Accountability, critical pondering skills, and safety are in danger when fleets rely too heavily on AI.
Let’s start with AI — and the increasingly concerning tendency to trust software that’s accountable to nobody.
Take into consideration an expert in a fleet or safety role. Your job is to weigh context: prevailing laws, company culture, internal policies, budgets, and your personal experience built over time through education, networking, and collaboration.
Now consider how technology has been steadily integrated to enhance compliance with safety policies and fleet best practices. These efficiencies allow fewer experts to administer more vehicles and employees — and there’s nothing improper with that. But there’s a limit to how much you must outsource to AI.
While it’s tempting to depend on AI agents to discover risks or inefficiencies, what you give up in return is your critical pondering — and, more importantly, your organization’s accountability. Best practices in fleet and safety aren’t algorithms; they’re the results of people sharing experience, learning, and refining approaches through the years.
Those practices evolve through professionals who engage with associations corresponding to NAFA, NETS, and AFLA, and thru attending our own BBM events, corresponding to the Fleet Forward Conference and Government Fleet Expo. As we embrace latest AI-enabled tools, we must also stay grounded in real-world discussion and peer learning. That’s why in 2026, our Fleet Fast Podcast on Spotify will feature over 40 hours of sessions recorded at Fleet Forward Conference — so the human dialogue stays central.
Quick Pulse Check
As 2026 begins, budgets are set, and compromises loom. You have got two decisions:
Subscribe to software that uses AI to guide management decisions because it learns out of your data, or
Hire an intern — spend money on an individual — and pass along your experience as you make decisions yourself.
You almost certainly can’t afford to do each.
I’ll admit my bias: I really like technology. I’ve helped organizations deploy data-driven systems that delivered remarkable safety and efficiency gains. But none of that relied on AI to make the choices — it was expert professionals interpreting data who produced the outcomes. That said, in 2026, I’d pick an intern over an AI upgrade.
So, here’s the actual query: if you happen to had to make a choice from an AI platform that might replace your critical-thinking value, or a human you could possibly mentor toward succession, each costing the identical, which might you select?
The Human Edge
Are you ready to learn and retain knowledge — or only to ask prompts and accept whatever response comes back?
The less we practice retaining knowledge, the harder it becomes. You may feel efficient multitasking through prompts, but your software will all the time be the higher multitasker. Every time you train AI by rewarding its responses, you’re also training your personal alternative.
For now, your value lies within the knowledge you share — but inside a yr or two, if you happen to don’t evolve, chances are you’ll end up needing a very latest role.
Within the short term, your organization wins. In the long run, each you and your organization lose if mentorship and human judgment fade away.
As you weigh your decisions — mentoring latest people versus investing in additional software — remember: You possibly can’t technology your way into a security culture. You possibly can’t technology your way into efficiency growth. And you’ll be able to’t technology your way into 2026.
It’s here, it’s real — and we’re on this together.
This Article First Appeared At www.automotive-fleet.com
