At the 2026 ARC Leadership Forum, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jeremy Hudson, then Vice President of Client Services at OpenSky Group, for an episode of the Logistics Viewpoints podcast. While we spent a lot of time at the ARC Advisory Group Leadership Forum discussing high-level strategy, Jeremy brought us back to earth with a reminder: at its core, logistics is still about “picking something up and putting it down.”
But how we decide when, where, and how to move those items is changing faster than ever. Here are my three biggest takeaways from our conversation on the “industrialization” of warehouse technology.
1. The “Golf Trip” Theory of AI
One of the most striking things Jeremy mentioned was that warehousing has been relatively late to the AI trend compared to freight brokerage or manufacturing. Why? Because a robot isn’t necessarily going to pick up a box any faster than a human can.
The real value of AI in the warehouse isn’t physical, it’s informational. Jeremy used a great analogy:
Imagine planning a golf trip in the old days. You’d show up without a weather forecast, no idea about tee times, and no reviews of the course. You’re making decisions laden with risk.
Today, warehouse supervisors are often still in those “old days.” They make labor and routing decisions without a full “weather forecast” of their data. AI is the tool that finally gives them those inputs, turning high-risk guesses into high-certainty execution.
2. We’ve Reached the Automation “Inflection Point.”
When Jeremy started at OpenSky ten years ago, only about 10% of his projects involved automation. Today? It’s closer to 75%.
We aren’t just doing this because the tech is “cool.” We are facing a massive labor cliff. We simply do not have the workforce available to keep up with global demand. While we’re still a long way from “humanoid” robots taking over, the integration of AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots) and ASRS (Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems) is no longer optional; it’s a survival strategy to augment the human workers we do have.
3. Sustainability is Just Good Business
As many of you know, my background is in sustainability, so I had to see what Jeremy had to say about how warehouses can go green. His answer was refreshingly pragmatic: Sustainability and the bottom line are the same thing.
Smart Cartonization: Using WMS technology to ensure we aren’t shipping a tiny item in a massive box. This reduces waste, fuel consumption, and road congestion.
Travel Rationalization: If a forklift is driving twice as far as it needs to because of poor batching, that’s wasted energy and wasted money.
The Blank Canvas: Warehouses are essentially massive, flat platforms. By covering them in solar panels, we can turn these structures into carbon-neutral energy hubs.
Re-Imagining the Warehouse
We closed our talk by discussing how to attract the next generation (my fellow Gen Z-ers) to the industry. Jeremy’s take was simple: treat the warehouse like a modern workspace.
Better lighting, modern break rooms, and most importantly, software that highlights human contribution. Imagine an app that tells a worker, “The orders you fulfilled today could fill a Boeing 737.” When we use technology to show people the scale of their impact, we move from “back-breaking labor” to “mission-critical contribution.”
Not every company is Amazon, and that’s okay. The goal isn’t to go from zero to one hundred overnight; it’s about making those incremental shifts from “1 to 25” that move the whole industry forward.
If you’re interested in listening to the full episode, click here:
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