According to McKinsey, by 2030, Artificial Intelligence (AI) could impact 15% of the global workforce—or 400 million workers. That effect may be even more pronounced in the moving industry, where leaders have resisted technological advances in the past.

However, as an AI engineer who has spent years working alongside moving industry experts, it’s clear to me that most leaders misunderstand the impact of AI.

According to a 2023 McKinsey report, The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier, AI is expected to replace 60–70% of today’s work activities. The common narrative is that AI will replace humans’ jobs. The correct way to think about it is workers who use AI will replace the employees who don’t.

At the same time, AI has the power to drive down costs, increase efficiency, and help moving professionals to solve the industry’s most pressing financial challenges. Here are some of the biggest opportunities that are emerging from AI, along with reasons why it’s time for the moving industry to rethink their vision for the future.

Part 1: How AI Will Revolutionize Moving and Mobility Recruitment and Retention

According to a Korn Ferry report, 2030: The Very Human Future of Work, by 2030, 85 million jobs may be left unfilled. As the report points out, that could cost companies $8.5 trillion in losses. The moving industry is also in the middle of a talent shortage.

AI will help alleviate the industry’s talent shortage. As AI joins the workforce, it will fill the skills gap and help the human workforce accomplish more. That’s because new AI technology will assist the workforce as an “AI Workflow Companion,” cutting down workloads, costs, and inefficiencies throughout the move process.

What’s an AI Workflow Companion? It’s an AI co-pilot that assists the workforce to ensure a consistently high-quality job. It captures the details of each unique move while taking care of tedious tasks for employees.

Much like how calculators eliminated the need for people to do math manually, AI would do the same for time-consuming manual tasks that employees have to deal with day to day. With calculators, it’s more important that employees know how to use a calculator and less important that they’re experts at tallying figures in their heads. It’s the same with AI—what becomes important is how employees are able to learn to use AI in their jobs.

AI increases efficiency and shifts the nature of work in the same way calculators did. Incorporating an AI Workflow Companion into processes allows moving companies to:

• Standardize processes at scale by increasing the amount of work being done without increasing their workforce.

• Lower staffing costs by opening opportunities for those who are not experts in the moving industry to deliver high-quality services.

• Create and use standardized tools by sharing the visual inventory to improve collaboration between sales, crews, dispatch, and the claims department.

• Accurately quote moves from the beginning by minimizing errors and miscommunication.

• Reduce claims payouts and increase customer satisfaction score (CSAT) through better visibility, preparation, and documentation.

• Increase employee retention by giving workers tools that increase their productivity, provide more rewarding careers, and make tasks easier.

The AI virtual co-pilot will also help quickly train and guide non-industry experts, opening up the talent pool, and making industry pros more efficient than ever. As the moving and mobility industry adopts the AI Workflow Companion, recruiting will shift dramatically. Since AI will do the heavy lifting, recruiters will have a whole pool of unspecialized labor to choose from.

Part 2: How to Use AI to Solve Financial Challenges

The moving industry faces numerous financial challenges, and they could worsen in the future. However, AI could help companies overcome many of them. These challenges include:

• Rising operating costs: Moving companies are facing higher operating costs that could keep climbing, including costs for fuel, labor, insurance, and vehicle maintenance.

• Competition and pricing pressure: The moving industry is highly competitive, with many companies vying for market share. This pricing pressure is exacerbated by the rise of online platforms that allow customers to compare prices easily.

• Economic instability: Unexpected supply chain disruptions, inflation, and geopolitical volatility are impacting global economies. The result is rising labor costs and financially concerned customers. When the economy dips and living costs remain high, the moving industry is impacted.

How AI Resets Movers’ Financial Future

There are two ways company leaders can use AI to avoid these financial issues, and edge out competition, in the future:

1. Focus on growing technology and process, not headcount

The industry’s most useful AI won’t replace workers. It will replace and enhance skills. That means moving companies can start hiring people who are not specialists to do a job that once required years of training and expertise. The result will be lower-cost hires who can accomplish more.

When it comes time to scale up, moving companies that invest in technology and process won’t need to grow their headcount to expand. And AI will continue to accomplish more as new capabilities are brought to market—further increasing efficiency without adding employees.

2. Start creating Visual Inventories

AI now allows moving and mobility companies to gather information about a shipment in minutes. It can quickly create a digital replica for each unique move with inventory items, weights, volumes, packing requirements, and other details. These visual inventories could help companies see, predict, and resolve financial issues at all stages of a move—before, during, and after. Here are some ways AI could change how companies do business at every stage of moves:

• Pre-move: With a smartphone, AI can now generate a visual representation of a moving space, including the specs for every item that needs to be moved. This information makes it easier to plan more efficient moves, prepare crews, and provide better customer experiences.

• On moving day: Drivers can now use the visual inventory during the walk-through to confirm the estimate matches the physical household goods to ensure proper invoicing.

• Post-move: The company can build a digital library filled with details about each move. If any discrepancies occur after the move is completed, the visual inventory can act as the mutually agreed upon ground truth between customers and your move team to help reduce claims and billing errors.

AI is here to stay—but it isn’t here to steal jobs from hardworking folks. Instead, it will open up more jobs to more people, bridge the talent gap, and free up employees to focus on high-priority projects. Company leaders who are picturing the AI-assisted world now are setting themselves up to be more efficient than ever. Those who don’t could be left scrambling to catch up. The question is, “Are you planning for the AI-assisted future?”