AI and blockchain: Solving supply chain’s transparency problem

Marco Polo, Columbus, and Afonso de Albuquerque were more than explorers. They didn’t merely seek silk and spices, but looked to develop new markets, pioneer the best routes to reach them, and gather vast volumes of information on winds and tides, languages, people and local customs to aid the merchants who followed in their wake. They were, in their own way, the data scientists of their time. Data has always been a fundamental component of international trade and transportation, but never has so much information been available as today. Remote sensing, telematics, connected devices and vehicles all generate huge volumes of valuable data – the only challenge for organisations in the logistics and supply chain industry is how to harness this information and turn it into insight.