As global supply chains evolve under the weight of digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity threats, the Multimodal 2025 event offered a compelling look into the future of freight tech, supply chain and logistics. Industry leaders shared insights into the risks, innovations, and cultural shifts shaping this high-stakes landscape.
For IT leaders, the message is clear: your role is not just technical—it's transformational. Here are five strategic takeaways that every IT executive should keep in mind.
Real-time security is mission-critical
Modern supply chains are under siege from increasingly complex threats. While theft and fraud still exist, the growing danger now lies in AI-powered impersonations, phishing attacks, and deepfake-enabled social engineering. Criminals aren’t just intercepting cargo, they’re impersonating entire companies.
Legacy security models based on annual audits and static verification are inadequate (think PDF insurance certificates only reviewed once a year). Real-time monitoring and dynamic verification of stakeholders, subcontractors, and insurance credentials are now essential to prevent reputational harm and asset loss.
| IT leader action: Build infrastructure that supports continuous monitoring, integrates real-time data verification, and facilitates collaboration between cybersecurity, logistics, and compliance teams. |
Whilst a well-known fact, speakers across multiple sessions reiterated the same warning: AI is only as good as the data you feed it. Whether it’s automating quotations, predicting delivery routes, or forecasting demand, poor data quality leads to broken models and lost trust.
Deploying AI in freight and logistics often means dealing with highly unstructured and inconsistent data sources. AI has potential, but without rigorous data preparation, businesses risk missteps that could damage their brand and operations.
| IT leader action: Prioritise data hygiene and governance. Clean, validate, and structure your data before scaling AI initiatives. Build internal capabilities or partner with providers to establish guardrails and oversight mechanisms. |
While technology is evolving rapidly, cultural resistance remains a serious challenge in the industry. Many logistics professionals have been doing things the same way for decades, and the shift to AI and automation can be met with scepticism.
Suppliers of technology in the supply chain and logistics industry are reframing themselves not as software vendors but as change management partners, helping their clients rethink workflows and decision-making structures to create real business value.
| IT leader action: Take ownership of change management. Don’t just deliver solutions, enable adoption. Partner with HR and business leaders to drive training, communication, and mindset shifts across the organisation. |
Technology decisions can no longer be siloed within IT departments. Whether it’s defending against ransomware attacks, enabling autonomous driving, or leveraging AI in logistics, these shifts carry significant business risk and opportunity.
Multimodal leaders emphasised that security must be treated as a board-level concern, not just the remit of CIOs or IT directors. CEOs and executive teams need to understand the strategic implications and ensure organisation-wide alignment.
| IT leader action: Elevate cybersecurity and AI to the executive agenda. Create briefings and risk scenarios tailored for non-technical leadership. Make the case for long-term investment in secure, intelligent infrastructure. |
As regulatory and customer pressure mount, logistics providers are expected to track and reduce their carbon footprints. Yet aligning data across global, multimodal supply chains remains a major hurdle.
AI can help measure and manage sustainability targets, but it relies on a foundation of transparent, interoperable, and reliable data from across the ecosystem. This isn’t just about compliance; it’s about future-proofing operations.
| IT leader action: Invest in systems that enable carbon data collection, integration, and analysis. Work toward compatibility with industry-wide ESG standards and partner platforms. |
The Multimodal 2025 event made it clear: digital transformation in logistics is accelerating, and IT leaders are on the front line. Whether it’s defending against AI-driven threats, transforming business processes with machine learning, or capturing carbon data for sustainability, IT isn’t a support function anymore—it’s a strategic driver of innovation, trust, and resilience.
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