AI is changing freight forwarding by automating many of the manual tasks traditionally performed by junior employees. The efficiency benefits are obvious, but it raises an important question for employers: if entry-level tasks disappear, how will the next generation gain the experience needed to become tomorrow's freight operators, managers and industry leaders?

For decades, there was a fairly familiar pathway into freight forwarding.

You started at the bottom.

You registered jobs, handled documentation, chased paperwork, worked in the warehouse or started as a junior in imports or exports.

It wasn't always exciting, but it taught you how freight worked.

You learnt the documentation, the processes, what happened when something went wrong and, importantly, you learnt from the experienced people around you.

Many of today's senior freight professionals started their careers this way.

But that pathway is changing.

How is AI changing entry-Level freight jobs?

I recently spoke with an experienced freight forwarding leader about his career and the future of the industry.

He started as a house clerk before gaining experience across imports, warehousing and exports, eventually progressing into sales and management. Each role gave him another piece of the freight puzzle.

Today, technology can perform some of the tasks that once provided that foundation.

Freight forwarding systems are increasingly able to receive documentation, extract shipment information and create jobs without someone manually entering every piece of data.

For employers, the benefits are significant.

Less administration. Faster processing. Greater efficiency.

But there's another side to it.

If AI removes the tasks that traditionally taught juniors the fundamentals of freight forwarding, where will tomorrow's experienced professionals come from?

The traditional career path is already changing

AI isn't the beginning of this shift.

Offshoring has already moved many administrative and data-entry functions away from local freight teams. As my recent podcast guest pointed out, that has also meant fewer of the traditional entry-level opportunities that once introduced people to the industry.

AI is likely to accelerate that change.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't embrace technology.

But if we remove the old training ground, we need to create a new one.

What skills will tomorrow's freight professionals need?

As technology takes over more transactional work, I believe the attributes employers look for will become even more important.

During our conversation, my guest identified qualities such as self-motivation, accountability and problem solving.

One comment particularly stood out.

He doesn't just want an employee to tell him there's a problem. He wants them to think about a possible solution too.

That's an important distinction.

Freight will always need technical knowledge, but tomorrow's employees will increasingly need strengths such as:

• problem solving

• communication

• initiative

• accountability

• adaptability

• commercial awareness

• willingness to learn

AI can process information quickly.

But anyone who has worked in freight knows that something unexpected will always happen.

That's where people add value.

Could your next freight operator already work for you?

One potential source of future talent may already exist within many freight businesses.

The warehouse.

My podcast guest spoke about identifying warehouse employees who wanted to progress and giving them opportunities to move into office-based operations. Some eventually developed further into customer-facing and sales roles.

It's an approach I think more employers should consider.

Warehouse employees already have practical exposure to freight. They understand that behind every booking, document and system entry is physical cargo that needs to move from one place to another.

They may not have freight forwarding experience on their CV, but they may have the aptitude to develop it.

For employers struggling to recruit experienced people, your next great operator, salesperson or future manager could already be in your business.

Training will need to become more deliberate

In the past, much of the learning happened naturally.

Juniors sat alongside experienced operators, completed basic tasks, asked questions, made mistakes and gradually took on more responsibility.

If AI removes many of those basic tasks, employers will need to find other ways to provide that experience.

Give juniors exposure to different areas of the business.

Let them spend time in the warehouse.

Teach them imports and exports.

Include them in customer conversations.

Show them what happens when something goes wrong and how experienced operators solve it.

And give experienced employees the opportunity to mentor them.

The objective shouldn't be to teach someone how to perform a task that technology can already do.

It should be to teach them how freight works.

Efficiency today can't create a skills shortage tomorrow

There is no question that AI presents opportunities for freight forwarding businesses.

Used well, it can reduce administration and allow employees to focus on higher-value work.

But employers also need to think beyond today's efficiency gains.

The experienced operator you want to recruit in five or ten years needs somewhere to start today.

If we remove traditional entry-level roles without creating new development pathways, we risk contributing to an even greater shortage of experienced freight professionals.

That's not simply an AI issue.

It's a workforce planning issue.

What should freight employers be asking?

As AI becomes more embedded in freight forwarding, employers should be asking:

• Where will our future operators and managers come from?

• What does an entry-level role look like when much of the administration is automated?

• Are there people elsewhere in our business who could be developed?

• Are experienced employees passing their knowledge on?

• Are we recruiting for experience alone, or are we identifying people with the potential to learn and solve problems?

These are questions worth considering now, rather than when the skills shortage becomes even harder to solve.

Final thoughts

After more than 25 years recruiting exclusively within freight and logistics, I've seen just how valuable industry experience is.

But experienced freight professionals don't simply appear.

Someone gave them their first opportunity.

Someone taught them.

Someone allowed them to ask questions, make mistakes and gradually take on more responsibility.

AI will continue to change freight forwarding, and there are many reasons to embrace it.

But as we invest in technology, we also need to invest in the people who will lead the industry in the future.

The question isn't simply whether AI will replace entry-level freight tasks.

It's what we're going to replace the learning opportunity with.​