When Systems Work, People Win: Danielle Prigge on the Real Path to AI in Trucking
At this year’s American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition (MCE), FleetOwner’s Josh Fisher sat down with Danielle Prigge, Chief Commercial Officer at Mastery Logistics Systems, for a candid conversation about one of the most pressing topics shaping the industry: how fleets can realistically prepare for AI in trucking.
For Danielle, the path forward is clear. The future of transportation technology isn’t just about automation or algorithms; it’s about unified systems, data quality, and empowering the people who keep freight moving.
“There’s not a conversation today that doesn’t include AI,” she emphasized. “But if people aren’t good at the fundamentals, AI can’t deliver the impact everyone is hoping for.”
The Industry’s Inflection Point
The trucking industry is experiencing a major shift toward digital transformation, driven by consolidation, multimodal growth, and mounting pressure to increase efficiency. Many fleets today still rely on a patchwork of legacy tools and custom-built systems, making it difficult to scale, automate, or support AI-driven decision-making. Danielle sees this challenge everywhere.
“Data coming from one system can look completely different from another. Until that’s unified, AI can’t do its job.”
This reality underscores why many organizations struggle to adopt AI-enabled tools. Without clean, connected, and structured data, even the most powerful transportation management systems fall short.
One System, One Workforce
Prigge explained that moving toward a unified logistics system is not just a technology upgrade, it’s a workforce transformation.
“Speed to productivity matters. If a user has to learn three different systems just to do one workflow, you lose them before they even get started.”
A modern, cloud-native TMS like MasterMind® gives every team—from dispatch to customer service to accounting—a single, consistent experience. That means faster training, reduced turnover, and a stronger foundation for automation and AI in transportation.
Change Management: The Deciding Factor in Modernizing a TMS
Even with the right TMS platform, success hinges on people. Danielle emphasized that change management in trucking is often overlooked but is the linchpin of a successful implementation.
“If you don’t have end-user buy-in, strong SOPs, and proper training, the whole thing falls over.”
Mastery partners directly with customer learning and development teams to roll out transformation in stages—crawl, walk, run—ensuring that teams can grow into new workflows without disruption.
Mastery even places specialists alongside customers during rollout to accelerate adoption:
“We put people on site. Small tweaks to someone’s day can make a huge impact user buy in and overall user success.”
AI Starts With Clean, Connected Data
So how do you determine whether a TMS implementation is working? Danielle bought the conversation full circle: AI readiness begins with foundational data and unified systems.
“Everyone wants to figure out their AI strategy. But it’s all rooted in data and fundamentals.”
AI becomes powerful not when it replaces people, but when systems work together, so people can operate at their highest level.
Watch the Full Interview
To hear the full interview of Danielle’s insights on AI, TMS modernization, and transforming fleet operations.
