The global air cargo industry will undergo a major transformation by 2020 to capitalize on the growth of e-commerce, according to new predictions by Unisys Corporation.

According to the IT specialist, growth in the air cargo industry is being driven by increasing capacity of passenger flights and a shift to smaller shipments as a result of e-commerce.

“At Unisys we predict these market pressures will bring innovation in three areas in the cargo supply chain: smart warehouses will become even smarter, drones will finally take off in the cargo supply chain – but inside the warehouse – and new alliances between airlines and global distributors will enable longer term capacity management,” said Venkatesh Pazhyanur, senior industry director of freight solutions at Unisys Corporation. “Much of the underlying technologies are already in use in other sectors. But now, more than ever, cargo operators will be forced to embrace such innovation to be more efficient, agile and proactive in an increasingly competitive and price-conscious environment. The cargo industry needs to embrace disruptive technologies from the consumer world, including Internet of Things, digital assistants and drones, to increase efficiency and meet customer expectation for greater transparency throughout the supply chain.”

Instead of storage locations, warehouses will become dynamic facilities that use IoT and voice artificial intelligence to enable faster processing of more shipments. Innovations such as smart glasses will also be incorporated. Unisys expects cargo operators to invest in converting machine commands to voice within the next three years.

Unisys predicts that the immediate application of drones will be within the confined space of warehouses, conducting inventory checks more often and more accurately than the manual process. They will also use sensors to monitor environmental information such as light or temperature for perishables, pharmaceuticals or livestock, and raise alerts to unusual noise or movement that may indicate animals are in distress. Unisys predicts this will happen within the next 12 months.

Capacity management has become the top challenge for airlines, according to Unisys, and the traditional approach to yield management will not work where there is unconstrained capacity. Unisys predicts that the industry will move toward longer-term revenue optimization based on strategic alliances between airlines and large organizations such as postal authorities, online retailers and supply chain management companies. Airlines will be required to provide transparent real-time access to available capacity and predictive analytics. This visibility expectation will extend to the last-mile sector and will lead to the development of mobile apps allowing for delivery tracking.

Unisys provides solutions for 21 of the top 25 airlines in the world.