Engibots took part in Empack and Logistics & Automation Porto 2026, Portugal's leading trade fair for the packaging, intralogistics, automation and transport industries. This edition ran on 22 and 23 April at EXPONOR, in Matosinhos, marking the event's tenth anniversary. The main takeaway for anyone working in intelligent process automation and artificial intelligence is simple. The conversation has moved on from whether artificial intelligence will enter logistics operations, to which processes to automate first and how to do it reliably.
The fair in numbers
The 10th edition of Empack and Logistics & Automation Porto brought together around a hundred brands in Pavilion 6 at EXPONOR, over two days of exhibitions and conferences. According to the organizers' recap, the robotics and automation segment drew the most exhibitors, ahead of sustainable packaging and industrial and protective packaging. It's a clear sign of where the sector's investment is heading.
Alongside the exhibition, this edition strengthened its conference programme, with themed forums dedicated to sectors relevant to the Portuguese economy and to the transformation of logistics and industrial real estate. The next edition already has a date set, for 28 and 29 April 2027.
What dominated the conversations
Three themes ran through most of the conversations at the venue:
- Artificial intelligence applied to operations: AI-assisted picking solutions and real-time optimization have moved on from lab demos to cases with measurable returns.
- Sustainability and regulation: preparations for Portugal's upcoming Deposit Return Scheme and pressure for recyclable packaging have put traceability and data collection at the centre of priorities.
- Integration and data: less enthusiasm for standalone technology and more focus on how to connect systems, eliminate manual work and have reliable information for decision-making.
Engibots' take
Our take starts from a distinction that isn't always obvious on a show floor full of robotics. The physical movement of goods, in warehouses and on lines, is only half the operation. The other half is the flow of information running alongside it, and that's where Engibots comes in. We don't build industrial robotics. We build intelligent process automation, systems integration, artificial intelligence and, more recently, analytics.
The connection to the world of industry and logistics is, therefore, a natural fit. These are companies with a high volume of administrative and paperwork-heavy processes: shared mailboxes that are hard to keep up with, orders and quotes transcribed by hand, financial documents, transaction reconciliation and manually produced reports. While warehouse robotics handles what moves, this back-office work keeps consuming hours that add no value. This is precisely where intelligent automation pays back the investment fastest (see intelligent automation in logistics and distribution).
Alongside automation, the two days reinforced a second priority: having reliable information to decide. There's little point in eliminating manual work if data remains scattered across multiple systems. That's the thinking behind our analytics layer, which lets you query operational information in natural language, without depending on fixed reports (see EngiAnalytics).
What this means for logistics and distribution SMEs
For an SME, the useful takeaway from the fair isn't to buy the most advanced technology. It's to start with the right process. A good first automation case has high volume, clear rules and few exceptions, and frees up time for teams that are doing repetitive work instead of decision-making work.
Alongside this, the underlying trend is the shift from rigid bots to artificial intelligence agents capable of handling variation and context (see artificial intelligence agents). It's a shift that opens up automation to processes previously considered too variable.