Tangier Logistics Days: Integrating AI and Human Expertise in Supply Chain Management
- Tanger Med port logistics executives gathered at the Tanger Med Port Center for the eighth edition of the Tangier Logistics Days, focusing on artificial intelligence, data exploitation, and...
- The growth momentum continued through the first six months of 2026, with the facility handling 84 million tonnes, representing a 6 percent rise.
- Idriss Aarabi, Director General of Tanger Med Port Authority Aarabi noted that utilizing large datasets creates governance challenges involving information sharing, data quality, security, and digital sovereignty.
Tanger Med port logistics executives gathered at the Tanger Med Port Center for the eighth edition of the Tangier Logistics Days, focusing on artificial intelligence, data exploitation, and human skills in modern supply chains. The port complex expanded its operations significantly, handling over 11 million equivalent twenty-foot units in 2025, which marked an 8.4 percent increase, while total traffic reached 161 million tonnes.
Port Performance and Infrastructure Data
The growth momentum continued through the first six months of 2026, with the facility handling 84 million tonnes, representing a 6 percent rise. Idriss Aarabi, Director General of Tanger Med Port Authority, attributed these operational results to the coordination among various platform operators. In this networked environment, information flow has achieved parity with physical infrastructure.
Data has become an infrastructure, just like a quay.
Idriss Aarabi, Director General of Tanger Med Port Authority Aarabi noted that utilizing large datasets creates governance challenges involving information sharing, data quality, security, and digital sovereignty. Port installations face constant exposure to cyber risks.
Supply Chain Volatility and Advanced Forecasting
Knut Alicke, Senior Advisor at McKinsey and professor at the University of Cologne and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, addressed the logistics sector amid heightened market instability. Supply chain operators must manage increased market volatility, geopolitical friction, and rapidly shifting trade policies. Accurate forecasting has become a core element of supply chain management under these conditions. Artificial intelligence tools allow firms to process larger volumes of variables, run multiple scenarios, and adjust operational decisions rapidly. Shifts in customs duties exemplify this growing complexity, requiring firms to maintain detailed visibility over product origins, supplier networks, and routing structures.
Human Judgment and Technological Complementarity
Despite expanded automation, event organizers emphasized that technology supplements rather than replaces human decision-making. Aarabi stressed the irreplaceable nature of professional judgment in automated systems.
No algorithm replaces judgment.
Idriss Aarabi, Director General of Tanger Med Port Authority While algorithms can calculate figures, generate proposals, or flag anomalies, the ultimate responsibility for operational arbitration remains human. This balance formed the core theme of the conference, which featured panels with executives from DHL, Alstom, Tanger Med Port Authority, OCP Group, Diagma, and Sia Partners. Discussions centered on operational AI integration, shifting job profiles, modern management frameworks, and data mastery. The conference introduced a workshop on Vibe Coding, giving attendees practical testing grounds for supply chain artificial intelligence applications. At Tanger Med, technological advancement extends past simple automation to improve analytical capacity, provided that data governance and human expertise remain strong.