Technology, Energy and Logistics Leaders
Gathered for GROUNDBREAKERS 2023
SAN
FRANCISCO, Sept. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/
-- Prologis, Inc. (NYSE: PLD), the global leader in logistics
real estate, today hosted its annual GROUNDBREAKERS thought
leadership forum featuring leaders in technology, global commerce,
energy and supply chain transformation at the company's global
headquarters in San Francisco.
Prologis Co-founder, Chairman and CEO Hamid R. Moghadam and The Home Depot Chair,
President and CEO Ted Decker kicked
off the day with a conversation focused how AI is impacting
industry, particularly the global supply chain.
"I think AI is a big, fast-moving train. You better get on it or
you're going to get run over by it," said Moghadam. "But before you
can engage with AI and get value out of it, you have to have data
and you have to have data digitized."
Decker agreed, saying: "Every company has to be a technology
company, a data company and increasingly a data science
company."
The Home Depot CEO reflected on how AI is helping their company
adjust their consumer strategy: "We've always been an anonymous
mass retailer. What we are increasingly being known for is that we
will be mass personalization."
Data Impacts HR Strategy
The need for innovation and
ways to develop and upskill talent for sustainable career paths has
never been greater – and data is a difference maker. That was the
shared perspective of Alison Caplan,
chief people officer for CBRE; Aaron
Demerson, commissioner, Texas Workforce Commission;
Christina Hall, Instacart's CHRO and
Scott Marshall, Prologis' chief
customer officer, in a discussion about the expectations employers
are facing in a post-pandemic labor market.
"We've done a lot of work around understanding the employee
experience. Where do our employees value what we do? How do we pull
those levers and give them more of those own experiences? Where are
the experiences that we need to improve?" asked Caplan. "By really
shoring up that employee experience, you're going to ultimately
have higher engagement, lower turnover."
The Shift Toward Clean Energy
A panel of
experts explored how quickly companies are evolving their mobility
strategies – and the challenges they are facing. In a conversation
moderated by FreightWaves Founder and CEO Craig Fuller, Stella
Li, EVP at BYD Company Ltd. and CEO, BYD Americas;
Dave Merrill, co-founder and CEO,
Elroy Aviation; and Laura Renger, executive director at California
Electric Transportation Coalition, discussed where change is
happening and how quickly.
Li said, "We think the first area is last mile logistics; all
the light-duty and even heavy-duty trucks that operate at a port
can be electrified very quickly in next maybe three to five
years."
Prologis' Chief Energy and Sustainability Officer Susan Uthayakumar spoke with Martin Adams, general manager and chief engineer
at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; Alice Jackson, senior vice president of System
Strategy and chief planning officer at Xcel Energy; and
Carla Peterman, executive vice
president, corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer at
PG&E about how their organizations are pivoting to cleaner,
more efficient energy solutions and sources.
"Power has to match demand. When you have variable inputs coming
in, it's a challenge," said Adams. "We're making our grid a lot
smarter than it used to be, and we're investing in the smart grid
to use better intelligence and invest in a smarter system."
"Will ChatGPT take my job?"
Brad Stone, author and senior executive editor
Bloomberg Technology, explored how AI is impacting all aspects of
the global economy with Azita
Martin, vice president and general manager of AI for Retail,
CPG and QSR, NVIDIA and Warren
Packard, operating partner at AI Fund.
"I think the best way I would describe AI is that AI is your
assistant. In fact, someone asked the question, 'Will ChatGPT take
my job?' No, but someone using ChatGPT will take your job," said
Martin. "That's really important because AI can crunch a lot of
data and give you a lot of information that would take several
people and weeks to put together."
Packard commented on how sector expertise will matter: "Supply
chain is one of these verticals where it requires subject matter
expertise. It's not going to be OpenAI, it's not going to be
Anthropic, it's not going to be Microsoft or Amazon who come out
and innovate in those spaces. They're going to help…but it's going
to be the entrepreneurs who understand those verticals that are
able to create these really game-changing companies in these
different verticals."
Early-Stage Innovation
Prologis' Chief Technology
Officer Sineesh Keshav interviewed several Prologis Ventures
partners: Kyle Bernhardt, chief
product officer, TestFit; Gina
Chung, vice president, Corporate Development, Locus
Robotics; Layla Shaikley, Wise Systems co-founder and head of
product; and Evan Smith, Altana
Technologies co-founder and CEO. Each of these companies has an
innovative solution that is actively impacting the logistics
industry.
"In our largest installations, we have over 700 robots
operating, picking orders every single day, every single minute. We
wouldn't be able to do that without AI," said Chung of her
company's robots. "The biggest benefit that we provide to our
customers is this lift in productivity."
Hundreds gathered in-person, and thousands virtually, for the
forum, which included additional LinkedIn Live half-time and
post-show commentary. The keynote and panel discussions for
GROUNDBREAKERS 2023 can be viewed on demand here.
GROUNDBREAKERS 2024 will be held on October 2, 2024 in London.
About Prologis
As of June 30,
2023, the company owned or had investments in, on a wholly
owned basis or through co-investment ventures, properties and
development projects expected to total approximately 1.2 billion
square feet (114 million square meters) in 19 countries. Prologis
leases modern logistics facilities to a diverse base of
approximately 6,700 customers principally across two major
categories: business-to-business and retail/online fulfillment.
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SOURCE Prologis, Inc.