J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks bitcoin is a "fraud." Investor Mark Cuban called it "a bubble." Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is still undecided. But whether or not executives believe in the potential of bitcoin, ethereum or blockchain technology, they and their companies can’t avoid talking about cryptocurrencies.
A few years ago, Amazon.com Inc. triggered a robot arms race when it purchased a company called Kiva Systems, maker of automated warehouse robots. Now its would-be rivals are landing bigger and bigger cash injections to try to compete with the e-commerce giant.
For the past year, Amazon employees have been test driving Amazon Go, an experimental convenience store in downtown Seattle. The idea is to let consumers walk in, pick up items and then pay for them without ever standing in line at a cashier.
Intrigued by how blockchain was changing finance, an ex-banker at Wells Fargo & Co. and a former executive at Nasdaq Inc. began looking for other opportunities. They looked at applying the technology to insurance, law, even music. Then they hit on farming.
Surge pricing, where the value of a particular item or a service increases according to demand, may soon be coming to logistics - and bringing green benefits in multiple ways.
UPS, and its subsidiary Coyote Logistics, have joined the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA), throwing their considerable weight behind the development of blockchain technology standards and education for the freight industry.
Artificial intelligence, for decades little more than a dream in the minds of behavioral scientists, is insinuating itself into every aspect of supply-chain management today. The latest incursion is taking place in the realm of sourcing.