AI ROI: Why 90% Satisfaction Still Means Leaders Want MORE!

A new Sparq report reveals a surprising trend: most transportation and logistics leaders are satisfied with their AI and technology investments, with 90% reporting met or exceeded ROI expectations. Yet, a significant 62% are pushing vendors for faster payback. This raises a critical question about the future of tech adoption in the industry. Scott Monnig, Chief Client Officer at Sparq, discusses the report’s findings, highlighting the shift from ‘proof of concept’ to ‘proof of value’ and the challenges of integrating disparate data systems to unlock AI’s full potential.

Nine in 10 transportation and logistics leaders say their technology and AI investments have met or exceeded ROI expectations heading into 2026, according to an inaugural industry report from Sparq. Yet 62% of those same leaders want faster payback from vendors — a tension that defines where the sector stands as AI moves from proof of concept to proof of value.

The survey covered brokers, truckers, parcel carriers, and last-mile delivery companies, with more than 300 participants. Over 50% were direct decision-makers on technology investment, another 40% were influencers in those decisions, and 90% of respondents were director level or higher, according to Sparq’s Chief Client Officer.

“This isn’t our opinion. This isn’t the opinion of vendors in the room here. These are self-reported results from the technology decision-makers — and the set that we interviewed, over 300 folks participated in the survey,” said Sparq’s Chief Client Officer.

Looking ahead to 2027, roughly 90% of survey respondents expect their AI and technology budgets to increase. Even so, approximately 20% still consider themselves budget-constrained. The top operational challenge cited was legacy systems, flagged by 25% of respondents, followed by data quality and talent gaps. Fuel costs ranked as the leading external pressure, with labor costs close behind.

The report’s primary recommendation is that investments be tied directly to measurable business outcomes rather than technology milestones. “What organizations are really wanting is evidence, proof that the investments that they’re making are generating those ROIs,” Sparq’s Chief Client Officer said. Data infrastructure was identified as a foundational priority for 2027 spending, with leaders comfortable in their existing data systems but dissatisfied with the quality of insights those systems produce.

Forecasting confidence surfaced as a specific gap. While 90% of respondents said they are ready or mostly ready for the 2025 holiday peak season, only 6 in 10 have implemented formal forecasting systems — and of those, just half said they are confident in the results. Leaders expressed reasonable confidence over a two-to-three-month horizon but far less certainty when asked to project two to three quarters out, a finding consistent with broader shipper concerns about demand planning.

Sparq’s Chief Client Officer pointed to MCP technologies and natural language processing as areas where 2027 investment is expected to concentrate, enabling organizations to connect siloed data systems and surface actionable insights for dispatch and operations teams. “When you have a fabric of data context about your organization — about your business, your loads, your drivers, your routes, your rates — when you weave all of that together, then the AI value can really accelerate,” the Chief Client Officer said. The full survey is available at teamspark.com.

• 90% of T&L technology decision-makers say AI investments met or exceeded ROI expectations, based on self-reported results from 300+ survey participants who are director level or higher.
• 62% of leaders want faster payback; ~90% expect AI and tech budgets to rise in 2027, even as ~20% say they remain budget-constrained.
• Only half of the 60% of respondents who have implemented forecasting systems are confident in their results, highlighting a persistent demand-planning gap.

This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.