FarEye Study Finds Philippine Logistics Teams Lead on AI Trials, but Few Reach Production

Logistics companies in the Philippines are among the region’s earliest experimenters with artificial intelligence, but most are struggling to turn trials into everyday operations, according to a study by delivery software firm FarEye reported by Logistics News PH on October 29. The sixth edition of FarEye’s Eye on the Last Mile research surveyed more than 300 executives across Asia-Pacific.

The study found that 33 per cent of frontline logistics teams in the Philippines and Southeast Asia are experimenting with AI, compared with 15 per cent in Europe and 8 per cent in the United States. Almost all respondents, 98.3 per cent, said AI can address opportunities in last-mile delivery, and 79 per cent are already exploring or using it. Yet fewer than 15 per cent have moved AI projects into production, a pattern FarEye chief business officer Suryansh Jalan called proof-of-concept paralysis.

Cost pressure is the main driver. Eighty-eight per cent of Filipino respondents said their costs are growing faster than revenue, and the study put the rise in last-mile costs at 18.9 per cent year on year. Companies are looking to AI for route planning, delivery exceptions and customer updates as ways to protect margins.

What it means in practice

The barriers are practical rather than technical. Respondents named integration with existing systems as the biggest obstacle at 27 per cent, followed by poor data quality and a lack of skills, each at 19 per cent. Those gaps match what other surveys have found, including an AWS report on rising adoption alongside persistent skills gaps, and the e-Conomy SEA report that ranked the Philippines last among six major economies in generative AI use.

For shippers and couriers, the lesson is that a pilot only pays off once it is connected to dispatch, warehouse and billing systems that drivers and staff already use. Logistics was also flagged as one of the sectors with most to gain in industry briefs on AI gains for Filipino services, logistics and agri-exports, which makes the gap between trials and results more costly.

FarEye, which has operated in the Philippines for nine years, said the country is one of its top five markets out of 30. What to watch next is whether local couriers and e-commerce players report AI tools moving into full deployment, and whether training programmes target the integration and data skills the survey says are missing.