Artificial Intelligence in Fuel Delivery 

Our 2023 Tech Trends in Fuel Delivery Report found that fuel delivery leaders want easier, faster, and more straightforward access to data so they can make easier, faster, and more straightforward business decisions. To make this a reality, energy companies are looking into new tech that offers data analysis, automation, streamlined workflows, supply chain management, and digitization.   

One new technology that has emerged in the past year is generative artificial intelligence or AI. Fuel delivery companies are exploring AI as a resource across business functions in the back-office and on the road, wondering what AI can or cannot do for them—and whether AI will cannibalize the jobs of drivers and back-office techs. 

Defining Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for computer systems that can perform tasks that would otherwise require a human, like writing emails, gathering data, or creating graphs and charts. 

What do you think of when someone mentions AI? You might think of YouTube and Netflix algorithms, or virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa. But when we talk about AI in business, we’re looking at two categories: predictive and generative AI.  

Predictive AI is artificial intelligence that analyzes existing data and patterns to predict future outcomes, and it has been around for many years.  

What’s groundbreaking is the emergence of generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence that creates content based on prompts offered by a human. Generative AI bypasses the need for historical data and pattern analysis and is capable of forming new, unique ideas, rather than regurgitating existing ones. 

The latest shift—and the reason for all the AI buzz—is the use of generative AI in business to write emails and analyze data in new and exciting ways. According to McKinsey Insights’ 2023 report on the economic potential of generative AI, “Generative AI has the potential to change the anatomy of work; automating work activities that absorb 60% to 70% of employees’ time today.” 

Adding artificial intelligence to fuel delivery operations won’t cut jobs—instead, it will help real humans do their jobs with less stress and fewer headaches.  

How Fuel Delivery and HVAC Service Companies Can Use AI Today

Some fuel delivery companies are already taking advantage of AI—if you aren’t, here are three ways you can begin implementing AI tools in your fuel and HVAC operations. Some of the most popular tools fuel dealers include ChatGPT, Jasper, and CopyAI for creating written content, as well as DALL·E 3 and Synesthesia for pictures and videos, respectively. 

Use Case 1: Customer Operations 

Imagine you’ve received an email from a dissatisfied customer over a late delivery. Perhaps they’re asking for a discount on their next delivery or simply voicing concerns about your customer care. When responding to an emotionally charged email, it can be tricky to strike the right tone.  

Instead of staring at a blinking cursor, fuel dealers can use AI to draft a response with specific elements, such as a discount offer. 

AI not only helps fuel dealers save time when personalizing outreach, but it also helps deliver faster responses to customers—and speed can be critical when dealing with dissatisfaction. 

Use Case 2: Sales and Marketing Efforts 

Suppose you hope to run a fall HVAC service campaign to encourage tune-ups and installations before winter hits. Creating content takes a lot of legwork—especially if you’re targeting multiple channels like email, direct mail, social media, and digital ads.  

Artificial intelligence can create campaign ideas and write content based on your target audience and the offers you want to put in front of them. Fuel dealers can leave the heavy lifting to AI and focus on personalizing customer interactions.  

Use Case 3: Employee Training 

Did you know AI can create more than written copy? Artificial intelligence has broad applications for content creation, including multimedia content like videos and images. 

For example, imagine your company wants to create a training video for drivers joining in the busy season. The production can take a long time, even if it’s just one of your experienced drivers filming with a cell phone. AI can be used at every step to support quick turnaround on this project. 

Fuel dealers can write out the delivery process and ask AI to create a video script based on it, and they can generate footage using an AI video creation tool—no recording necessary! 

The Potential of AI in Fuel Delivery

What fuel delivery applications does AI offer in the long-term? A look at how companies are using AI now helps us piece together what the future holds for fuel delivery and HVAC service companies that embrace AI. 

Future Use 1: Demand Forecasting 

Forecasting future fuel and HVAC demand is critical in delivering exceptional customer service. Instead of poring over data and manually drilling down into the crests and troughs of your forecasting curve, let AI handle the monotony.  

Artificial intelligence excels at pulling data from disparate systems and mathematically mapping it to provide digestible feedback for humans. In the case of forecasting, fuel dealers can feed historical data to an AI system and receive immediate feedback that predicts propane sales, expected runouts, and other crucial business information. 

And if fuel dealers want to get specific, they can use AI on an account-by-account basis to predict when particular tanks will run out, when maintenance is needed, and more. 

Future Use 2: Process Optimization 

If fuel dealers save one minute every week by eliminating redundant tasks, they save almost an hour by the end of the year. So, how much time can your drivers and back-office team members save by letting AI handle hefty tasks like delivery routing? AI can analyze real-time data, like traffic and weather conditions, to plot the most efficient course  

But optimization isn’t just for deliveries—using AI, service techs can optimize HVAC system settings based on temperature and occupancy. This win-win saves money for your customers and business. 

Future Use 3: Financial Operations 

AI is an incredible resource for accountants and other financial professionals, capable of generating unique reports and risk assessments in minutes. Using AI, fuel delivery accountants can easily create annual budgets that account for multiple variables simultaneously. 

Even if your fuel delivery company’s accounting team doesn’t use AI, consider the cost savings from using it in the other areas we covered: 

• Customer Operations – Improve retention with prompt, personalized outreach 
• Sales and Marketing – Sink less time into planning and less money into outsourced content 
• Forecasting – Identify demand patterns to run leaner operations 
• Employee Training – Get new drivers on the road faster to maximize deliveries 
• Process Optimization: Cut down on fleet costs with optimized routes that maximize daily deliveries and service  

Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence 

Fears of the “tech-pocalypse”—technology taking jobs from humans—have been around for centuries. They’re made worse by the Lump of Labor Fallacy, which suggests that available jobs are finite and that if machines take over work, there will be fewer jobs for humans.  

But we know this hasn’t been true in the past— in the long term, technological innovations have increased jobs. In the case of AI and fuel delivery, we’re still years away from robotic delivery drivers. Right now, fuel delivery companies should focus on the time-saving benefits of AI to increase efficiency and effectiveness, wow customers, and prepare for whatever the future holds.  

AI works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But the software isn’t sentient—it requires human input to produce results. Human ingenuity and motivation keep AI running, and companies need to invest in AI-savvy users to play with these tools as they become more readily available. 

Artificial Intelligence for Fuel Delivery Software

The current and future AI applications for fuel delivery take one of two forms. Either they are standalone systems into which users plug data, or they are embedded in existing operational software. Whatever form a new AI product takes, its availability hinges on the software that your fuel delivery business already uses.  

To date, AI applications have been web- and cloud-based systems, which means they are accessible anytime, anywhere, from any device with an internet connection. Cloud tools aren’t new—you’re likely using the cloud right now, if you use software from providers like Microsoft, HubSpot, Sage, or Salesforce. But if you want to make the most of artificial intelligence for fuel delivery, you’ll need a cloud software environment to adopt and explore these new tools. 

If you want to leverage AI to boost productivity across your fuel delivery business, you need to be on software built on the same platform that these AI tools were built on—cloud-based software. Cargas Energy is built on a cloud platform, and we strive to continuously innovate and evolve to help your business become successful in the years to come.