For a business whose products exist to tell the stories of the industry, rooted in its people, history and current affairs, ‘AI’ is something of a swearword at New Zealand Trucking Media. Call us purists, luddites, whatever … but the thought of a digital ‘mastermind’ influencing the content we produce in any way is ‘streng verboten’, as a former employer of mine was fond of saying.

See, if I’d asked an AI to write this editorial for me, it wouldn’t have known to add that little nuance if I’d not given it specific instruction to do so. And, if I did instruct it to, it probably wouldn’t have written it in a way that it would read naturally. In fact, I’d wager that I’d have this editorial written and ready to publish faster than the time it would take to coach AI to write it in a natural, readable, relatable way that would have you all convinced it was really me.

You could argue that’s because I write thousands of words a month and it just comes naturally (I promise, sometimes it doesn’t), and that someone who’s not a regular writer would greatly benefit from AI doing the heavy lifting. Perhaps, which could be a good thing – though, as hard as we at New Zealand Trucking may resist it, that may not bode well for the future longevity of my career…

And I’m sure most out there feel the same way about their job security. I don’t see the proliferation of AI into every facet of our personal and professional lives as the panacea some tout it to be. The field of transport is no exception. For the foreseeable future at least, we’ll need people behind the wheel and in the depots, but what about the other areas of the transport business?

“Faster loads, fewer headaches”, “Use AI to fill empty trucks and cut shipping costs”, “AI agents boost operational efficiency and customer communications” … some of the many headlines I’ve seen promoting AI to the transport industry in recent months. And yes, even I’ll agree that there’s merit for it as another tool correctly deployed in areas where efficiency or productivity gains may be realised. Though I’m not sure I’d be super comfortable with an AI agent autonomously handling phone and email, scheduling appointments, calling drivers and coordinating warehouses … But hey, if it works for DHL, who am I to judge?

On the other hand, as with everything in life, there will always be those with more nefarious ideas. US publication Freightwaves reports that thieves are using artificial intelligence and e-commerce platforms for freight theft, “adopting AI-generated voices and synthetic identities to bypass verification calls or create fake carrier profiles”. It adds cargo theft in the US increased 33% year-on-year for Q2 of 2025.

Perhaps New Zealand’s small market and the industry’s close relationships would work to its advantage here, with such tricks less likely to dupe most operators – but it’s still a warning worth keeping in mind.

And then there’s the question of whether relying on the AI super-brain does ours any good. The paradox is while AI might allow us to ‘do more’, we – the users – end up actually doing less. Humans are natural doers, it’s how we learn – and it turns out we learn and retain very little when all we do is instruct the machine to do the hard work for us.

I wonder how much prompting it would take to get AI to write that convincingly.

Take care out there,

Gavin Myers
Editor