chief Operating Officer, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo; David Wee, Regional Manager – Cargo Operations, IATA: and Ramesh Mamidala, Head – Cargo, Air India. The session stressed upon the evolution of Digital Transformation from Traditional Approaches to AI-Driven Strategies. In recent years, the rapid advancements in AI technology have shifted the focus of digital transformation from merely adopting digital tools to harnessing the power of AI. And the air cargo industry is not left behind.

The session on “Cargo in the Cloud – AI Reforming Air Freight”, chaired by Sunil Arora, Past President & Member Board of Advisors, ACAAI. Speakers for the session are Burak Omeroglu, Vice President Cargo Sales (Middle East and South Asia), Turkish Cargo; Shankar Iyer, Head of Sales & Handling in South Asia, Lufthansa; Vineet Malhotra, Co-Founder & Director, Kale Logistics; Zaheer Bakshi, Vice President & Head of Cargo, DIAL.

Vineet Malhotra said, “Getting the data wrong results in incorrect storage charges, reduces loading efficiency and ultimately impacts profitability. To address these inefficiencies, air freight businesses need to blend their team’s expertise with real-time, data-driven intelligence. This can be derived by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Artificial Intelligence is a smart technology that has been making waves across industries.” Giving an airline perspective, Shankar Iyer explained about Lufthansa Cargo digital operations and strategies. He said, “Data is OIL for AI”.

Zaheer Bakshi brought an airport perspective. He talked about how the Delhi airport is working to move from digitisation to digitalisation. With digitalisation adoption, we can reduce time on domestic cargo handling and ease the congestion. And we are bringing in more digital advancements and innovative steps.” Burak explained where the AI can be used in air cargo – route optimisation and warehouse staff allocation, robotics process automation, statistical forecasting, optimised decision making and dynamic pricing.

How can artificial intelligence enhance air cargo performance? How will it ensure safety, security and transparency in the system? This is all discussed in the session on “AI for Safety; Security; Transparency; of Air Cargo”. Chaired by Samir Shah, Vice President, ACAAI, it began with J. Krishnan, Chairman, S Natesa Iyer Logistics, “Innovation is the bedrock of transportation Leveraging AI helps the industry improve customer care, transport and safety. AI enhances a safe business environment.” “Data plays a crucial role,we need to safeguard data,” said Keku Gazder, MD & CEO, Aviapro Logistic Services. He mentioned Internet of Cargo rather than Internet of Things for three reasons – clean data, real data and abundant amount of data.

Rupak Nagarajan, Director at KPMG India – Digital Trust, said, “Fasten your Cyber Seat Belts”, with an interactive and engaging session with the audience.Basic principles of Cyber security are compatibility of data, integrity of data and availability of data. Suneet Gupta, Global Head – Cargo Community Systems, Kale Logistics Solutions talked about usage of AI at Kale for slot bookings, warehouse capacity, identifying where the cargo is and sending notification to the end user; and of course, data analytics.

Chaired by Chaitaly Mehta, Member, Managing Committee, ACAAI, the session on “Emerging Technology & their impact on Logistics Service Providers” has some interesting panellists on the dias – Ms. Priyanka Ann Saini, Managing Director, Charlie Pesti; Mr. Kenneth Chan, Head of Strategy & Business Development, MASkargo; Ms. Nomita Kothari, CEO, New Globe Logistik LLP; and, Mr. Vikram Kumar, Director, C.T.C. Air Carriers Pvt. Ltd.
Embracing Technology to adapting technology; from day-to-day technological interventions to pricing and time management; integrities and innovations, changing dynamics to challenges – this all has made the session interactive and interesting.

The day concluded on a lighter note with a session on Conflict Management and it was super interesting. Volunteer Delegates came into the characters of Jones and Smith and explained the concept of conflict, which is applicable in our daily lives and of course in our corporate lives…