Artificial intelligence as an increase for port operations

Pedro Amorim spoke at the 3rd Interlog Summit, which is part of the 29th edition of Intermodal South America, held at Anhembi in São Paulo (Sílvio Luiz/AT)

The democratization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across Brazilian ports is the sector’s main challenge regarding this subject, according to Pedro Amorim, teacher and researcher at Universidade do Porto, in Portugal, and at Insper. He is also co-founder of LTPlabs, a company that provides logistics management services through AI.

“Ports are a good example of AI application in its various facets. I’ve worked with some of the largest Brazilian ports — which I cannot name as most are private — and, for example, all wagon scheduling and even vessel entry is already handled by highly sophisticated AI algorithms. There's also simulation of port cargo and operations, which in many cases is already taking place”, he explains. “I was truly impressed by all the analytics behind every operation, both onboard and onshore, essentially everything, at a world-class level”, he adds.

Amorim spoke yesterday at the 3rd Interlog Summit, held during the 29th edition of Intermodal South America, at Distrito Anhembi, in São Paulo. The theme was How AI is Transforming Supply Chain Management: What’s Next? He also participated in one of the event’s panels titled AI: Building Innovative Logistics Models and High-Performance Supply Networks. The event concludes today.

In Amorim’s view, the vastly different scales of Brazilian ports lead to equally distinct realities in terms of AI implementation. “We have Santos, which is the largest and which I visited only as a guest, and much smaller ports. And what I’ve noticed is that we still don’t have a true democratization of this technology. In large ports, they are well-equipped with well-structured decision-making processes. But when it comes to smaller ports, the concerns are clearly different, and the technology hasn’t arrived there in the same way”, he observes.

According to the professor and researcher, Brazil’s technological landscape also mirrors that of Europe, although ports there are more uniform — and smaller — in scale. “This makes the playing field more level, unlike in Brazil. And I believe this is a broader challenge, not just in ports but in AI application as a whole. Large organizations are using the technology, but when we look at the broader business landscape, the usage becomes much more distant”, he states.

Ports have also been at the forefront of developments in cybersecurity, Amorim notes. “I see this as a cat-and-mouse game, with one party always trying to breach the system and another trying to protect it. So, in many ways, this is one of the areas leading AI developments. Those working on cybersecurity defense face increasingly complex challenges. And Generative AI — a type of AI dedicated to creating new content such as text, images, audio, and video, by learning from large volumes of data — faces a major challenge here. Again, it’s about staying ahead in the cat-and-mouse dynamic and seeing how we can outmaneuver threats or counteract them to overcome these difficulties”, he explains.

Customs and Brazil’s fertile ground The customs sector is where Pedro Amorim sees a critical need for AI application and, in his view, an area that has yet to fully do its homework.

“While port operations have made impressive strides in AI, the bureaucratic component associated with customs management paints a different picture. I believe there have been some interesting advances. And again, Generative AI — with its ability to process and reproduce text — has a lot to offer here, but I believe this is clearly a strategic area for ports in the near future”, he comments.

Brazil, according to the teacher and researcher, is fertile ground for AI investment. “Absolutely. Due to its size, the relevance of logistics to its GDP, the volume of soybean exports, and all the other resources the country possesses — resources that few other countries in the world can match. So, if there’s a place to invest in these areas, it’s Brazil. ”