Logistics is already one of the sectors putting technology to work on the floor. Government research notes that sectors like retail and logistics were already actively integrating AI to improve customer insights and streamline functions such as inventory management and supply chains GOV.UK's AI adoption research. That shift changes the kind of people a depot needs, not just the tools they use.
The demand signal is clear across related sectors too. In manufacturing, six in ten (59%) employers cited automation and half (50%) cited wider digitalisation as trends changing jobs and skills needs, and 74% expect demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030 Make UK's 2030 skills report. Those cognitive and people-facing skills are exactly what a depot floor relies on when the technology arrives.
There's room to grow, as well. The UK used only 101 industrial robots per 10,000 workers in 2020, which substantially lags international peers the UK's Smart Machines Strategy 2035. As that automation gap closes, the number of people who can lead teams through the change becomes the real bottleneck, not the hardware.
Picture the roles on a depot shift: pickers, drivers, forklift operators, inventory controllers. Above them sit the people who make it all run, the shift supervisors, team leaders and depot managers. As machines take on more of the repetitive handling, the value of these leadership roles rises rather than falls.
The wider labour market backs this up. For AI-related occupations, the net change ranges from approximately 696,000 jobs in the Automation Scenario to 1,072,000 in the Technological Opportunities Scenario, with replacement demand rising from 3,077,000 to 3,193,000 jobs across these scenarios GOV.UK's AI skills labour market projections. In plain terms: roles change, and the need to replace and lead people keeps growing.
So the hard skill in a depot isn't lifting or scanning. It's leadership: setting the pace of a shift, coaching a new starter, holding safety and quality standards, and keeping a team calm and motivated when a new system goes live. An algorithm can schedule the shift. It can't earn the trust of the people working it.
Start with the behaviours, not the job title. Write down what good looks like on a live shift: how a supervisor handles a backlog, a near miss, or a colleague who's struggling. Then interview against those moments with real scenarios rather than generic questions.
Move quickly once you find someone who fits. Strong people leaders don't stay on the market long, so a slow process is how you lose them. Keep the steps tight, give clear feedback, and make the decision while the person is still interested.
We built our AI recruitment agent to do the heavy lifting around a hire so you can focus on judging the human qualities a depot needs. We search a database of 15 million candidates, surface a ranked shortlist, and handle outreach and interview booking end to end, so you spend your time with the supervisors and managers who can actually lead a floor.
Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. That's it: you pay when we find the right person and manage the recruitment for you. Ready to find your next depot leader? Tell us what good looks like and Reed.ai will start the search today.
