Get answers on Blue Yonder's AI-driven warehouse management, SaaS migration, security, and user experience, all in one place.
This resource provides clear answers to the most common questions about our next-generation, AI-driven warehouse management solution. Learn how Cognitive WMS enhances efficiency through machine learning, supports seamless migration to SaaS, ensures data security, and delivers an intuitive user experience. Whether you’re exploring advanced slotting, robotics integration, or planning your upgrade path, this FAQ is your go-to guide for understanding the future of warehouse operations.
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Security and data privacy
The data within Blue Yonder (BY) WMS and other BY offerings remains entirely within the secure boundaries of the BY platform. Both schema and metadata are part of our proprietary intellectual property and are handled with strict adherence to IP protection standards.
No. Your data is secure within the BY platform and is not shared. Each customer's data is fully isolated and accessible only to that customer. When machine learning (ML) models and agents are trained, they are trained on a per-customer basis using only the data available within your specific environment.
We do not use one customer's data to train a global model without explicit permission. If you choose to opt into a consortium model, only data from consenting customers is securely aggregated to build a shared, anonymized global model. This process ensures full compliance with data privacy, ownership, and intellectual property protection principles. If you do not opt in, your data remains isolated for your use only.
We maintain rigorous security standards. The data resides strictly within the "four walls" of the BY platform for WMS and other offerings. Our security measures ensure that only you, the customer, have access to your data. For specific security protocols and certifications, please reach out to your account team for a detailed security blurb from our security team.
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Have additional questions? Contact us and we will be happy to guide you along your journey.
We designed Cognitive WMS as our next-generation warehouse management solution (WMS). It leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to optimize warehouse operations, improve decision-making, and enhance overall efficiency. Unlike traditional systems that rely solely on static rules, our Cognitive WMS learns from your data to predict demand, optimize slotting, and orchestrate resources in real-time. It represents a shift from reactive execution to proactive, autonomous supply chain management.
Cognitive WMS is a SaaS-only solution. The advanced AI and machine learning capabilities require the computational power and scalability of the cloud to function effectively. If you choose to remain on-premise, we will continue to support your operations with technical stack updates, security patches, and bug fixes. However, the AI-native features, such as advanced slotting agents and predictive resource orchestration, are exclusive to the SaaS environment. The only exception is the Warehouse Ops Agent (specifically for briefs and analysis), which is available for on-premise use.
When you invest in Cognitive WMS, we deploy the full WMS stack. This includes:
Heritage functionality: All the robust WMS features you have relied on for years.
Embedded WES: Our Warehouse Execution System (WES), which includes the Tasking and Robotics Hub.
Resource orchestration: Tools to manage human and machine resources efficiently.
Work optimization: Logic to improve throughput and reduce travel time.
We also deploy optional functionalities, such as Warehouse Labor Management and AI-native features. You consume these optional services using monthly credits that are fungible across services. This allows you to apply value exactly where your specific warehouse needs it most.
We built Cognitive WMS to drive interoperability. The platform integrates seamlessly with various automation providers, allowing us to orchestrate both human and machine resources toward single service level agreements (SLAs). The embedded WES moves beyond simple integration to true orchestration. It improves throughput by leveraging automatic interleaving and consolidation opportunities. Furthermore, the platform connects easily with other Blue Yonder solutions—such as Yard Management and Transportation Management—to ensure end-to-end visibility and synchronized execution across your network.
No, the AI-native functionality in Cognitive WMS is additive. We have not removed any of the functionality or hard rules that your operations depend on today. This approach puts you in control of your own pace of change. For example, you can choose to use the AI slotting agent in just one zone of a warehouse to test it, while maintaining standard rules elsewhere. Different warehouses in your network can move at different speeds based on their specific needs and complexity.
The majority of the agentic AI and cognitive features are available starting with the 2025.2 release of the SaaS WMS. If you are migrating from an older version, our upgrade scripts will guide your environment sequentially to this version to ensure data integrity and configuration retention.
User experience (UX/UI)
Customers moving from Heritage WMS to Cognitive WMS will enjoy the same familiar user experience they are accustomed to, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal retraining. However, we are introducing significant enhancements to drive efficiency. The WebUI will feature a new agentic experience that allows users to interact with the WMS like never before, providing real-time answers to questions through both text and visual elements.
Yes. We are developing a new mobile experience built on our robust new mobile platform. A key component is the introduction of a supervisor app designed to provide an agentic experience for leadership. This app will help supervisors gain real-time visibility into warehouse performance, access AI-powered insights, and receive proactive alerts to facilitate smarter, data-driven decision-making on the go.
Yes. You can communicate directly to employees on the warehouse floor through the Web UI. This feature is accessible via devices such as tablets or mobile phones through the "Send RF Message" menu option, allowing you to maintain real-time alignment with your workforce.
Yes. We recognize that navigating multiple tabs to view critical inventory data is inefficient. We are currently working on an improved user experience that consolidates LPN, location, status, and lot/batch codes into a single, unified inventory view to streamline your operations.
Training and Change Management
We are actively building comprehensive education courseware on the new capabilities. Since ML/AI is new to WMS, we are still learning what information is most useful to you. Please share any feedback as you use the content so we can refine it. You can expect to see formal enablement, training, and certifications for the new WMS become available in Q1 2026 through the Blue Yonder Learn portal.
Adopting self-learning systems represents a paradigm shift from traditional, rules-based engines. Your operations team does not need to understand the inner workings of the models, but they do need to learn how to work alongside systems that adapt over time. For example, if you add an e-commerce picking area to a pallet/case facility, the slotting solver will take 4-6 weeks to start delivering optimal moves. In the meantime, your operations team will need to audit and correct the slotting output by assigning SKUs to locations, just as they have for years. This awareness of how systems learn and adapt is the core of the change management required.
Data quality becomes more critical as you implement self-learning technologies. The old concept of "we'll clean it up on the dock before the inventory hits the warehouse" is no longer viable. Supplier compliance and master data management (MDM) processes become more important because the ML/AI is only as smart as the data you give it. While the systems can handle some noise, the fundamental principle of "garbage in, garbage out" still applies.
You do not need to hire data scientists or ML experts to use our WMS AI/ML features. We handle all the complex ML work that goes into our offerings. We are, however, starting to see some customers express interest in building their own models on their data, and our platform supports that. The primary change is a mindset shift within your existing operations team to work collaboratively with self-learning systems.
Migration and versioning
Yes. We have a dedicated migration strategy that combines professional services with AI-powered tooling to ensure smoother, accelerated migrations. Our database-agnostic data migration tool supports any Blue Yonder WMS migration, and we offer accelerated integrations powered by large language models (LLM) for schema mapping and code auto-generation. The cloud-native WMS supports all existing configurations, and existing extensions can be migrated with minor modifications to be compatible with the update-safe architecture.
The migration path depends on your current version, but it is a straightforward process. You run the standard upgrade scripts to bring your environment to the 2024 version, and from there, another script transitions you to Cognitive WMS. We rearchitected the solution while keeping the core schema and business logic intact, allowing us to port forward your configuration, setup, and data. The main effort focuses on two areas: integration and extensions, and we have tooling to support both.
No, you can go straight to Cognitive WMS. While our upgrade scripts are iterative and will step your environment through each version sequentially in the background (e.g., from 2023 to 2024, then to 2025), your user experience will be a direct transition from your current version to Cognitive WMS. For example, the 2024 version will only exist for the few hours it takes to run the 2025 conversion scripts.
There is no specific version limitation. However, you should anticipate that the complexity and change management effort increase the older your current version is. Migrating from a version more than 10 years old (pre-9.2) will require more services and effort, which is a consequence of accumulated technical debt and the significant architectural shifts that have occurred over that time.
Dispatcher functionality is converging into the Cognitive WMS, which will be our single WMS of the future across all industries, complexities, and warehouse sizes. We will continue to support Dispatcher with tech stack updates, bug fixes, security patches, and customer-funded innovation. We are also developing migration tooling to simplify your conversion to Cognitive WMS.
