AI in Transportation Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Sophie Winslow | Last updated: October 26, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Transportation and storage companies in the European Union adopt AI at 55.9% of the economy-wide rate, an Axis Intelligence Research calculation from Eurostat’s 2025 enterprise survey: 11.15% of transport firms use at least one AI technology, against 19.95% of all businesses. In 2021, the same ratio stood at 68.2.
Quick Answer
AI use in transportation is rising, and falling behind at the same time. Eurostat counts 11.15% of EU transport firms using AI in 2025, up from 5.22% in 2021. In Canada the rate was 1.8%. Axis Intelligence Research finds that inside transport firms, logistics ranks fifth of seven AI purposes, behind accounting and finance.
Key Findings
- Axis Intelligence Research’s Transport AI Uptake Ratio (TAUR) for the EU fell from 68.2 in 2021 to 55.9 in 2025: transport firms now adopt AI at just over half the economy-wide rate, based on Eurostat data.
- The AI adoption gap between EU transport firms and the wider economy grew from 2.43 to 8.80 percentage points between 2021 and 2025, a 3.62-fold widening, per Axis Intelligence Research analysis of Eurostat data.
- Only 19.2% of EU transport firms that use AI apply it to logistics, according to Axis Intelligence Research; more transport firms use AI for accounting and finance (2.76%) than for logistics (2.14%), per Eurostat 2025.
- Portugal (TAUR 128.3) and Greece (107.1) are the only EU member states where transport firms adopt AI faster than their national economy, while Finland (34.2) and Sweden (34.7) rank near the bottom, per Axis Intelligence Research.
- The Federal Aviation Administration accounts for 42 of the 59 AI use cases in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s inventory, and 15 of the 59 are deployed, per an Axis Intelligence Research count of DOT data updated September 21, 2026.
How Many Transportation Companies Use AI in 2026?
Between about 2% and 11% of transportation companies use AI in the three jurisdictions where official statistics offices publish a transport figure: 1.8% in Canada, under 10% in the United States and 11.15% across the EU. In all three, the sector sits below the economy-wide average. Transportation and storage covers trucking, rail, air, water transport, warehousing, postal and courier activities (NACE section H in Europe, NAICS 48-49 in North America).
AI adoption in transportation by jurisdiction
| Jurisdiction | Transport firms using AI | All businesses using AI | Survey, period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union (27) | 11.15% | 19.95% | ICT usage in enterprises, 2025 | Eurostat |
| Canada | 1.8% | 12.2% | Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, 12 months to Q2 2025 | Statistics Canada |
| United States | below 10% | 19.8% | Business Trends and Outlook Survey, 2026 | U.S. Census Bureau; transport bound as reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis |
| United Kingdom | not published in ONS’s July 2026 article | about 35% (10+ employees) | Business Insights and Conditions Survey, June 2026 | Office for National Statistics |
Europe. According to Eurostat, 11.15% of EU transportation and storage enterprises with 10 or more employees used at least one AI technology in 2025, up from 8.13% in 2024 and 5.26% in 2023. Only construction (10.79%) posted a lower rate among Eurostat’s main business sections; accommodation and food services sat just above transport at 11.98%.
Canada. Statistics Canada reported that 1.8% of Canadian transportation and warehousing businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the 12 months before its Q2 2025 survey, against 12.2% of all businesses. The agency’s June 2026 release lifted the national rate to 19.2% but did not publish a transportation figure, so the 2025 value is the latest sector reading available.
United States. The U.S. Census Bureau put national business AI use at 19.8% for the period ending May 3, 2026, and at 37% among firms with 250 or more employees. Census researchers group transportation and warehousing among the sectors with “much lower adoption rates” in their April 2026 working paper. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, reading the same survey, places transportation below 10%.
United Kingdom. The Office for National Statistics estimates that about 35% of UK businesses with 10 or more employees used AI in June 2026. Its July 2026 article does not break out transport and storage.
Sophie Winslow, analysis: Every one of these surveys asks a different question — “any AI technology,” “AI to produce goods or services,” “AI in the last two weeks.” That makes the headline rates hard to line up across borders. What does line up is the denominator problem: inside each survey, transport sits near the bottom of the table. When three statistics offices with three questionnaires all land the same sector in the same place, the finding is about the sector, not the wording.
Is the Transportation Industry Falling Behind on AI?
Yes. Transport firms are adopting AI, but more slowly than the rest of the economy, and the distance is growing. Axis Intelligence Research measures that distance with the Transport AI Uptake Ratio (TAUR): the transport sector’s AI adoption rate divided by the economy-wide rate in the same survey and year, multiplied by 100. A TAUR of 100 means transport adopts AI exactly as fast as the average business; 50 means half as fast.
Because both inputs come from the same questionnaire, TAUR cancels out the wording differences that make raw rates hard to compare between countries.
EU transport AI adoption vs the whole economy, 2021–2025
| Year | Transport & storage using AI | All businesses using AI | Gap (pp) | TAUR | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5.22% | 7.65% | 2.43 | 68.2 | Eurostat isoc_eb_ain2; TAUR by Axis Intelligence Research |
| 2023 | 5.26% | 8.06% | 2.80 | 65.3 | Eurostat; Axis Intelligence Research |
| 2024 | 8.13% | 13.48% | 5.35 | 60.3 | Eurostat; Axis Intelligence Research |
| 2025 | 11.15% | 19.95% | 8.80 | 55.9 | Eurostat; Axis Intelligence Research |
Between 2021 and 2025, EU transport firms added 5.93 percentage points of AI adoption while the economy as a whole added 12.30. Axis Intelligence Research calculates that the absolute gap widened 3.62-fold over the period, from 2.43 to 8.80 points.
The comparison closest to home is the factory that builds the vehicles. Eurostat records 23.86% AI adoption among EU manufacturers of motor vehicles, trailers and other transport equipment in 2025, more than twice the 11.15% rate of the firms that operate those vehicles (Axis Intelligence Research ratio: 2.14).
Sophie Winslow, analysis: The 2021 baseline matters more than the 2025 headline. Four years ago transport trailed by two and a half points; the sector looked like a slightly slow adopter. It now trails by almost nine, which makes it a different kind of sector. The generative-AI wave of 2023–2025 landed first in offices — text, code, marketing copy — and a carrier’s value sits in dispatch, yard moves and empty miles, not in documents. Whatever reverses this ratio will have to show up in network planning, not in the back office.
AI Adoption in Transportation by Country: Which Countries Lead?
Transport firms adopt AI faster than their own economy in only two EU member states, Portugal and Greece. In nine of the 27, transport adopts AI at less than half the national rate. The median EU member state scores 59.8 (Estonia).
TAUR by country, 2025 (enterprises with 10+ employees)
| Country | Transport & storage using AI | All businesses using AI | TAUR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serbia | 13.69% | 10.12% | 135.3 |
| Portugal | 14.81% | 11.54% | 128.3 |
| Greece | 9.56% | 8.93% | 107.1 |
| Albania | 8.98% | 8.99% | 99.9 |
| Lithuania | 20.02% | 21.30% | 94.0 |
| Slovakia | 15.78% | 18.00% | 87.7 |
| Malta | 18.55% | 21.51% | 86.2 |
| Ireland | 16.76% | 19.64% | 85.3 |
| Luxembourg | 27.90% | 33.61% | 83.0 |
| Spain | 14.69% | 20.27% | 72.5 |
| Norway | 20.52% | 28.89% | 71.0 |
| Italy | 11.62% | 16.40% | 70.9 |
| Türkiye | 4.98% | 7.41% | 67.2 |
| Bulgaria | 5.71% | 8.55% | 66.8 |
| Belgium | 22.36% | 34.54% | 64.7 |
| Austria | 19.37% | 29.95% | 64.7 |
| Denmark | 26.90% | 42.03% | 64.0 |
| Estonia | 13.99% | 23.40% | 59.8 |
| Cyprus | 5.52% | 9.27% | 59.5 |
| Netherlands | 19.65% | 33.21% | 59.2 |
| Romania | 3.07% | 5.21% | 58.9 |
| Hungary | 5.86% | 10.37% | 56.5 |
| EU-27 | 11.15% | 19.95% | 55.9 |
| France | 8.96% | 18.16% | 49.3 |
| Latvia | 5.90% | 12.21% | 48.3 |
| Germany | 12.22% | 25.97% | 47.1 |
| Slovenia | 8.51% | 21.61% | 39.4 |
| Poland | 2.97% | 8.36% | 35.5 |
| Sweden | 12.17% | 35.04% | 34.7 |
| Czechia | 6.06% | 17.60% | 34.4 |
| Finland | 12.93% | 37.82% | 34.2 |
| Croatia | 4.83% | 15.19% | 31.8 |
Source: Eurostat isoc_eb_ain2, 2025, enterprises using at least one AI technology; TAUR calculated by Axis Intelligence Research. The Netherlands’ economy-wide value carries a Eurostat break-in-series flag.
Which countries’ transport sectors use AI the most?
Luxembourg (27.90%) and Denmark (26.90%) have the highest share of transport firms using AI, followed by Belgium (22.36%), Norway (20.52%) and Lithuania (20.02%). Poland (2.97%) and Romania (3.07%) have the lowest.
Why do AI-leading economies score low on TAUR?
High national AI adoption does not carry over to transport. Finland and Sweden rank second and third in the EU for economy-wide AI use (37.82% and 35.04%), yet their transport sectors adopt at roughly a third of that pace. Germany and France both fall below 50.
Sophie Winslow, analysis: A low TAUR in Finland and a low TAUR in Croatia are not the same problem. In Croatia, both numbers are low, and transport is simply further down a short ladder. In Finland, the rest of the economy has climbed fast and the haulage and logistics base has not followed. For a fleet operator, that is the more useful reading: in Nordic markets, the vendors and talent exist next door, so the constraint is inside the sector — margins, fleet size, legacy dispatch software. Portugal points the other way: a modest national rate with a transport sector ahead of it, which makes it the country worth studying before anyone writes a playbook.
What Do Transportation Companies Actually Use AI For?
Mostly for the back office. Among EU transport and storage firms in 2025, Eurostat records AI use for business administration (3.46% of firms), accounting and finance (2.76%), ICT security (2.39%) and marketing or sales (2.38%) ahead of logistics (2.14%).
AI purposes in EU transport firms vs all businesses, 2025
| Purpose of AI use | Transport & storage | All businesses | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business administration or management | 3.46% | 6.19% | Eurostat |
| Accounting, controlling or finance | 2.76% | 4.61% | Eurostat |
| ICT security | 2.39% | 3.94% | Eurostat |
| Marketing or sales | 2.38% | 6.92% | Eurostat |
| Logistics | 2.14% | 1.21% | Eurostat |
| Production processes | 1.74% | 4.14% | Eurostat |
| R&D or innovation | 1.00% | 3.80% | Eurostat |
Values are shares of all enterprises in each group, not of AI users.
The logistics gap
Logistics is the one purpose where transport firms beat the average business (2.14% vs 1.21%). But measured against transport’s own AI users, it is a minority use. Axis Intelligence Research calculates that 19.2% of EU transport firms using AI apply it to logistics (2.14 ÷ 11.15), compared with 6.1% of AI users across the economy — a figure that matches Eurostat’s own 6.08%.
Put plainly: roughly four in five transport companies that have adopted AI have not pointed it at moving freight or people.
Which AI technologies do transport firms use?
| AI technology | Transport & storage | All businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Text mining (analysis of written language) | 5.92% | 11.75% |
| Speech recognition | 4.04% | 7.22% |
| Image, video or audio generation | 4.01% | 9.55% |
| Natural language or code generation | 3.92% | 8.76% |
| AI-based robotic process automation | 2.78% | 5.35% |
| Machine learning for data analysis | 2.69% | 5.10% |
| Image recognition | 2.25% | 3.78% |
| Autonomous robots, self-driving vehicles, autonomous drones | 0.85% | 1.39% |
Source: Eurostat isoc_eb_ain2, EU-27, 2025.
Transport firms are less likely than the average business to use autonomous robots, self-driving vehicles or drones: 0.85% against 1.39%. The technology most associated with the sector in public debate is the one its operators use least.
Sophie Winslow, analysis: Machine learning for data analysis — the family behind demand forecasting, ETA prediction and lane pricing — reaches 2.69% of transport firms. Text mining reaches 5.92%. That ranking tells you where the easy wins went: invoices, proof-of-delivery paperwork, customer emails. The harder work is the operating model. Route optimisation needs clean telematics, consistent stop data and a dispatcher who trusts the output; none of that arrives with a software licence.
Why Don’t More Transport and Logistics Firms Use AI?
Lack of expertise is the barrier cited most often by EU transport firms that don’t use AI: 6.05% of all transport enterprises name it, ahead of unclear legal consequences (4.47%) and data-protection concerns (4.45%). Eurostat also counts 8.92% of transport firms that considered AI but did not adopt it.
| Reason for not using AI | Transport & storage | All businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Lack of relevant expertise | 6.05% | 7.76% |
| Lack of clarity about legal consequences | 4.47% | 5.92% |
| Data protection and privacy concerns | 4.45% | 5.82% |
| Data availability or quality | 3.93% | 4.80% |
| Incompatibility with existing equipment, software or systems | 3.77% | 4.59% |
| Costs seem too high | 3.45% | 4.24% |
| Ethical considerations | 2.34% | 2.72% |
| AI not useful for the enterprise | 1.93% | 1.96% |
Source: Eurostat isoc_eb_ain2, EU-27, 2025. Shares of all enterprises in each group.
Only 1.93% of transport firms say AI is simply not useful to them, almost exactly the economy-wide 1.96%. The sector is not rejecting the technology on principle; it is short on the people and data to deploy it.
How Is the U.S. Department of Transportation Using AI?
Mostly through aviation. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s federal AI use case inventory lists 59 use cases, and the Federal Aviation Administration owns 42 of them (71.2%), according to an Axis Intelligence Research count of the DOT dataset as updated September 21, 2026. Only 15 are deployed; 43 are in pre-deployment and one is a pilot.
DOT AI use cases by operating administration
| DOT component | AI use cases | Deployed |
|---|---|---|
| FAA (all offices) | 42 | 11 |
| — of which Air Traffic Organization | 22 | 8 |
| — of which Aviation Safety | 9 | 1 |
| Chief AI Officer–led groups (with Volpe, OST-R) | 5 | 1 |
| Office of the Secretary | 4 | 3 |
| Federal Railroad Administration | 3 | 0 |
| Federal Highway Administration (incl. Turner-Fairbank) | 3 | 0 |
| NHTSA | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 59 | 15 |
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, AI use case inventory (data.transportation.gov dataset anj8-k6f5). Counts by Axis Intelligence Research.
Of the 48 use cases DOT tags with the “Transportation” topic, 10 are deployed (20.8%). Use cases tagged “Administrative Functions” are deployed at a higher rate: 5 of 11. None of the 59 is flagged as high-impact under OMB’s reporting rules. The inventory contains no use case from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration or the Maritime Administration.
The 11 deployed FAA systems include safety analytics listed by name in the inventory: an Airborne Safety Metric, a Surface Safety Metric, a surface report classifier and a tool that identifies similar Continued Operational Safety events.
One labeling detail for anyone downloading the file: DOT’s data portal currently titles the dataset “Inventory of Super Intelligence Use Cases,” while its description cites the AI reporting rules of the Advancing American AI Act and OMB Memorandum M-25-21. The portal holds 70 rows; 59 carry a use case identifier, and those 59 are what Axis Intelligence Research counts.
How does the FAA plan to certify AI in aircraft?
The FAA’s Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Safety Assurance (Version I) sets seven guiding principles, including differentiating “learned” from “learning” AI, taking an incremental approach, and avoiding personification of AI systems. The roadmap governs certification of AI in aircraft and aviation systems rather than the agency’s internal tools.
Sophie Winslow, analysis: Forty-two of 59 is a portfolio decision, whether or not anyone made it deliberately. Aviation runs on filed plans, tracked flights and mandatory safety reports, so its data is ready for models before anyone asks. The empty rows are the interesting ones: motor carrier oversight and transit, the parts of the department closest to the trucking and bus operators in the Eurostat and StatCan numbers, contribute nothing to the inventory. The ratio of pre-deployment to deployed, 43 to 15, is the number to watch on the next update.
How Many Transportation Jobs Are Exposed to AI?
About 1.1 million full-time-equivalent workers in U.S. transportation perform tasks that AI could significantly affect, according to the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. Its June 2025 briefing for the Transportation Research Board found 186 of 990 transportation tasks highly exposed to AI, touching 44 of the 51 jobs studied. No job had all of its tasks highly exposed.
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation tasks analyzed | 990 | MIT CTL |
| Tasks highly exposed to AI | 186 | MIT CTL |
| FTEs in highly exposed tasks | about 1.1 million | MIT CTL |
| Jobs with at least one highly exposed task | 44 of 51 | MIT CTL |
| Annual wage bill, highly exposed tasks | $65.5 billion | MIT CTL |
| Total sector wage bill, 2024 | $290.4 billion | MIT CTL |
| Exposed share of wage bill | 22.6% | Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
Axis Intelligence Research calculates that the highly exposed tasks represent 22.6% of the sector’s 2024 wage bill ($65.5 billion ÷ $290.4 billion). MIT CTL’s own scenarios put annual savings at $3.3 billion with a 5% productivity gain on those tasks, $9.8 billion at 15% and $16.4 billion at 25%.
Sophie Winslow, analysis: Exposure is a task measure, not a headcount forecast, and MIT CTL is careful about that. The 15% scenario, $9.8 billion, is a useful order of magnitude for a sector whose labor bill is $290.4 billion: meaningful, but a fraction of the payroll. The savings sit in dispatch, scheduling and paperwork long before they reach the cab.
Autonomous Trucking Statistics: How Far Have Driverless Trucks Gone?
Aurora Innovation says its trucks have completed nearly 440,000 driverless miles through the end of June 2026, on 10 commercial routes across the U.S. Sun Belt, according to its July 22, 2026 announcement. The figures are company-reported. Aurora also targets an annual production run-rate of 1,000 trucks by the end of 2026 with manufacturing partner Roush — a target, not a delivered fleet.
For passenger autonomy, Axis Intelligence Research tracks rides, fleets and safety records separately in its robotaxi statistics, self-driving car statistics and Waymo statistics. Drone logistics volumes are covered in drone delivery statistics.
Sophie Winslow, analysis: Set 440,000 driverless miles against the Eurostat number from earlier: 0.85% of EU transport firms use any form of autonomous vehicle or robot. Autonomous freight is real, measurable and, for now, the business of a handful of developers and their launch shippers, not of the median carrier. The run-rate target is the figure to check against Aurora’s next filing.
AI and Road Safety: What Baseline Will AI Be Measured Against?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 36,640 people died in U.S. motor vehicle crashes in 2025, down about 6.7% from 39,254 in 2024. The fatality rate fell to 1.10 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, from 1.19.
That rate is the baseline every safety claim for AI driver assistance, automated enforcement or autonomous driving will eventually be judged against. A claim that does not state its mileage denominator cannot be compared with it.
When Do EU AI Act Rules Apply to Transport AI?
High-risk obligations for AI used as safety components in road traffic management will apply from December 2, 2027, and the date for high-risk systems classified through the AI Act’s Annex I product list moves to August 2, 2028. Both dates were set by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the “Digital Omnibus on AI,” adopted on July 8, 2026 and in force since July 27, 2026.
| Transport AI category | AI Act route | High-risk obligations apply from | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety components in the management and operation of road traffic | Annex III, point 2 | December 2, 2027 | Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 |
| AI in products covered by EU transport product law: motor vehicles and trailers, two- and three-wheelers, agricultural vehicles, rail, marine equipment, civil aviation security, unmanned aircraft | Annex I, Section B (requirements reach these products through sectoral rules) | August 2, 2028 (Annex I date) | Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 |
The AI Act’s Annex III lists road traffic alongside critical digital infrastructure and water, gas, heating and electricity supply. Axis Intelligence Research counts that eight of the nine legal acts in Annex I, Section B govern transport: vehicles, rail, marine equipment, civil aviation security or unmanned aircraft; the ninth is the machinery regulation. For these products, AI Act requirements arrive through the sectoral type-approval and aviation rules, which is why the omnibus also amended the EU aviation safety regulation, (EU) 2018/1139. For a country-by-country view of AI rules, see Axis Intelligence Research’s AI regulation by country.
Sophie Winslow, analysis: Transport is the sector the AI Act leans on hardest through product law. A road authority buying adaptive signal control has until late 2027; a vehicle maker has until mid-2028. Put that next to a TAUR of 55.9, and the compliance calendar is moving faster than most operators’ adoption.
Methodology
Axis Intelligence Research assembled this dataset on October 26, 2026, from official statistics, regulatory texts, a federal agency inventory, university research and one company disclosure. Every figure was retrieved from its producer.
Eurostat. Sector and country values come from the dataset isoc_eb_ain2 (enterprises with 10 or more persons employed, NACE Rev. 2), queried through Eurostat’s dissemination API for transportation and storage (section H) and for all activities excluding agriculture, mining and the financial sector (aggregate C10-S951_X_K). Axis Intelligence Research re-queried seven country values individually to confirm the bulk extraction.
Transport AI Uptake Ratio (TAUR). TAUR = (share of transport-sector businesses using AI ÷ share of all businesses using AI) × 100, with both shares taken from the same survey, jurisdiction and period. The EU and country readings use Eurostat’s “at least one AI technology” indicator. The Canada reading uses Statistics Canada’s current-use question; a second Canadian ratio (45.5) uses expected use over the next 12 months and is labeled separately. The U.S. figure (below 50.5) is a ceiling estimate: the Minneapolis Fed’s “below 10%” transport bound divided by Census’s 19.8% national rate.
Reading the ratio correctly. TAUR compares a sector with its own economy, not countries with each other: a TAUR of 128.3 in Portugal does not mean Portuguese carriers use more AI than Danish ones (14.81% vs 26.90%). Eurostat purpose and barrier values are shares of all enterprises in each group; the 19.2% logistics share is derived by dividing the logistics value by the any-AI value.
DOT inventory. Counts come from aggregate queries of data.transportation.gov dataset anj8-k6f5, grouped by bureau, development stage and topic area. FAA totals sum the AJO, AVS, AFN, AGC, ANG, AHR and APL offices. The five Chief AI Officer–led entries include two listed as “CAIO,” two as “CAIO, HASS, Volpe” and one as “CAIO, Volpe, OST-R.”
Other sources. MIT CTL, NHTSA and Aurora figures are reported as published; Aurora’s are labeled company-reported. Market-size estimates for “AI in transportation” are not included: the reports in circulation do not disclose methods that allow their numbers to be reproduced.
About This Dataset
The file ai-in-transportation-statistics.csv contains every number on this page, one observation per row, with value, unit, as-of date, reference period, geography, segment, source organization, source document, source URL, retrieval date, a primary-source flag, an Axis-calculated flag and the formula for every calculated row. It is released under CC BY 4.0 and mirrored on Hugging Face, Kaggle and GitHub.
This page is updated when its inputs change, not on a calendar. Rows from Statistics Canada and MIT CTL are older than six months because no newer transport-specific release exists; they are flagged in the file.
How to Cite This Page
APA
Axis Intelligence Research, & Winslow, S. (2026, October 26). AI in transportation statistics 2026: Adoption rates, the logistics gap and where AI actually runs. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/ai-in-transportation-statistics/
MLA
Axis Intelligence Research, and Sophie Winslow. "AI in Transportation Statistics 2026: Adoption Rates, the Logistics Gap and Where AI Actually Runs." Axis Intelligence, 26 Oct. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/ai-in-transportation-statistics/.
Chicago
Axis Intelligence Research, and Sophie Winslow. "AI in Transportation Statistics 2026: Adoption Rates, the Logistics Gap and Where AI Actually Runs." Axis Intelligence, October 26, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/ai-in-transportation-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions About AI in Transportation
What percentage of transportation companies use AI?
In the EU, 11.15% of transportation and storage firms with 10 or more employees used at least one AI technology in 2025, according to Eurostat. In Canada, Statistics Canada measured 1.8% for transportation and warehousing in its Q2 2025 survey. In the U.S., the Minneapolis Fed reports the sector below 10% in Census Bureau data.
Is AI adoption in transportation growing?
Yes, but more slowly than in the wider economy. EU transport firms more than doubled AI use from 5.22% in 2021 to 11.15% in 2025, per Eurostat. Over the same years the economy-wide rate rose from 7.65% to 19.95%, so Axis Intelligence Research’s Transport AI Uptake Ratio fell from 68.2 to 55.9.
Do trucking and logistics companies use AI for route planning?
Few do. Eurostat finds 2.14% of EU transport firms use AI for logistics, the category that covers route planning and fleet scheduling. Axis Intelligence Research calculates that this is 19.2% of transport firms using any AI; the rest apply it mainly to administration, finance, security and marketing.
Which European country’s transport sector uses AI the most?
Luxembourg, with 27.90% of transport and storage firms using AI in 2025, followed by Denmark at 26.90%, per Eurostat. Relative to its own economy, Portugal leads the EU with a Transport AI Uptake Ratio of 128.3, per Axis Intelligence Research.
Why are transport companies slower to adopt AI than other industries?
EU transport firms that don’t use AI most often cite a lack of expertise (6.05% of transport firms), unclear legal consequences (4.47%) and data-protection concerns (4.45%), per Eurostat 2025. Only 1.93% say AI is not useful to them, nearly the same as the economy-wide 1.96%.
How many AI use cases does the U.S. Department of Transportation report?
DOT’s AI use case inventory lists 59 use cases as of its September 21, 2026 update, per an Axis Intelligence Research count. The FAA accounts for 42 of them; 15 of the 59 are deployed and none is flagged as high-impact.
When does the EU AI Act apply to AI in traffic management and vehicles?
Under Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, high-risk obligations apply from December 2, 2027 for AI used as safety components in road traffic management (Annex III). The date for Annex I products moves to August 2, 2028; for vehicles, rail, marine equipment and unmanned aircraft, the requirements reach products through EU sectoral rules.
How many driverless miles have autonomous trucks driven?
Aurora Innovation reported nearly 440,000 driverless miles through the end of June 2026, on 10 U.S. commercial routes, in a company announcement on July 22, 2026. The figure is company-reported and covers Aurora’s fleet only.
How many transportation jobs could AI affect?
MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics found 186 of 990 U.S. transportation tasks highly exposed to AI, equal to about 1.1 million full-time-equivalent workers and $65.5 billion in annual wages (June 2025). Axis Intelligence Research calculates that this is 22.6% of the sector’s $290.4 billion wage bill.
Related Axis Intelligence Research pages: AI adoption by industry · Smart city mobility statistics · Warehouse automation statistics · Connected car market · AI in air traffic management · Uber statistics · AI job displacement statistics