Benefits for Amazon's customers--who include marketplace retailers and logistics services customers, as well as companies who use its Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform and the e-commerce shoppers who buy goods on the website--will include generative AI (Gen AI) solutions that offer real-world value, the company said.
The launch is based on “Amazon Nova,” the company’s new generation of foundation models, the company said in a blog post. Data scientists use foundation models (FMs) to develop machine learning (ML) platforms more quickly than starting from scratch, allowing them to create artificial intelligence applications capable of performing a wide variety of general tasks, since they were trained on a broad spectrum of generalized data, Amazon says.
The new models are integrated with Amazon Bedrock, a managed service that makes FMs from AI companies and Amazon available for use through a single API. Using Amazon Bedrock, customers can experiment with and evaluate Amazon Nova models, as well as other FMs, to determine the best model for an application.
Calling the launch “the next step in our AI journey,” the company says Amazon Nova has the ability to process text, image, and video as prompts, so customers can use Amazon Nova-powered generative AI applications to understand videos, charts, and documents, or to generate videos and other multimedia content.
“Inside Amazon, we have about 1,000 Gen AI applications in motion, and we’ve had a bird’s-eye view of what application builders are still grappling with,” Rohit Prasad, SVP of Amazon Artificial General Intelligence, said in a release. “Our new Amazon Nova models are intended to help with these challenges for internal and external builders, and provide compelling intelligence and content generation while also delivering meaningful progress on latency, cost-effectiveness, customization, information grounding, and agentic capabilities.”
The new Amazon Nova models available in Amazon Bedrock include:
Amazon Nova Micro, a text-only model that delivers the lowest latency responses at very low cost.
Amazon Nova Lite, a very low-cost multimodal model that is lightning fast for processing image, video, and text inputs.
Amazon Nova Pro, a highly capable multimodal model with the best combination of accuracy, speed, and cost for a wide range of tasks.
Amazon Nova Premier, the most capable of Amazon’s multimodal models for complex reasoning tasks and for use as the best teacher for distilling custom models
Amazon Nova Canvas, a state-of-the-art image generation model.
Amazon Nova Reel, a state-of-the-art video generation model that can transform a single image input into a brief video with the prompt: dolly forward.
Reducing empty miles—or the distance traveled with no load or cargo—can have multiple benefits, including increased cost savings and streamlined operations. But at its core, it’s about making smarter, more sustainable choices while transporting goods. Here are three components to craft and execute a successful empty miles program, keeping collaboration in mind at each stop along the way.
1. Route Optimization: Streamlining Your Routes to Minimize Empty Miles
Eliminating empty miles begins with route optimization. By analyzing traffic patterns, delivery windows, and geographical distances, logistics leaders can uncover opportunities in their network to minimize empty miles. You can think of route optimization as a more advanced version of strategies used every day by commuters, who adjust their errands to avoid rush-hour traffic, efficiently visit stores in the same shopping center, and use backroads to bypass slowdowns.
To overcome route challenges, organizations should invest in new tools and technology like real-time planning software that helps companies to adjust routes dynamically. These enterprise tools go beyond finding the shortest paths between destinations and unlock granular data on various factors like delivery time windows and vehicle capacity to ensure operations run as smoothly as possible.
Some cutting-edge solutions use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to continuously adjust routes, improve overall productivity, and even boost customer satisfaction rates with reliable tracking information.
To understand what solutions are needed to maximize route potential, companies should evaluate their internal resources and capabilities, as well as consider the type of fleet they manage. For instance, there’s more visibility and direct influence over a private fleet compared to operating through a third party, so the approach may differ in each scenario.
2. Lane Matching & Transportation Collaboration: Team Up to Boost Efficiency and Drive Sustainability
Consider this: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation accounted for the largest portion of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2022. Now, picture a world where every truck journey is diligently planned to minimize empty space, limit miles on the road and maximize delivery potential—all of which can contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
This vision becomes reality through collaborative efforts between shippers and carriers. By strategically matching trucks with loads that share similar routes, businesses can drastically reduce their empty miles, helping their bottom line, and the planet. Leaders should look for these lane-matching opportunities, even if that means putting aside competitive differences in the name of the partnership.
Imagine two companies with fast-moving goods that are both sending partial loads down similar routes. By lane sharing and working together to combine these hauls into one truckload, both companies limit the miles spent on the road and improve their asset utilization.
Another form of transportation collaboration involves strategic pickups and returns. Think about the practical example of dropping off pallets along a route and conveniently picking up finished goods from customers on the return trip. This method improves truck capacity while significantly reducing the carbon footprint in each journey.
These key examples underscore the power of partnerships in achieving mutual goals, demonstrating the success industry players can have when they work together toward common objectives.
3. Unit Load Planning: Maximizing Your Space to Reduce Costs
The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) estimates that 20%-35% of trucks are driven empty, and those that aren’t empty carry just 57% of their capacity. Effective unit load optimization goes beyond filling truck space—it ensures that every cubic inch is utilized to its fullest potential.
Take employees restocking grocery store shelves, for example. In this scenario, load planning maximization looks like stacking cans on top of each other to fit more on a shelf or pulling out better-selling product collections to their own stand-alone display. By actively planning where each product will go, employees can better stock the items and consolidate the number of carts needed to move products.
Within the supply network, companies can explore solutions to optimize their load planning. One includes leveraging test centers, which can uncover invaluable insights into optimal stacking and loading configurations by simulating various scenarios and measuring their outcomes. Taking this a step further, companies can look to adjust their product packaging or transport platforms, such as transitioning to collapsible containers to maximize space. These types of decisions can also translate into substantial cost savings through reductions in labor and handling, pallet costs, and transportation expenses.
Using Technology to Drive Success
While collaboration and strategic planning is fundamental, the impact is even bigger when supported by next-gen technologies. McKinsey reports that 68% of logistics providers and 56% of shippers have invested more in advanced transportation solutions like real-time transportation visibility, route optimization, and telematics since 2020.
These platforms streamline the process of identifying suitable partners by not only considering supply chain variables like anticipated demand but also brand-level commitments like environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives. By delivering automated insights, digital solutions empower supply chain leaders to make informed, data-driven decisions to achieve business goals through the best-fit solutions and partnerships.
It's More Than Empty Miles
For many years, businesses have accepted empty miles as a cost of doing business. But the tangible outcomes of collaborative efforts speak volumes. Customer data shows that last year in North America alone, businesses leveraging CHEP’s transportation solutions eliminated approximately 4.7 million empty miles and more than 15 million pounds of C02 from their transportation networks.
When business leaders shift their perspective to recognize that this strategy is more than empty miles, they unlock the future of the supply chain. If companies work together, leverage the latest technology and actively look to better their lane and route strategies, it’s possible to create a more sustainable, productive and resilient supply network.
About the author: Dan Ahrens is the director of Customer Solutions & Zero Waste World at CHEP North America.
ReposiTrak, a global food traceability network operator, will partner with Upshop, a provider of store operations technology for food retailers, to create an end-to-end grocery traceability solution that reaches from the supply chain to the retail store, the firms said today.
The partnership creates a data connection between suppliers and the retail store. It works by integrating Salt Lake City-based ReposiTrak’s network of thousands of suppliers and their traceability shipment data with Austin, Texas-based Upshop’s network of more than 450 retailers and their retail stores.
That accomplishment is important because it will allow food sector trading partners to meet the U.S. FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act Section 204d (FSMA 204) requirements that they must create and store complete traceability records for certain foods.
And according to ReposiTrak and Upshop, the traceability solution may also unlock potential business benefits. It could do that by creating margin and growth opportunities in stores by connecting supply chain data with store data, thus allowing users to optimize inventory, labor, and customer experience management automation.
"Traceability requires data from the supply chain and – importantly – confirmation at the retail store that the proper and accurate lot code data from each shipment has been captured when the product is received. The missing piece for us has been the supply chain data. ReposiTrak is the leader in capturing and managing supply chain data, starting at the suppliers. Together, we can deliver a single, comprehensive traceability solution," Mark Hawthorne, chief innovation and strategy officer at Upshop, said in a release.
"Once the data is flowing the benefits are compounding. Traceability data can be used to improve food safety, reduce invoice discrepancies, and identify ways to reduce waste and improve efficiencies throughout the store,” Hawthorne said.
Under FSMA 204, retailers are required by law to track Key Data Elements (KDEs) to the store-level for every shipment containing high-risk food items from the Food Traceability List (FTL). ReposiTrak and Upshop say that major industry retailers have made public commitments to traceability, announcing programs that require more traceability data for all food product on a faster timeline. The efforts of those retailers have activated the industry, motivating others to institute traceability programs now, ahead of the FDA’s enforcement deadline of January 20, 2026.
The three companies say the deal will allow clients to both define ideal set-ups for new warehouses and to continuously enhance existing facilities with Mega, an Nvidia Omniverse blueprint for large-scale industrial digital twins. The strategy includes a digital twin powered by physical AI – AI models that embody principles and qualities of the physical world – to improve the performance of intelligent warehouses that operate with automated forklifts, smart cameras and automation and robotics solutions.
The partners’ approach will take advantage of digital twins to plan warehouses and train robots, they said. “Future warehouses will function like massive autonomous robots, orchestrating fleets of robots within them,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a release. “By integrating Omniverse and Mega into their solutions, Kion and Accenture can dramatically accelerate the development of industrial AI and autonomy for the world’s distribution and logistics ecosystem.”
Kion said it will use Nvidia’s technology to provide digital twins of warehouses that allows facility operators to design the most efficient and safe warehouse configuration without interrupting operations for testing. That includes optimizing the number of robots, workers, and automation equipment. The digital twin provides a testing ground for all aspects of warehouse operations, including facility layouts, the behavior of robot fleets, and the optimal number of workers and intelligent vehicles, the company said.
In that approach, the digital twin doesn’t stop at simulating and testing configurations, but it also trains the warehouse robots to handle changing conditions such as demand, inventory fluctuation, and layout changes. Integrated with Kion’s warehouse management software (WMS), the digital twin assigns tasks like moving goods from buffer zones to storage locations to virtual robots. And powered by advanced AI, the virtual robots plan, execute, and refine these tasks in a continuous loop, simulating and ultimately optimizing real-world operations with infinite scenarios, Kion said.
Hackers are beginning to extend their computer attacks to ever-larger organizations in their hunt for greater criminal profits, which could drive an anticipated increase in credit risk and push insurers to charge more for their policies, according to the “2025 Cyber Outlook” from Moody’s Ratings.
In Moody’s forecast, cyber risk will intensify in 2025 as attackers switch tactics in response to better corporate cyber defenses and as advances in artificial intelligence increase the volume and sophistication of their strikes. Meanwhile, the incoming Trump administration will likely scale back cyber defense regulations in the US, while a new UN treaty on cyber crime will strengthen the global fight against this threat, the report said.
“Ransomware perpetrators are now targeting larger organizations in search of higher ransom demands, leading to greater credit impact. This shift is likely to increase the cyber risk for entities rated by Moody's and could lead to increased loss ratios for cyber insurers, impacting premium rates in the U.S.," Leroy Terrelonge, Moody’s Ratings Vice President and author of the Outlook report, said in a statement.
The warning comes just weeks after global supply chain software vendor Blue Yonder was hit by a ransomware attack that snarled many of its customers’ retail, labor, and transportation platforms in the midst of the winter holiday shopping surge.
That successful attack shows that while larger businesses tend to have more advanced cybersecurity defenses, their risk is not necessarily diminished. According to Moody’s, their networks are generally more complex, making it easier to overlook vulnerabilities, and when they have grown in size over time, they are more likely to have older systems that are more difficult to secure.
Another factor fueling the problem is Generative AI, which will will enable attackers to craft personalized, compelling messages that mimic legitimate communications from trusted entities, thus turbocharging the phishing attacks which aim to entice a user into clicking a malicious link.
Complex supply chains further compound the problem, since cybercriminals often find the easiest attack path is through third-party software suppliers that are typically not as well protected as large companies. And by compromising one supplier, they can attack a wide swath of that supplier's customers.
In the face of that rising threat, a new Republican administration will likely soften U.S. cyber regulations, Moody’s said. The administration will likely roll back cybersecurity mandates and potentially curtail the activities of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), thus heightening the risk of cyberattack.
Grocers and retailers are struggling to get their systems back online just before the winter holiday peak, following a software hack that hit the supply chain software provider Blue Yonder this week.
The ransomware attack is snarling inventory distribution patterns because of its impact on systems such as the employee scheduling system for coffee stalwart Starbucks, according to a published report. Scottsdale, Arizona-based Blue Yonder provides a wide range of supply chain software, including warehouse management system (WMS), transportation management system (TMS), order management and commerce, network and control tower, returns management, and others.
Blue Yonder today acknowledged the disruptions, saying they were the result of a ransomware incident affecting its managed services hosted environment. The company has established a dedicated cybersecurity incident update webpage to communicate its recovery progress, but it had not been updated for nearly two days as of Tuesday afternoon. “Since learning of the incident, the Blue Yonder team has been working diligently together with external cybersecurity firms to make progress in their recovery process. We have implemented several defensive and forensic protocols,” a Blue Yonder spokesperson said in an email.
The timing of the attack suggests that hackers may have targeted Blue Yonder in a calculated attack based on the upcoming Thanksgiving break, since many U.S. organizations downsize their security staffing on holidays and weekends, according to a statement from Dan Lattimer, VP of Semperis, a New Jersey-based computer and network security firm.
“While details on the specifics of the Blue Yonder attack are scant, it is yet another reminder how damaging supply chain disruptions become when suppliers are taken offline. Kudos to Blue Yonder for dealing with this cyberattack head on but we still don’t know how far reaching the business disruptions will be in the UK, U.S. and other countries,” Lattimer said. “Now is time for organizations to fight back against threat actors. Deciding whether or not to pay a ransom is a personal decision that each company has to make, but paying emboldens threat actors and throws more fuel onto an already burning inferno. Simply, it doesn’t pay-to-pay,” he said.
The incident closely followed an unrelated cybersecurity issue at the grocery giant Ahold Delhaize, which has been recovering from impacts to the Stop & Shop chain that it across the U.S. Northeast region. In a statement apologizing to customers for the inconvenience of the cybersecurity issue, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize said its top priority is the security of its customers, associates and partners, and that the company’s internal IT security staff was working with external cybersecurity experts and law enforcement to speed recovery. “Our teams are taking steps to assess and mitigate the issue. This includes taking some systems offline to help protect them. This issue and subsequent mitigating actions have affected certain Ahold Delhaize USA brands and services including a number of pharmacies and certain e-commerce operations,” the company said.
Editor's note:This article was revised on November 27 to indicate that the cybersecurity issue at Ahold Delhaize was unrelated to the Blue Yonder hack.