Why Operational AI Might Be the Last Path to Explosive Growth in Margin-Squeezed Industries

In logistics, the most valuable AI wins are deliberately unflashy. They live in the back office: automating track-and-trace replies, reducing manual handoffs, and cutting sales prep time. For an industry squeezed by chronic margin pressure, this kind of internal efficiency is not optional or experimental. It's simply the fastest path to real returns and the most reliable way to turn AI into measurable throughput without adding cost.

Manuele Mazzacurati, Executive Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing at JAS Worldwide, sits at the intersection of operations and commercial strategy. With a background in warehouse management and day-to-day logistics execution, he's responsible for turning internal process efficiency into sustainable top-line growth. Rather than chasing AI transformation narratives, his approach treats AI as an operating lever for margin control and sustainable growth.

"We want to utilize AI to free up functions that don't add value for clients. The goal is to create more client-facing time to potentially generate more revenue. We see it less as cutting costs and more as enabling us to build our top-line revenue more efficiently," says Mazzacurati. For him, AI comes down to priorities. Start with the tools that make everyday operations run faster and cleaner, then focus on the harder work: extracting value from the connections, data, and relationships spread across a global network.

• Follow the value: "It's up to us as leaders to prioritize non-customer-facing activities in our digitalization and AI journey. There is so much to be done with internal optimization that makes us more efficient without changing the customer experience. Why would we start by having a machine answer a customer? Our value is building relationships."

• Less prospecting, more people: By keeping AI focused on internal work, Mazzacurati shifts efficiency gains directly into more time, energy, and attention spent with customers. "I prefer to have a salesperson spend less time prospecting in the office because AI is helping them, so they can instead make five to seven more sales calls and spend five or six more hours with customers each week," he says. "That won't just compensate for the change; it will help us build even stronger relationships."

Mazzacurati outlines a two-tiered AI strategy that separates commoditized tools from proprietary game-changers. The first tier consists of "standard" AI applications that are beginning to transform logistics efficiency across the board, from warehousing to back-office tasks, enabled by a growing ecosystem of new AI tools and platforms. The second, more strategic tier tackles a deeper challenge common within many global firms: unlocking the intelligence hidden within their own networks.

• A well-oiled machine: "In our business, we now use generative AI for track and tracing, where automatic emails recognize what the customer is asking and then generate the answer. This kind of stuff will be very standard," Mazzacurati says. The bigger opportunity lies in using AI to surface relationships that already exist inside a global network. "Let’s say we have a big business with Coca-Cola in Atlanta, and there is a key influencer within Coca-Cola Brazil that our local salesperson should meet," he explains. "If our person in Brazil doesn’t know about that contact, they won’t take the extra step. Today, that connection relies on manual work. That entire process can be automated and made more consistent, like a well-oiled machine."

• The enemy of progress: But Mazzacurati acknowledges that implementing new technology runs into a classic challenge: overcoming a natural attachment to legacy workflows. "It's tough for some people to accept launching something that isn't perfect yet," he notes. "They question why they should have to change from a process that has always worked for them, especially when the new solution has its own issues. That mindset is the enemy of progress."

The focus on efficiency is less a strategic choice and more a necessary response to the industry's economic realities. Mazzacurati explains that the sector's profitability during periods of global disruption is an unpredictable anomaly. The day-to-day reality, for many, is a fight for margin in a competitive market.

• Cash from chaos: "The only way to remain competitive and make money is through supply chain disruptions. It's a mess that brings the rates up. The COVID pandemic, the volcano in Iceland, the Red Sea crisis, you name it." But when the chaos subsides, logistics firms run into a harder problem: decades of price stagnation. With little ability to raise rates or shift fulfillment elsewhere, cost efficiency becomes the only lever left. "In freight forwarding, you see the same price today that you saw 20 years ago. But the cost of people, rent, warehouses, and technology is much higher. The only way we can remain competitive is to keep our costs under control, and that's where digitalization comes into play," Mazzacurati explains

For Mazzacurati, the case for AI doesn't hinge on a neat ROI calculation or a single efficiency metric. It rests on a more fundamental shift in how the business grows. In an industry where prices have barely moved in decades, the ability to increase throughput without increasing headcount is the real measure of success. AI becomes less about experimentation and more about redesigning the operating model itself.

"My aim is to achieve our required growth without adding proportional cost, and the only way to do that is to be more efficient," Mazzacurati says. "If my team handles 100 RFQs a month today, they need to be able to handle 150 with the same people. As long as we focus on adding more business instead of more cost, that’s the game-changer."