What WON’T Be a Trend in Logistics in 2026?

The beginning of the year is usually a time for optimistic visions of the future and predicting trends that are finally supposed to deliver long-awaited revolutions. Typically, we observe these with interest, but this year, we are putting them to the test.

We’ve compiled a list of what we believe has stopped being treated as a “real” trend in logistics, making way for cold, hard business pragmatism.

AI as a Hollow Marketing Slogan

In 2026, the “AI-powered” tag in a system’s pitch has lost its selling power. The era of purchasing Artificial Intelligence as a trendy but ill-defined add-on is over. Today, AI has become transparent technology – it is simply expected to work in the background, much like the electricity in a warehouse.

Companies have stopped asking whether a system “has algorithms” and have started holding providers accountable for specific, measurable outcomes.

The Blockchain Hype in Supply Chain

We all remember the predictions that blockchain would “save” logistics. We even wrote about it ourselves. By 2026, that enthusiasm has cooled significantly. Real-world practice has shown that for most logistics applications, well-integrated databases and efficient API protocols are more than sufficient.

Blockchain hasn’t vanished entirely, but it has ceased to be a universal trend. It has retreated into specialized niches, such as:

• High-value luxury goods and fine art transport.
• Strict provenance and chain-of-custody tracking in pharmaceuticals.

In mass-market logistics, blockchain lost the battle to simpler, more cost-effective methods of digital data exchange.

Mass-Scale Drone Deliveries

The vision of skies darkened by drones delivering parcels and pizza to every doorstep remains science fiction in 2026. Hurdles in aviation law, urban noise pollution, and limited payload capacities have kept drones as a specialist solution (e.g., emergency services or deliveries to hard-to-reach locations).

In urban logistics, “down-to-earth” and scalable solutions like automated parcel lockers and cargo bikes have won the day. Drones, as a mass trend, have officially been moved back to the “technological waiting room.”

The Death of Greenwashing in Favor of Real ESG Reporting

In 2026, “declarative ecology”-marketing fluff devoid of hard data-is no longer a trend. This isn’t necessarily due to corporate goodwill, but rather the result of stringent EU environmental accountability regulations. Rigorous transparency and reporting requirements, such as the CS3D directive, have come into full force.

Greenwashing has become a dangerous legal and financial liability. By 2026, banks and investment funds have tied financing conditions to tangible progress in decarbonization, transforming “green logistics” into a rigorous mathematical discipline.

The End of the Traditional Licensing Era

In 2026, the traditional model of purchasing software as a capital asset (perpetual licenses installed on local servers) has become an “anti-trend.” Logistics firms are migrating en masse toward the Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) model, which covers not just software (SaaS), but infrastructure and even robotics.

The primary driver of this shift is the need for agility. In a world where demand can spike by several hundred percent over a single promotional weekend, maintaining rigid IT infrastructure is a liability. In 2026, logistics has become an “on-demand” service. Companies still tethered to long-term maintenance contracts for their own legacy data centers are losing their ability to adapt to the market.

The outlook presented above is a subjective assessment of the market at the start of 2026. It points to one key direction: logistics is shedding its gadgets and becoming ruthlessly pragmatic. The winners are those with clean data and stable processes, not those with the most “tech buzzwords” in their sales deck.