Above the Fold: Supply Chain Logistics News (September 18, 2026)

By Adrian Gonzalez

How far is 100 miles?

It’s roughly the distance from New York City to Philadelphia. From Chicago to Milwaukee. From London to Birmingham. Or from Brussels to Rotterdam.

It’s a long way to travel by car or train. It feels even longer when you’re on a bicycle, on a tiny seat, pedaling for 6+ hours!

In just 9 days, I’ll be doing just that — riding 100 miles in the Breakthrough T1D Cape Cod Ride.

So I’m making one final push to reach my fundraising goal. I’m currently about $500 short — and, for a little added motivation, I’m barely hanging on to 10th place among fundraisers. So I could use a little help on both fronts!

Many of you have supported my fundraising efforts in the past, and I’m incredibly grateful. If you’re able to support me again this year, any amount would help get me across the fundraising finish line. You can donate here: http://www2.breakthrought1d.org/goto/ll4t1dcure

As always, I’m riding for my daughter Hannah and everyone living with type 1 diabetes, with the hope that we keep getting closer to the day when T1D is something we can prevent and cure.

Thank you again for all the support you’ve given me and our family over the years, especially our Logistics Leaders for T1D Cure Team sponsors: TranzAct Technologies, C.H. Robinson, Descartes Systems Group, and Uber Freight. It truly means a lot.

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Moving on, here is the supply chain and logistics news that caught my attention this week:

AI Everywhere: From Air Traffic to Supply Chain Operating Networks

AI may or may not result in the end of humanity by 2030, but that’s not stopping software vendors from embedding it in their solutions.

“Federal aviation officials are preparing to launch an AI-powered air-traffic tool in one of the nation’s busiest corridors as soon as Monday,” reported Andrew Tangel in The Wall Street Journal. “The software, known as Smart, is expected to help the Federal Aviation Administration and airlines reduce delays and cancellations and find routes for flights when disruptions scramble air traffic.”

Meanwhile, McLeod Software is expanding its AI capabilities to reduce manual work and help carriers and brokers make better use of their operational data. As James Menzies reports in TruckNews.com, the initiatives include using AI to automate email-driven workflows such as quoting, load tenders, and status requests; enabling natural-language queries of operational data; introducing voice agents for routine driver and track-and-trace interactions; and connecting third-party AI applications to McLeod systems.

Loadsmart also introduced a new set of AI agents designed to handle repetitive freight tasks end to end, including document collection, tracking and status updates, retendering failed loads, claims processing, and appointment scheduling. The company says its agents currently resolve about 80% of the tasks they handle without human intervention, with Loadsmart’s freight experts completing the remaining exceptions — a model that combines AI automation with human expertise to deliver the outcome.

Also this week, SPS Commerce announced “a new wave of product innovation that combines agentic AI with the intelligence of a network trained on more real trading partner activity than any other, giving brands and retailers the data foundation to move from reactive supply chain management to proactive operations.”

The company also announced the general availability of MAX, its agentic AI supply chain offering. Here are some details from the press release:

The agentic intelligence layer within the SPS network is now generally available following an early access program that informed the product through hundreds of thousands of AI interactions across thousands of customers. MAX guides customers through simple and complex supply chain needs while also identifying key anomalies, preventing errors that might turn into costs and is grounded in how trading partner relationships behave. MAX is initially available for Fulfillment and Visibility Management, with rollouts to Revenue Recovery and Decision Intelligence to come.

The SPS Commerce news highlights a key finding from our 2026 State of Supply Chain Operating Networks Report: Artificial intelligence is now central to how providers position their platforms, with nearly all vendors highlighting predictive capabilities and automation. The research also made clear, however, that the effectiveness of these capabilities depends heavily on foundational elements such as data quality, network participation, and process standardization.

The announcement also brought me back to a post I wrote earlier this year titled, “AI May Disrupt Software, But Networks Are The Real Moat.”

The premise was simple: As AI makes software easier, faster, and less expensive to develop, the code itself becomes less of a differentiator. What remains much harder to replicate is a large, connected community of trading partners — and the years of transactions, relationships, business rules, and other data flowing through that network.

That is essentially the value proposition SPS Commerce is emphasizing with MAX. Yes, agentic AI is the headline technology, but the company isn’t positioning MAX as AI operating in isolation. It is emphasizing the intelligence of the SPS network and grounding the AI in how trading partner relationships actually behave.

Whether AI eventually destroys humanity remains to be seen. In the meantime, it’s being put to work in supply chain management in different ways every day.

And with that, have a meaningful weekend.

Song of the Week: “Munich” by Editors