C H Robinson – Automating the Freight Lifecycle with generative AI

By Ken Lyon

Last May, CH Robinson announced that they were making considerable progress in exploiting generative AI to automate various points in the lifecycle of a shipment. Since then, progress has continued and in the past week or so, they have provided more commentary about the progress of this initiative.

C.H. Robinson (CHR) is advancing freight and logistics automation with its proprietary generative AI, aiming to streamline the lifecycle of freight shipments. By applying generative AI, CHR has automated key processes such as quoting, load acceptance, scheduling appointments, and tracking shipments. These steps—previously done by manual email processing—are now managed instantly, benefiting shippers who rely on email communications just as quickly as those integrated directly into CHR’s platform.

This innovation marks a significant efficiency leap. CHR reports automating over 10,000 daily transactions that once demanded considerable human input, such as load tenders, which now take 90 seconds instead of up to four hours. This rapid response time offers substantial gains for businesses with complex supply needs, such as retailers needing stock replenishments or automotive companies requiring precise, just-in-time part deliveries.

Arun Rajan, CHR’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, highlights the industry-wide impact, noting, “Saving hours and minutes on every shipment matters when you’re managing intricate supply chains.” Rajan explains that time-sensitive sectors, from retail to energy, benefit by securing optimal appointment slots and minimising costs associated with spot-market fluctuations.

CHR’s AI-based system automates various tasks:

1. Pricing Requests: For shippers relying on emailed quotes, the AI system generates 2,600 quotes daily, reducing response time to an impressive 32 seconds.
2. Load Tenders: The system processes around 5,500 emailed shipment orders each day, completing these tasks within 90 seconds.
3. Scheduling Appointments: CHR’s AI extracts information from emails to set up pickup or delivery times, handling 3,000 appointments per day in just 60 seconds.
4. In-Transit Visibility: When automated updates from carriers fail, CHR’s AI intervenes to gather information on load status without requiring employee action.

This transformation has been years in the making. CHR began scaling the first of these AI tools in early 2024, rolling out additional functions by mid-year. Now, thousands of transactions run seamlessly every day, optimising not just CHR’s operations but also providing customers with quicker service and competitive pricing advantages.

Orth noted that for CHR’s customers, especially those facing time-sensitive supply needs, automation drives “speed-to-market,” which impacts everything from shelf availability in retail to the timely arrival of components for manufacturers. Missing out on these efficiencies can inflate transportation costs, particularly when shippers face spot market pricing. For instance, delays in tendering shipments can lead to price hikes of 23% to 35%, illustrating the real value of instantaneous responses.

After starting with price quotes, C.H. Robinson has applied generative AI to increasingly complex tasks. That required infusing the technology with the company’s market knowledge, specialised expertise in nearly every kind of supply chain and the specifics of each customer’s unique needs.

“An emailed load tender might only say, ‘I have a load for Tuesday’ because the shipper knows we know what they ship on Tuesdays. Or it could contain thousands of words about 20 loads in a PDF attachment with handwritten notes on it,” said Mark Albrecht, the company’s Vice President for Artificial Intelligence. “Our tech can connect details in different parts of the email, discern what’s missing, go fill in the blanks and take action. We’ve even built it to determine things like which shipments are best for less-than-truckload and how different commodities should be palletised. We can do that like no one else, because we have the competitive advantage of the largest dataset in the industry and because our generative AI tools continually learn from our experts.”

CHR’s advantage in leveraging generative AI stems from its deep data set and longstanding industry expertise. By integrating market intelligence, logistics knowledge, and customer specifics, the AI tools operate almost like an experienced human, adjusting parameters based on real-time updates and tapping back to CHR teams for unusual cases. Orth emphasises that this human-AI synergy is critical, noting that CHR’s long-standing client relationships enable its AI to perform with a high degree of contextual accuracy.

In essence, CHR’s investment in generative AI marks a pivotal shift for the logistics sector, enhancing operational responsiveness while relieving teams from repetitive tasks. By combining automation with human oversight, CHR has set a new standard in the 3PL landscape, delivering faster service and supporting resilient supply chains in an increasingly demanding market.

C H Robinson believe that this automation enhances operational speed and efficiency, which are essential in managing today’s increasingly complex global supply chains. In a Q&A with Logistics Management magazine on this topic, Megan Orth (Director of Digital Technology) says,  “We’re always looking for ways to lift repetitive tasks from our people so they can focus on more strategic work”. She emphasises that generative AI allows CHR to automate previously manual tasks across the full shipment lifecycle reliably.

Author: Ken Lyon

Source: Ti Insight

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