FUTURE OF FLEET > AI & AUTOMATION
HARNESSING AI AS A SUPPORT MECHANISM IN FLEET
Peter Ennis I chief technology officer I Nexus Rental
The fleet rental landscape is forever evolving, and artificial intelligence (AI) is very quickly outgrowing its buzzword status and becoming a pivotal part of business across the industry. The key in using AI as a business advantage is designing a system that applies it as a supporting mechanism for the teams orchestrating the operations, not deploying it to usurp those roles. Tech works best when used in harmony with human intelligence.
The benefit of AI in fleet lies in its ability to look beyond the vehicle. At Nexus, we have adopted an AI-powered allocation system (provided by a third-party company called Peak) and linked with our Iris platform, which draws on the 25 years of historical booking and operational data we have access to. This alone has allowed us to optimise which bookings go where, and when. The system, in partnership with Peak, predicts which supplier would be best suited to fulfil the reservation in a timely and cost-effective manner. This has led to bookings being confirmed 30% faster and increased our rates of fulfilment.
The innovation and benefits behind AI are an ever-evolving piece of work. We are planning to expand the use of AI into case management. The AI system can automatically categorise and route incoming support requests based on their content. For example, it can distinguish between topics such as billing, damage claims or contract extensions, ensuring the case goes directly to the right department or agent. It also can analyse the tone of a message to detect urgency, helping the frontline teams to resolve critical issues faster. This in turn will help to free up the time of the team to handle more strategic cases and focus on customer satisfaction management and improvements.
Beyond the general use of AI, we focus largely on ensuring we use the technology in a sustainable way. Transport is the UK’s largest emitting sector, so by using AI to allocate vehicles, we can incorporate distance, supplier efficiency and vehicle sustainability criteria. Linking this up with the vast amount of data modern fleets generate, AI will allow fleet operators to take a more scientific approach to optimisation, demand prediction and improving vehicle utilisation, even creating a tailored customer experience. It can help the industry move from reactive decision-making to proactive, evidence-based operations with sustainability at the core.
As we embrace smarter systems, we must also commit to ethical AI. Efficiency gains should not come at hidden environmental costs. It’s vital that as we reduce emissions on the road, we don’t shift the problem into energy-hungry data centres. Responsible AI requires transparency around data use, carbon impact and efforts to balance innovation with sustainability.
AI will not replace people. It removes repetitive tasks so teams can focus on strategic work where human expertise and judgement remain essential, especially in complex logistics, customer care and ethical decision-making. The future of fleet management isn’t about automation for its own sake; it’s about using AI to turn data into decisions, and decisions into better customer experiences.
