The United States lags behind other countries in readiness for an increasingly automated world, placing ninth on a ranking of 25 advanced economies, according to a new report from Swiss technology giant ABB.

Of all the ways Walmart Inc. will do battle with Amazon.com Inc., I suspect none will be more important than their face-off in the grocery business.

When Bert Hooper brings on new workers at TechStyle Fashion Group’s 450,000 square-foot warehouse in Perris, California, he tells them, “If you know how to use a smartphone and you know how to use an app, you can do about any operation that we have in our facility.”

Maersk and Rockstart, a European startup accelerator, have partnered in an initiative called FoodTrack to foster startups with ideas for tackling global food loss.

DHL and IBM have released a joint report on the development of artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology and its potential to change the logistics industry — noting that, in many ways, A.I. is already making profound changes to the retail environment, not all of which are positive.

If she hadn’t visited the cocoa farms supplying Mondelez, Cathy Pieters wouldn’t have see there was “an urgent need” to rejuvenate many of the plants.