Whether the world was ready for it nor not, AI (artificial intelligence) came into its own in 2025, on both personal and business levels. During those 12 months, AI soared to heights not expected at the close of 2024 — and it opened a lot of eyes as what the powerful technology holds for the future. The impact of AI was felt in the trucking industry as much as any other.
Last December, the Truckload Carriers Association presented “The Year AI Got Real for Trucking,” a live fireside chat with PCS Software’s CEO Mark Hill and Jason Douglass, the company’s vice president of community and engagement.
“When thinking of 2024 and where we’d be in 2025, I underestimated where we’d be because I didn’t really understand the order of magnitude in which we’d see change” Hill said. “We spent over $100 billion on AI in 2025 as compared to over $15 billion the year before. And the magnitude of change is tens of times faster than it was in 2024.”
The trucking industry has incorporated many AI elements into day-to-day operations, with many saying they’ve seen positive results and return on investment.
Douglass is not surprised by this news.
“Trucking’s hard right now. (Trucking industry stakeholders) are looking for every tool that can give them an edge, or savings, or efficiencies,” he explained. “That’s a good reason why trucking leaned in (to AI solutions) in 2025.”
Hill outlined 10 ways AI gained momentum and accelerated innovation in trucking during 2025.
1. AI-powered messaging
Whether it was messages coming into our in boxes or reacting to those messages, in terms of email and texting, 2025 brought increased options. The concept, focused on good tools responding to capable beginnings, helped vendors learn about common communicative power. Even better, AI did not prove itself to be a one-size-fits-all communication tool but one that could be tailored to the industry’s needs.
2. Automated document processing
Trucking is an industry driven by data and forms. In 2025, many of these forms were brought online and enhanced with AI, resulting in productivity increases. Scanning and visualizing data in various formats allowed for more efficiency. AI capabilities in interpreting data in different ways helped the industry place data in context.
3. Maintenance health
The health of a fleet is of paramount importance in the trucking industry. While AI tools like maintenance warning lights have been standard for many years, 2025 brought the technology to a new level. Maintenance personnel can now predict when required maintenance will time out and, if needed, perform the maintenance in advance. The result was fewer breakdowns on the road. As the old trucking adage says, “A truck that sits is losing money” — and breakthroughs in AI monitoring can reduce these inefficiencies.
4. AI safety
AI has potential to make the trucking industry safer for drivers and other vehicles sharing the road. Early risk detection and video analysis of accidents and near-accidents improved in 2025. AI now provides a 360-degree view of what is going on in and around a truck, identifies unsafe trends and provides the driver more information in real time.
5. Natural language
Static reports are things of the past. On-demand data is needed, and AI delivers the opportunity to provide it. AI allows data to be constructed in ways people think, providing for reports that generate information needed to comprehend everything from the big picture to the bottom line — and in a language employees customarily use in the industry. AI provides the ability to train systems to speak in plain English, opening its value throughout business.
6. Intelligent routing & trip optimization
Dispatchers have long been reliant on mapping services for information on trip routing, but thanks to AI, they now have an abundance of data on highway conditions and closures in an area, driver preferences in detour situations, and concepts like fuel availability to consider in directing traffic. Drivers know and understand the real cost savings redirection can offer and realize how it impacts their ETA and other variables related to their cargo and routes.
7. Empty mile reduction
AI can even address reducing the “empty” miles a truck may have to pull on a long haul. For instance, if a truck is expected to run empty from a drop-off in Houston to a pickup in El Paso, Texas, that’s nearly 750 unprofitable miles. AI can help make those miles profitable by communicating cross-brokerages and fill in where the old methods of communication did not allow. In short, AI provides a longer view of needs and offers solutions to improve overall efficiency.
8. Voice automation
A $125 billion investment in voice automation allowed major strides in 2025. AI’s understanding of spoken and written language has been improved, allowing voice agents to easily understand the information people in the chain are requesting. This makes it easier to route calls and work orders to the correct people, reducing delays that cost money.
9. Increased dispatcher involvement in load-driver matching
AI can help dispatchers understand operational mechanics and preferences of drivers in terms of changes to their planned jobs. Dispatching is an “exception-oriented” process, and when AI can focus its efforts on the 80% of decisions that are routine, the human element can address the remaining 20%. AI also offers quick and easy access to all the base data on file, streamlining the decision-making processes to benefit both the company and its drivers.
10. Connected AI ecosystems
AI is no longer limited to a carrier-to-carrier basis. The systems that are now coming online communicate across carriers and take an industrywide approach to streamlining operations rather than simply providing information to certain parties on a competitive basis. When AI can talk to AI, it helps eliminate the mundane decisions and allow employees to concentrate on those that really impact operations.
Moving forward
As the industry moves forward with AI, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:
- AI is only as good as the data it is offered. Before a carrier should proceed with decisions based on AI, it should ensure that it is working with the best possible information.
- There remains a concern about over automation — the idea that AI will replace people. Change management must take these concerns into account when implementing AI.
“Automated process is control — not loss of control. We are only at the beginning,” Hill noted.
Since retiring from a career as an outdoor recreation professional from the State of Arkansas, Kris Rutherford has worked as a freelance writer and, with his wife, owns and publishes a small Northeast Texas newspaper, The Roxton Progress. Kris has worked as a ghostwriter and editor and has authored seven books of his own. He became interested in the trucking industry as a child in the 1970s when his family traveled the interstates twice a year between their home in Maine and their native Texas. He has been a classic country music enthusiast since the age of nine when he developed a special interest in trucking songs.
