Artificial Intelligence and sustainable supply chain performance: evidence from the UK logistics industry

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the performance of Supply Chain (SC) in logistics firms within the United Kingdom. The aim was to quantify the impact of AI technologies on the environmental, economic and social sustainability goals of the logistics sector. The quantitative cross sectional survey design was used, involving 400 respondents who were measured with a structured questionnaire on four-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and linear regression analysis were used for data analysis. Results showed that the level of AI adoption was high (grand mean = 3.37) and the sustainable supply chain performance was also high (grand mean = 3.33). Correlation analysis revealed that adoption of AI had significant positive correlations with environmental sustainability (r = 0.71, p < 0.05), economic sustainability (r = 0.76, p < 0.05) and social sustainability (r = 0.69, p < 0.05). The results from linear regression also showed that AI adoption significantly predicted the sustainable supply chain performance (R² = 0.61, β = 0.78, F = 374.62, p<0.05). The research suggests that AI is playing a pivotal role in boosting efficiency, sustainability, and social impact within logistics operations. It finds that AI is the key to transforming the logistics sector toward sustainability in the UK. The study calls for greater investment in AI technologies, training workforce digitally and supportive government policies to improve sustainability results.