In an exclusive chat with MadTech Mag, Huboo’s Chief Innovation Officer, Paul Dodd, discusses the future of eCommerce fulfillment, with insights spanning AI integration, robotics, and industry challenges.
What’s been one of your favourite tech innovations in the last year?
The obvious answer is Large Language Models (LLMs), which despite their hallucinogenic tendencies, have already become an invaluable tool as I go about my day-to-day work.
From an organisation-wide perspective though, the tech innovation that has made the biggest difference to day-to-day operations over the past few years is stock-taking drones, which we use in our warehouses to maximise how we use our space, ensure inventory accuracy and check that everything is stored in the right place. They’re preprogrammed with the details of their environment and use sensors to avoid hazards, plus we can use them out of hours so that our hub managers show up for work each morning with the very latest data available to them.
The next milestone here is to combine robotics and LLMs. There has been some progress in this area over the past year, but the creation of functional, affordable humanoid AI robots is still a while away.
What is one trend you foresee will change up the tech world in the next year?
Digitally agile, socially savvy brands already consistently outperform the wider eCommerce market, and this is before we start seriously factoring AI into the mix. Once these brands start using AI throughout their businesses, they’re going to blow the competition away.
AI will allow them to bring products to market faster – from design to marketing and even creating more flexible supply chains that let them manufacture fully personalised products on demand, with no excess inventory.
Fulfilment models will have to change to support this innovation – it’s something we’re already thinking about because it feels like a revolution is coming, which is massively exciting. The only note of caution is that brands need to keep humans in the loop and avoid plugging AI into everything too quickly, as it will almost certainly lead to unforeseen consequences.
What is a dream brand you would like to work with, and why?
I’m really excited about the work Figure is doing in the field of general-purpose humanoid robots. If they can win the race to turn proof-of-concepts into mass-scale production, they’ll be a household name within a few years.
If you could change one thing in the industry, what would it be?
Our industry’s record on employment practices and employee welfare is terrible, and always has been. The average churn rate is 37% and there’s a constant labour shortage because the quality of jobs is so poor.
Right now, labour costs are increasing – by at least 10% across much of Europe – and yet traditional logistics and fulfilment providers are responding by trying to squeeze more and more out of their staff, when they should be doing everything in their power to boost retention.
At Huboo we’ve always been focused on doing things differently, treating our staff well and creating meaningful careers for everyone who joins us. But it’s frustrating that the wider industry hasn’t joined us on this journey. It will happen eventually. Companies that treat their people poorly will see the cost of labour continue to rise until there’s no choice but to change strategy. But this is a pretty dumb way to learn the lesson.
And finally, if you could invent any piece of technology, what would it be?
I’ve already done this once! After spending 20 years working in global distribution for a major FMCG manufacturer, I saw an opportunity to reinvent conventional warehousing using technology, in a way that would both make the warehouses more efficient, and make the human component less soul-destroying. This is what led to creating the Huboo micro-hub model that continues to underpin our pan-European fulfilment network to this day.
However, if I were to invent another game-changing piece of technology in this space, I think it would have to be at the intersection of AI and robotics.
Imagine a human warehouse hub manager overseeing a team of humanoid AI robots. They could manage a much larger warehouse hub without having to walk miles or risk being overwhelmed by order volumes. They could delegate and converse with the AI, get instant insights into every aspect of the hub, and automate all the admin and paperwork.
This type of tech would drive a step-change in eCommerce fulfilment capabilities, without the need to keep hiring more and more humans, and allow existing workers to upskill and take on these high-value managerial roles.
Ultimately, I think all technological innovation should be designed in service of humans, and not the other way around.
The convergence of tech and brands 