Mastering New Recipes At Kale Logistics

FT:   As Chief AI Officer at Kale Logistics, your work aligns with automation and optimization. Will your focus remain operational, or do you envision expanding Kale’s technology horizons even further?
RS:  My role at Kale encompasses both product and AI at scale. As a result, I bring a product mindset to AI development. While automation is a key focus, my vision extends beyond operational efficiency. The key is to create an intelligent logistics ecosystem. Our objective is to develop a series of applications that not only automate processes, but also go beyond that by learning from data, adapting to data, and then performing a range of automated activities using a variety of methods.  This includes predictive analytics, generative AI for decision support, and deeper integration between logistics, finance, and customer experience layers. Our ambition is to create a marketplace of smart AI agents in the logistics space that will be accessible to all our customers from within our ecosystem.

      This last statement seemed to me particularly important. I take the liberty to depart from the interview with Rajan, in particular to place a question that can be taken in fact by any interested interlocutor. Let’s open a small debate here . . . In an environment that is strongly interconnected as supply chain and logistics is, it seems to stand at odds with the assumption that at the end of the day service providers hope or are looking forward to creating an eco-system that can be called “their own”. In a system that can work only as and when every single part works in a kind of symbiosis with the others, it would seem to be advantageous to build a system as open and interconnected as possible, with little or no restrictions among the stakeholders of the chain. But this has not been the case for decades and apparently the riddle is still unsolved. One could say: anyone for tennis?
     After this gaping and probably unorthodox question, let us go back to our interview and get a bit more personal in the choice of listed items, as well as bit more “political” . . .

FT:   What do you see as the major shifts in logistics? Are more parcels, more regionalization, or something entirely new on the horizon?
RS:  We will see a dual movement: micro-logistics, which involves more parcels and faster fulfillment, with the last mile being of significant importance, as more warehouses are located closer to their customers. The other aspect is macro-optimization, which involves restructuring trade lanes, reshoring, and enhancing resilience. Logistics will increasingly act as a leveling mechanism. AI and automation will help to balance cost, sustainability, and speed across this evolving landscape. With the significant changes we are seeing in how countries view trade and with significant regulatory changes, there will be substantial shifts in the opportunity landscape for software vendors. They will need to create more flexible software frameworks and automate many of their processes more rapidly in response to any regulatory changes, including tariffs.

FT:   You had mentioned “unlocking business value through innovative platforms” in your introduction. Do you think progress in that area has often been slower than expected, and how can organizations do better?
RS:  This is a fascinating question. Many organizations adopt the approach of continuing their business as usual to ensure that their revenues are not impacted, while simultaneously initiating their transformation journey using AI as an enabler to accelerate the process. Most of them recognize that the effective use of platforms can unlock value, however, many view technology as an enabler, rather than a strategic core. This requires a mindset shift and the integration of data, AI, and APIs directly into the business model, not just its infrastructure. It’s about platform thinking and designing systems that continually evolve, make it easy to integrate partners, and scale innovation across the enterprise. Change also involves costs, especially when organizations undergo a major digital transformation. Hence, this necessitates a strategic shift in thinking and will also include budget adjustments.

FT:   Let’s have a look at the evolving patterns of trade. With increasing regionalization and reshoring trends, do you think logistics is becoming more local again? How does this influence your global work perspective?
RS:  This is a complicated question to answer! Yes, logistics is becoming more regionalized, driven by tariff shifts and supply chain resilience goals, as well as the trend towards manufacturing localization. This is an opportunity for SaaS providers like Kale. I believe that technology bridges these divides, because the software does not distinguish between regions, but rather utilizes and helps optimize logistics changes.  
     You would ask me then, how do you influence the process, right? My global experience enables me to view localization not as fragmentation, but as distributed intelligence. This facilitates smarter, faster, and more sustainable regional networks connected by AI-driven visibility platforms. As someone who travels internationally and across different markets, I bring a unique perspective to any partner or user of our software. In my role as Chief Product Officer, this perspective enables me to shape our product from the outset to be more globally oriented.

FT:   Yes, knowledge is power, but how do you view the recent debates over de minimis thresholds and their potential impact on e-commerce? Disruptive?
RS:  The thresholds have tightened in the U.S. landscape, ending duty-free perks for low-value imports. This might help improve the country’s revenue receipts, but it spikes costs and increases delays for e-commerce. The downsides are that there will be margin squeezes, an increase in Customs backlogs, and a shift from impulse overseas buys to more considered local or aggregated shipping. I believe the e-commerce economy will undergo significant reshaping. However, I see this as a catalyst for smarter ops. This will push the industry towards data-driven consolidation, predictive clearance using AI, and more intelligent AI agents for automated compliance, saving money for early adopters. This may help mitigate some of the regulatory friction and provide an opportunity for logistics software to help these companies adapt to these changes.

FT:   You are surely looking at the bright side as your first choice I take it and I must commend you for this positive approach. Let me ask you a final question: is there a personal or professional yet unaccomplished goal you’d like to realize in the coming years?
RS:  My personal and professional goals converge towards creating an AI-driven logistics platform that becomes as trusted and intuitive as financial analytics are. I firmly believe that we are living in a truly transformative world, where AI is poised to change our way of thinking and our approach to work. Data will be critical for this, and the logistics industry sits at the center of an ecosystem that has visibility into key components of the global infrastructure. The next generation of leaders will know how to use AI natively and I would like to continue mentoring the next generation of product and technology leaders who can bridge the gap between business vision and engineering execution, laying the foundation for an intelligent logistics platform.

     With this hopeful and, from my point of view, slightly overwhelming statement, we have come to the end of this challenging interview, venturing into the new developments that a key IT-service provider as Kale Logistics has in store for our future trades. I have to thanks Rajan for a disciplined, accomplished and well informed account of what is cooking in his sorcerer’s boiling bowl. Far from being the sorcerer’s apprentice, as we remember in Disney’s masterpiece, Rajan Subramanian gave us an account of how science and technology can deliver what appears to be magic, but is in reality the result of hard work and dedication to make trade and logistics a more manageable and productive environment.
Marco Sorgetti