From paper to AI - how Samsara is helping agriculture, food distribution, and chemical companies digitize operations

For decades, entire industries that rely on physical operations have carried out work on clipboards, paper logs, and manual processes. While office workers embraced digital transformation, drivers climbed ladders to check tank levels, dispatchers managed with paper routes, and safety managers reviewed incidents weeks after they occurred. 

At Samsara's Beyond conference in San Diego this week, however, three enterprises shared how they're navigating a transformation from pen-and-paper processes to AI-powered operations. A customer panel brought together leaders from sectors where technology adoption has traditionally been slow: Kyle Springs from agricultural giant Nutrien, Kevin Thomas from food distributor Sysco, and Rob McRae from chemical distributor Univar Solutions.

What became apparent from their discussion was how they've all aligned on similar approaches despite operating in vastly different industries. They're not trying to revolutionize everything at once. Instead, they've found that starting with safety - an area where ROI is immediate and clear - creates a foundation for tackling bigger operational challenges.

The challenge

The scale of operations these companies manage helps explain why digital transformation in these sectors presents unique challenges. Nutrien, as Springs explained, is "the largest agricultural retailer in the world," operating across 500 million acres globally with over 500,000 customers. The company delivers agricultural inputs to farms that often lack physical addresses - locations described by Springs as often being along the lines of "the Anderson farm plot 17 that they bought from the Smiths, that's just past the large oak tree on the right."

Sysco operates approximately 17,000 tractor trailers daily, serving 200,000 customers across North America, Latin America, and Europe. As critical infrastructure with 76,000 employees, the company faces the dual challenge of maintaining safety standards while meeting complex delivery obligations.

Univar Solutions manages "several hundred facilities around the globe" as the largest chemical distributor in North America. The nature of their cargo - chemicals that "can go boom, can burn, and can hurt" - adds layers of complexity to their safety and operational requirements.

These aren't organizations that can afford to experiment with unproven technology. Every operational decision impacts safety, efficiency, and in many cases, regulatory compliance. However, all three have found success with Samsara's platform to connect and digitalize operations.

Starting with safety

Each company's journey began with safety - the use case that they all saw delivered the most immediate and measurable value. This aligns with what Samsara CTO John Bicket described to me this week as the "wedge" strategy: safety programs show clear ROI that organizations can implement them quickly and see results within months.

For Univar Solutions, the safety story is particularly acute. As McRae described: 

If you're on top of a tanker filling up hydrochloric acid at two in the morning and you're alone., what recourse do you have if you slip and fall? Or if you're in  British Columbia, and you're offloading a rail car, and somebody is down below 150 feet away, and they can't hear it over the pump, and it's the winter?

The company has been testing Samsara's new wearable technology - a small device that has a year of battery live, forward facing cameras, and a large panic button - to address these lone worker scenarios directly. McRae explained:

We have guardrails on those rail cars, but we still have safety incidents. Things do happen, and this adds yet another layer of protection and safety, given the nature of what we move is at the forefront and the leading edge of every decision we make. 

Sysco's approach to safety has evolved significantly through AI adoption. Thomas emphasized how the company has positioned the technology: 

Embracing AI…there’s been a lot of communication around it, communication planning, on how we posture the technology as a tool, but also a tool to enhance the delivery partners’ experience from a safety standpoint.

And there have been clear wins. Nutrien saw an "immediate 50% reduction in unsafe driving" after implementing Samsara's safety platform. Now in year three of their partnership, Springs reports "a vast decrease in vehicle accident rate." But the impact extends beyond their own drivers: 

It's not just about our drivers. Our goal is to send our employees home safe every day. It's the communities that we operate in.

From reactive to predictive

What's particularly interesting about these implementations is how they've evolved from simple monitoring to predictive coaching, powered by AI. Univar Solutions' experience illustrates this progression clearly. Initially, the company used camera footage "to reinforce the system that we use for driving techniques, habits, coaching and developing better behaviors off of sudden stops."

But McRae discovered an unexpected benefit: 

What we found, though, is we're also getting alerts when drivers are doing something right, as many of you saw in the demonstration videos earlier this morning - such as avoiding a collision.

This contextual awareness from the Samsara system - where drivers are validated when they suddenly break, for example, to avoid a pedestrian on a bike - shifts behaviour change from punitive to positive reinforcement. This has created what McRae calls a "flywheel effect of safety."

The company now posts videos of drivers avoiding collisions on their internal platform called "the hub." McRae says: 

They're actually the highest clicked on components of the hub, and it only grows the more engagement we get with our internal employees. 

Sysco's Kevin Thomas also highlighted how AI enables proactive risk management at scale: 

The tool allows us to get ahead of risk behaviors that may be happening in the cab to mitigate critical events or incidents. We have approximately 17,000 tractor trailers that operate on the roadways on a day-to-day basis. So a tool like the AI features that Samsara is offering now allows us to get ahead of mitigating circumstances.

Beyond safety

Once these companies established successful safety programs, they discovered the infrastructure they'd deployed could address other operational challenges. 

For Nutrien, the expansion into routing and navigation solved a critical challenge in agricultural delivery. Springs explained: 

When you're bringing a new driver into our organization, the ability to route and plan just helps get them where they're supposed to be, helps them find the farm. 

The dynamic nature of agricultural operations means trucks loaded with products often don't know their final destination when they leave the depot. Samsara's platform enables real-time coordination:

The ability to get notifications from your your customer, and say, I have a truck in that area that has that product on it, and tell them an estimated time they can be there through the routing and planning activity, and help them find where they're supposed to be, all goes hand in hand.

This capability has aided efficiency while enhancing safety. Springs says:

This eliminated a lot of our distractions on the road. One of the reasons why we have Samsara in our vehicles is to eliminate phone calls and eliminate use of cell phones. Now we can communicate with that driver. We can change routes, change plans, have more safe, efficient drivers on the road.

Asset tracking

The move into asset tracking shows another layer of digital transformation for these companies. Nutrien's tank monitoring system exemplifies how digitization can eliminate inefficient manual processes while improving customer service. Springs explains:

Historically, we have to go out to that tank. We have to look at the tank. We have to either climb the ladder and dip the tank, or use a side gage or some method of manual measurement.

With over 500,000 customers spread across a service area where locations might cover "100 mile radius," this manual approach was unsustainable.

The digital solution provides multiple benefits: 

We get a notification when the tanks are below a certain level. We can order another truckload to be delivered there.

But it also addresses a business intelligence challenge: 

It's also very helpful to know that we're the ones that put the product in that tank, if we're providing it, and that maybe we didn't get a tank filled by another competitor with the same product.

All three panelists expressed interest in Samsara's new Asset Tags, which were announced last year. Thomas sees regulatory implications: 

There's some regulatory implications now for food distributors that we have to track our assets throughout the logistical supply chain, life cycle, that's a requirement now.

For Univar Solutions, McRae highlighted the financial impact of lost assets: 

Tote replacements and lost totes - many people have similar equipment that they'll push out to the field, to a customer, to a supplier, and it sits there. You have some sort of static tracking device, or static tracker, but then you lose it. Somebody leaves, or somebody goes somewhere. You lose the file. And six months go by and you've lost the asset. You have a choice, do you replace it, or do you just go without it? Generally, you have to replace it and that gets expensive.

The human element

A crucial theme throughout the discussion was how these companies have positioned AI and digital transformation to their workforce. Unlike many enterprise technology implementations that face resistance, these organizations found their employees surprisingly receptive - largely because the technology augments rather than threatens their work (that being the nature of physical operations!).

Thomas emphasized Sysco's approach: 

AI as a tool. It's not meant to be intrusive. It's not meant to alleviate roles. It's meant to be a technology or a tool to be more efficient, more productive.

McRae's perspective on Samsara's AI coaching capabilities reveals why this messaging resonates: 

As we look at managers and supervisors and salary folks, we want to promote them up. We want to take the best and we want to try and take what they do right and disseminate it out across our organization. These AI agents are remarkably skilled at extracting the best ways to communicate with that blue collar workforce and drive value and promote the positive.

The psychological safety aspect has proven equally important. For workers operating alone in hazardous conditions, the technology provides peace of mind. As Thomas noted: 

There's a psychological safety associated with somebody knowing where I am, when I should be there, they can do a check-in, I can do a check-in back.

Cultural transformation 

Another important outcome these companies reported wasn't operational metrics but cultural change. Sysco's Thomas described how the company has worked to bring "all 76,000 colleagues of Sysco along the safety journey, the culture journey." This included establishing a safety tagline ("Safety is our main ingredient") and even creating a safety character named Shelford.

The technology implementation has reinforced these cultural initiatives. Thomas explained: 

Integrating best practices of leveraging a tool like Samsara has been very seamless in showing our colleague based on how our executive leadership team and how our leaders in the organization embrace them, going home safe every day.

While all three companies reported impressive safety statistics - Univar's 40% reduction in incident rates, Nutrien's 50% reduction in unsafe driving, Sysco's improved incident metrics - the panelists emphasized that success extends beyond numbers.

Thomas articulated this broader view: 

It's not all about those metrics. It's about caring about our people, driving together is one of Sysco's core values. So, how do I integrate those core values from a cultural standpoint that would lead us down the path of improving the incidents and incur client calls?

For Univar Solutions, the partnership has delivered unexpected strategic value. McRae reflected on the company's five-year journey:

 Who would have thought five years ago, replacing an ELD would lead to a 40% reduction in our incident rates on our private fleet? It is remarkable.

The expanding platform

The panelists' enthusiasm for Samsara's expanding capabilities suggests these digital transformation journeys are far from complete. Each highlighted different areas of future investment - many that align with what we have heard this week about how Samsara is expanding its platform.

For McRae, transportation intelligence tools represent the stage:

 There's lots of different TMS software out there, and I feel like for years, people have talked about it, but not really demonstrated the AI. How do you pull in the driver hours? And how do you look at the maintenance of the vehicles? And the true repair and maintenance spend? And how do you get one platform that truly understands your entire operation holistically?

Thomas sees opportunity in Samsara's warehouse and productivity solutions: "transitioning from archaic paper, manual processes to more digitized processes that embraces our organization strategy of digital transformation."

Springs, despite potential procurement challenges, is most excited about personal safety devices for lone workers: 

We have a lot of lone workers and a lot of lone workers working with really large pieces of equipment in very rural areas, and so continuing to partner with Samsara to determine how we can get those devices that maybe function even in some places where there aren't other Samsara devices, is critically important to us.