From Silk Roads to Silicon Routes: How AI is Set to Transform the Supply Chain

The history of importing and exporting goes all the way back to the Roman Empire when traders from Europe and Asia exchanged goods across the wide lands of Eurasia.

Trade along the Silk Road was especially busy during the 13th and 14th centuries. Caravans carried goods from China and India across deserts to places like Constantinople and Alexandria. From there, Italian ships took the goods to ports in Europe.

For centuries, importing and exporting have often involved intermediaries due in part to the long distances travelled and different native languages being spoken.

Although the supply chain has somewhat reduced the involvement of intermediaries, we still see many practices today similar to those from a thousand years ago. We are in an area where everyone is demanding change and making noise about it, but the change is progressing slowly. While there are promising developments in areas like e-commerce and warehouse operations, we can't say much about the transformation in the supply chain in general. However, it is not hard to foresee that AI will disrupt the traditionalist practices dominating supply chain practices in the next ten years.