What We Heard: Technology Diffusion in Action

Executive Summary: What We Heard

On June 3, 2026, approximately fifty senior leaders from across Canada’s supply chain and logistics sector gathered at the ALCoE Executive Exchange Roundtable during CITT 2026 under the theme Technology Diffusion in Action. The session was intentionally designed as a peer exchange. A short case study established a common starting point, followed by moderated table discussions focused on participants’ direct experience with technology adoption. There was no formal panel and no attempt to drive the room toward a predetermined answer. The value of the exchange lay in experienced operators comparing what adoption looks like in practice.

The opening case study was presented by Eagle AI and Maybach Consulting and examined a computer-vision gate and yard automation initiative at a PepsiCo facility. It served as a practical reference point for the three-hour discussion: a concrete example of adoption that the room could assess against its own operating realities. Participants engaged the example directly, and in several cases challenged its assumptions or applicability. Those points of tension are reflected throughout this brief.

What follows is a synthesis of what was heard across the discussion. It is organized around the four questions explored at the tables and stays close to the substance of the conversation rather than forcing it into a single conclusion. The room did not converge on one answer, nor would that have been realistic. What emerged instead was a grounded picture of how many conditions have to align at once for technology adoption to succeed.

One of the clearest signals from the discussion was the depth of the peer-to-peer exchange. Participants moved quickly past the basic question of whether technology has value and focused instead on the operational, financial, and organizational realities that determine whether adoption advances or stalls. The considerations that consistently surfaced included:

A notable feature of the exchange was how often different tables arrived at the same considerations. The room represented a wide range of operating contexts, including ports and terminals, rail, trucking, warehousing, brewing, parcel, pallet pooling, economic development, and brokerage. Participants were seated in different combinations of sector and scale, yet many of the same themes surfaced independently and in different languages. That level of convergence is itself significant.

The brief that follows works through the four questions in turn: the attention trade-off, or what technology has to compete with and what typically wins; what it takes to move, and how leaders recognize the right moment; the real bottlenecks, including where external support could materially help; and the horizon, meaning what meaningful progress over the next year would look like and what organizations risk by standing still. Throughout, it notes both where the room converged and where individual tables raised issues that were more distinctive.