The great news for retailers and retail suppliers is that they can instantly have an intelligent supply chain without setting up their own AI lab or hiring their own AI experts. As the global leader in Lean AI supply chains, here at C.H. Robinson we built our first AI models and AI agents in 2023 and our retail customers have benefited ever since.

Our fleet of more than 30 AI agents has automated work across the entire shipping lifecycle, from competitive price quotes to tracking updates that help you with warehouse planning and inventory management. Our logistics experts act as “humans in the loop” to feed the agents context and train them until they’re operating autonomously. 

Lean AI is our unique, disciplined approach to AI that ensures we’re applying our time and talents to the innovations with the most impact. For example, speed to market is critical in a supply chain. When a retailer needs a price quote for shipping, our quoting agent consults our Dynamic Pricing Engine, gets a price derived by our powerful AI algorithm, and delivers it in about 32 seconds. When a retailer sends us a shipping order, another AI agent processes it in 90 seconds. That used to take up to four hours.

Our research with MIT shows that delays in getting your goods on the road can cost you 23-35% more for your shipment. That’s because only so many trucks operate in a given shipping lane on a particular day. The longer it takes to get one, the more likely you’ll pay a premium for someone to drive out of their way. So the faster we process your order, the faster we can secure the ideal appointment time for pickup, the faster we can secure the ideal truck to move your merchandise.