The logistics industry is in a state of upheaval: the coronavirus pandemic is further accelerating digitalization, which is penetrating more and more areas. As a result, highly distributed artificial intelligence will organize itself independently in the near future and a new platform economy will emerge - the Silicon Economy. What impact will these changes have on logistics and its business models? At the Logistics Future Congress, jointly organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML and the Digital Hub Logistics, speakers and participants will discuss how companies can respond to the changes in the industry.

In his opening speech, Prof. Michael ten Hompel, Managing Director of Fraunhofer IML, explained how artificial intelligence will ensure that supply chains network independently at all levels and in real time - and that autonomous devices negotiate contracts and complete payment transactions on their own. The environment for these new technologies will be the Silicon Economy, the digital platform economy that Fraunhofer IML is already working on.

After a welcoming address by Andreas Scheuer, Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the participants were treated to a presentation by Prof. Dieter Kempf, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), on the opportunities of Covid-19 as an accelerator of digitalization. Felix Fiege, CEO of Fiege Logistik, then explained how Germany can defend its title of "Logistics World Champion". In the afternoon of the first day of the congress, the speakers reported on the use of the technology in the supply chain and in projects in North Rhine-Westphalia under the overarching theme of "Blockchain". Afterwards, eight start-ups presented their innovative business models for the Digital Logistics Award in a pitch competition for the fourth time.

On the second and third days of the congress, speakers at the Fraunhofer Silicon Economy Symposium will demonstrate in sequences on topics such as machine learning, autonomous driving and digital transformation in SMEs how they are putting innovations into practice in their companies in order to achieve greater automation and digitalization of their processes. On all three days, scientists from Fraunhofer IML will also be demonstrating numerous new technologies and their use cases in logistics in the Digital Sandbox.