How Ferdia sees AI shaping the coach industry

Imagine a future in which daily tasks are prioritised based on their strategic importance to your business, decision making comes with a data-backed recommendation, and vehicle and driver allocations for months ahead can be scheduled (or re-scheduled) accurately at the click of a button.

With AI, this future is very close.

AI is already implemented heavily in related industries; aircraft and crew assignment, route optimisation in logistics and demand prediction in rail and public transport are all transferable ideas that could make a big impact today.

At Ferdia, teams are already using AI across all departments: for speeding up coding and development, analysing data and generating sales marketing and operational analysis internally and for clients.

Working with operators across Europe has led Ferdia to a clear conclusion: AI delivers value not by replacing people or systems, but by reducing pressure on them.

The important distinction here is that AI is not one big solution, nor should it be used as a standalone solution to solve all challenges. Instead the best use of new technology is as small tools, embedded within our system, with a clear understanding of context; and which offer incremental improvements across a process: Think of nerves in the central nervous system rather than the brain itself.

This belief underpins how we design, test, and integrate AI capabilities into the Ferdia platform today, and how we plan for the next phase of intelligent operations in our system.

The Role of the Tech Company

As AI changes how software is built, the traditional value of a tech company – its code- becomes less and less valuable.

What will make a strong tech partner in the future is not it’s system alone – but the ability to translate intent into results via the tech: working alongside operators to speak the language of AI and importantly provide context:

These are the kinds of questions that AI helps to answer.

The role of software is not to replace your process, but to provide tools that make them better.

The role of the tech company is to understand the context of your business; where will AI tools have the most impact, how can they be made accessible and simple to use and which developments have the greatest impact.

AI as Pressure Relief, Not Control

The evolution of technology must begin with “why?”, not “what?”.

In the coach industry, the speed at which AI solutions become embedded, and exactly what is created, depends solely on what operators would benefit from most.

Ferdia’s view is that AI adoption should start with a clearly defined pressure point. For example:

With AI, processes can be sped up, gaps can be easily identified, pressure can be removed from manual tasks and working days can be prioritised by impact rather than busyness.

Within Ferdia’s system, for example, the development of our co-planner module will significantly reduce time pressure on allocating vehicles and drivers and allow the focus to move to better utilisation and margin increase.

Speaking to AI: The Language of Intent

Another key way the industry will adapt to AI, is by learning how best to “speak” with it.

Think back 25 years to using Microsoft Excel for the first time and not knowing how to run a VLookUp, create a pivot table or sort the data – These were learned skills to make the technology of the day do what we wanted it to. And the same will go for how we speak to AI systems.

Compared to software of the past, AI adapts to the way humans naturally express intent.

In practical terms, this means:

This could even mean that we interact with systems in ways other than the screen – voice activation, augmented reality, camera first, strategy and simulation AI and so on…

A walk around check could be performed using augmented reality, or solely by camera. Customers may request, receive and approve quotes or even sign contracts purely through voice recognition. You may start your working day not by sorting an inbox, but by asking the computer “what should I prioritise today?”

Ferdia’s role as a technology company is to help the transition by teaching the “language of AI” to our partners.

Where to Start as a coach operator

Progress will come from incremental integration of intelligent assistance – embedded into workflows, grounded in data, and controlled by operators.

The best place to start is assessing your current processes and deciding where the most impact can come from on your business. Ferdia are actively seeking input from operators who want to use new technology to create results and welcome dialogue into the best ways to achieve this.

AI will not define the future of the coach industry. But operators who understand how to use it to generate the most impact will.

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Written by Daniel Morton, Country Manager, Ferida UK