TIPS Takes a Wired Yard to Thailand’s AI Summit

TIPS Co., Ltd. sent staff to Thailand’s eighth AI and IoTs Summit on 27 and 28 May 2026 at The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam. The Laem Chabang terminal already ran Navis yard software and Line booking before those badges were printed.

The company framed the trip as staff training and a hunt for tools that could tighten workflows. The quieter fact is the stack those people already use on the berth, the extra yard, and the empty-container depot six kilometres inland.

The Eighth Summit Shared a Hotel With Three Other Forums

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and the Thai Digital Technology User Group Association, known as DUGA, jointly hosted a two-day May series at the same Pratunam hotel. The AI and IoTs track was billed as the eighth edition, under the line Reinforcing Business Competitiveness with AI and IoT.

It was not a stand-alone tech fair. Three other national forums occupied the same dates and the same building, which is how Thai industrial buyers actually meet vendors: one registration, four rooms, two days.

THE FOUR MAY SERIES TRACKS

• AI and IoTs Summit: Eighth edition, the track TIPS listed as its destination.
• Privacy and Security Summit: Seventh edition, sold as digital trust for the AI era.
• eGovernment Forum: Fourteenth edition, aimed at public agencies.
• Sustain Tech: First edition, sold as measurable sustainability tech.

DUGA’s early-bird offer through 31 March 2026 was 5,900 baht for two seats. The classroom is priced, gated, and run through the association’s own Line account, which is also why the English-language timeline barely noticed that a port operator was in the room.

TIPS Operates Berth B4 at Laem Chabang

TIPS is not a shipping line. The Port Authority of Thailand granted the firm a place among the private operators at berth B4, 130 kilometres southeast of Bangkok, on the Eastern Seaboard approaches that feed the country’s main deep-sea gateway.

The company’s own site puts 105,000 square meters of terminal area behind a 300-metre berth with a 14-metre draft, enough water for most post-Panamax ships. A 2026 staff post called the firm 31 years old. Vice president Teerapol Shinno is the executive who shows up when TIPS greets shippers and port neighbours.

THE TIPS YARD IN FIGURES

CY2 sits at checking post 3 and shares lifting kit with B4, including seven reach stackers, two empty handlers, and three rubber-tyred gantries stacked 4+1. CD1 is the off-terminal empty park. A TIPS corporate film also shows twin-lift gantry cranes rated to 55 tons on the quay.

Line Queues Landed Before the Summit Badges

By the time representatives sat down in Pratunam, the terminal’s digital work was already in production, not on a slide. Truckers book through Line. Planners run a Navis terminal operating system. Supervisors had already spent a February day on generative AI and agents.

THE SOFTWARE STACK ON THE YARD

1. 2019: TIPS installs SPARCS N4 at the CD1 empty yard so every box can be tracked from gate-in through the last move.
2. By 2022: The B4 terminal film says the quay, yard and gate run SPARCS N4 version 2.5 from Navis, with boxes placed to cut extra lifts.
3. 1 April 2024: Import Queue opens on Line Official @Tipsb4 so tractor drivers can book inbound full-container slots before they reach the gate.
4. March 2025: TIPSCD1 Connect launches on Line ID @tipscd1connect, with payment through TIPS Online Service, for empty-box appointments at the depot.
5. 4 February 2026: AI in the Box Workshop Gen1 trains supervisors and managers on generative AI, knowledge bases, agents and supervised agents, using each desk’s own use cases.
6. 27-28 May 2026: Staff attend the AI and IoTs Summit at The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam.

Kasem Dechudomcharoenchai, the IT section manager, handed the CD1 booking and payment build to the depot and warehouse team when Connect went live. That is a Line product for hauliers, not a lab demo. The February workshop then asked the same supervisors to try agents on live work, a little over three months before the summit programme opened.

What a Terminal Team Heard in Pratunam

TIPS said the sessions covered artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, digital change, and new tools aimed at Thai industry. The company said AI and IoT would matter more for workflow, performance, and long-term development.

AI and IoT technologies are expected to play an increasingly important role in supporting workflow optimization, operational performance and long-term organizational development.

TIPS Co., Ltd., on the AI and IoTs Summit 2026

DUGA’s own run-up posts named the talks a port operator would actually use. Suvicha Manasmontri, managing director of Kyoei Co., Ltd. and a Thai IoT Association board member, was down for “Redefining Operations: Achieving Intelligent Efficiency at Scale.” Other billed sessions included a workforce talk on humans working with AI, and a NECTEC research talk on AI and data sovereignty.

The official pitch for the eighth summit was blunt in a different way: stop running pilots, start running intelligent operations that show a return. For a berth that already queues trucks in Line and plans boxes in Navis, that is the next procurement conversation, not a beginner class.

The Associations That Run the Industrial Classroom

DUGA is the user-group association, not a vendor. It sells the May series with the ministry and pulls in specialist bodies for each room. The Thai IoT Association was invited as a co-host with the Thai IoT Association on the AI and IoTs track, and it used the opening day to thank DUGA and to talk up an AIoT network across government, firms, and schools.

On 19 November 2025, months before the badges were printed, the National Board of Digital Economy and Society Office met DUGA to prepare the 2026 summit. The state digital board, the user group, and the IoT association were already aligned on the classroom. TIPS arrived as a buyer of that classroom, not as its organiser.

That pipeline barely shows up on the public English timeline, because seats still move through DUGA’s Facebook page and Line Official @dugathailand, with registration pointed at conferencethaiseries.com. A Laem Chabang operator can spend two days in Pratunam and leave almost no trace outside Thai-language trade posts. The argument about which yard tools get bought still happens in those rooms.

Logistics Is on the National AIoT Wish List

In a June 2026 policy note, shortly after the Pratunam dates, the Thai IoT Association told the TH-AI Passport programme to shift from access to productivity, and it named logistics beside factories, farms, energy, and buildings as a target sector. It also asked for a national AI and IoT sandbox so smaller firms could try edge tools and digital twins before they spend.

TIPS is larger than those SMEs, and it did not wait for a sandbox. It already trains supervisors on agents and already puts hauliers on Line. The gap the associations keep describing is the rest of the chain that feeds B4: inland trucking firms, smaller depots, and shippers who still treat AI as a slide.

The next software choice at the terminal will be made by people who have now sat through DUGA’s operations track, after a February workshop spent on their own use cases. Whether that becomes another Line menu, a sensor layer on the RTGs, or a vendor that never gets past a pilot is a yard decision, and it will not be visible from a hotel ballroom.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the TIPS B4 berth and how deep is the water?

The berth is 300 metres long with a 14-metre approach channel and a 14-metre draft alongside, which TIPS says takes most post-Panamax ships. The same facility sheet lists 385 reefer plugs and a 4,620-square-metre container freight station for on-terminal stuffing, inspection, and customs work.

Who organised the AI and IoTs Summit 2026?

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and DUGA were joint hosts of the whole May series, and they asked the Thai IoT Association to co-host the AI and IoTs track. DUGA’s Line Official is @dugathailand, and the series registration site was conferencethaiseries.com, with an early-bird price of 5,900 baht for two seats through 31 March 2026.

How do truckers book empty containers at TIPS CD1?

They add TIPSCD1 Connect in Line at @tipscd1connect, choose the empty-box queue menu, and pay through the TIPS Online Service app. Booked jobs get a priority lane at the depot. CD1’s own listing puts hours at Monday to Saturday, 07:30 to 21:00, with a claimed truck turnaround under 20 minutes.

What did TIPS teach in the February AI workshop?

AI in the Box Workshop Gen1, held on 4 February 2026 for supervisors and managers, covered generative AI, current AI trends, building organisational knowledge, creating agents, supervising those agents, and using generative AI services. Each section brought its own use case so staff could try the tools on live work rather than on sample decks.

B4 will keep turning ships while those sessions fade. The people TIPS sent now have the association’s operations talk in the same year they learned to stand up agents on their own desks, and that is the layer the next vendor has to clear.