Using Generative AI, C.H. Robinson Has Achieved Automation Across the Entire Lifecycle of a Freight Shipment
C.H. Robinson has implemented generative AI technology to automate the entire freight shipment lifecycle, processing over 10,000 daily email transactions automatically. The system handles tasks from price quotes to load acceptance and delivery scheduling, reducing processing time from hours to seconds. For example, emailed load tenders now take 90 seconds instead of four hours, with the ability to process multiple loads simultaneously.
The automation includes 2,600 daily price quotes delivered in 32 seconds, 5,500 daily shipment orders processed in 90 seconds, and 3,000 daily appointment settings completed in 60 seconds across 26,000+ locations. The company is also piloting AI for in-transit visibility communications with carriers.
C.H. Robinson ha implementato la tecnologia di intelligenza artificiale generativa per automatizzare l'intero ciclo di vita delle spedizioni, elaborando oltre 10.000 transazioni email giornaliere in modo automatico. Il sistema gestisce attività che vanno dai preventivi ai carichi accettati fino alla pianificazione delle consegne, riducendo il tempo di elaborazione da ore a secondi. Ad esempio, le offerte per il carico inviate via email ora richiedono 90 secondi anziché quattro ore, con la capacità di elaborare più carichi simultaneamente.
L'automazione include 2.600 preventivi giornalieri consegnati in 32 secondi, 5.500 ordini di spedizione giornalieri elaborati in 90 secondi e 3.000 impostazioni di appuntamenti giornalieri completati in 60 secondi in oltre 26.000 località. L'azienda sta inoltre testando l'IA per le comunicazioni di visibilità in transito con i vettori.
C.H. Robinson ha implementado tecnología de IA generativa para automatizar todo el ciclo de vida del envío de mercancías, procesando más de 10.000 transacciones de correo electrónico diarias de forma automática. El sistema maneja tareas que van desde cotizaciones de precios hasta aceptación de carga y programación de entregas, reduciendo el tiempo de procesamiento de horas a segundos. Por ejemplo, las ofertas de carga enviadas por correo electrónico ahora tardan 90 segundos en lugar de cuatro horas, con la capacidad de procesar múltiples cargas simultáneamente.
La automatización incluye 2.600 cotizaciones diarias entregadas en 32 segundos, 5.500 órdenes de envío diarias procesadas en 90 segundos y 3.000 ajustes de citas diarias completados en 60 segundos en más de 26.000 ubicaciones. La empresa también está probando IA para comunicaciones de visibilidad en tránsito con los transportistas.
C.H. Robinson은 화물 배송 전체 수명 주기를 자동화하기 위해 생성적 AI 기술을 구현하여 매일 10,000건의 이메일 거래를 자동으로 처리합니다. 시스템은 가격 견적부터 적재 수락 및 배송 일정 수립까지 다양한 작업을 처리하며, 처리 시간을 몇 시간에서 몇 초로 줄입니다. 예를 들어, 이메일로 전송된 화물 제안은 이제 4시간 대신 90초가 소요되며, 여러 화물을 동시에 처리할 수 있는 기능을 갖추고 있습니다.
자동화에는 2,600건의 일일 가격 견적이 32초 이내에 제공되고, 5,500건의 일일 배송 주문이 90초 이내에 처리되며, 3,000건의 일일 약속 설정이 60초 이내에 총 26,000개 이상의 위치에서 완료됩니다. 회사는 또한 운송 중 가시성 통신을 위해 AI를 시험 운영하고 있습니다.
C.H. Robinson a mis en œuvre une technologie d'IA générative pour automatiser l'ensemble du cycle de vie des expéditions, traitant automatiquement plus de 10 000 transactions par e-mail par jour. Le système gère des tâches allant des devis aux acceptations de chargement et à la planification des livraisons, réduisant le temps de traitement de plusieurs heures à quelques secondes. Par exemple, les offres de chargement envoyées par e-mail prennent désormais 90 secondes au lieu de quatre heures, avec la capacité de traiter plusieurs chargements simultanément.
L'automatisation comprend 2 600 devis quotidiens délivrés en 32 secondes, 5 500 commandes d'expédition quotidiennes traitées en 90 secondes et 3 000 prises de rendez-vous quotidiennes réalisées en 60 secondes sur plus de 26 000 emplacements. L'entreprise teste également l'IA pour les communications de visibilité en transit avec les transporteurs.
C.H. Robinson hat generative KI-Technologie implementiert, um den gesamten Lebenszyklus der Frachtversendung zu automatisieren und über 10.000 tägliche E-Mail-Transaktionen automatisch zu verarbeiten. Das System übernimmt Aufgaben von Preisangeboten über die Annahme von Ladeaufträgen bis hin zur Lieferterminplanung und reduziert die Bearbeitungszeit von Stunden auf Sekunden. Beispielsweise benötigen per E-Mail übermittelte Ladungsangebote jetzt 90 Sekunden statt vier Stunden und können mehrere Ladungen gleichzeitig verarbeitet werden.
Die Automatisierung umfasst 2.600 tägliche Preisangebote, die in 32 Sekunden bereitgestellt werden, 5.500 tägliche Versandaufträge, die in 90 Sekunden bearbeitet werden, und 3.000 tägliche Terminvereinbarungen, die in 60 Sekunden über mehr als 26.000 Standorte hinweg abgeschlossen werden. Das Unternehmen testet außerdem KI für Kommunikationszwecke zur Sichtbarkeit im Transit mit Frachtführern.
- Significant reduction in processing time: from 4 hours to 90 seconds for load tenders
- Processing 10,000+ automated email transactions daily
- Handles multiple loads simultaneously instead of one at a time
- Expanded automation across multiple services: price quotes, load tenders, appointments
- Cost savings potential through improved operational efficiency
- None.
Insights
This AI implementation represents a significant operational efficiency breakthrough for C.H. Robinson. The automation of 10,000+ daily email transactions demonstrates substantial cost-saving potential through reduced manual processing time - from 4 hours to just 90 seconds per transaction. The system's ability to handle complex, unstructured email communications and process multiple shipments simultaneously (20 loads in 90 seconds) shows advanced AI capabilities beyond basic automation.
The technology's expansion across multiple logistics functions (quotes, tenders, appointments, tracking) and its ability to learn from the company's vast dataset creates a competitive moat. This should translate to improved margins through reduced operational costs and enhanced customer satisfaction through faster response times. The scalability of the system, having already achieved significant volume processing since June, indicates strong potential for further efficiency gains.
With over 10,000 email transactions per day no longer done manually, new proprietary tech serves customers in seconds instead of hours
This new proprietary tech incorporates generative artificial intelligence to overcome the decades-old challenge of automating transactions that shippers still commonly choose to do by email. Shippers directly integrated with C.H. Robinson’s platform have for years been able to get automated service instantly. But the same request sent by email had to wait for a person. Now, more than 10,000 of those routine transactions per day have been automated. Shippers who use email can get the same speed-to-market and cost savings as other customers, and the C.H. Robinson teams that serve them can spend more time on more valuable work.
“We announced in May that we’d been using our new tech for emailed price requests. Within a few short months, we created new models to automate more shipping steps and have already implemented them at scale,” said Arun Rajan, the company’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer. “This a major efficiency breakthrough for the industry and for supply chains around the world. When you think about retailers that need hundreds of different products on their shelves or automakers that rely on just-in-time delivery for the 30,000 different parts in a car, saving hours and minutes on every shipment matters.”
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, specialized 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 palletized. 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.”
Before C.H. Robinson’s newest technology, it took as much as four hours for an emailed load tender to be taken care of by a person. That’s been reduced to 90 seconds.
“Once a person got to the email in their inbox, it still took an average of seven minutes to manually enter all the shipment details into our system – and that’s for a single load,” Albrecht said. “If the email tendered us 20 loads, a person would be stuck manually entering the information one load at a time. With generative AI, we can process all 20 loads simultaneously in the same 90 seconds. That’s an enormous time savings, especially when you consider we’ve scaled this to thousands of shipment orders per day just since June.”
C.H. Robinson’s new automation tech is being used for
- Emailed price requests: This has grown to 2,600 quotes delivered a day, and at 32 seconds is now even faster. Having started with truckload quotes, the tech has also been expanded to handle LTL quotes.
- Emailed load tenders: The tech is turning emails into 5,500 shipment orders a day, achieved in 90 seconds.
- Emailed appointments: When a customer uses email rather than C.H. Robinson’s touchless appointments, the tech extracts the details needed to lock in a pick-up or delivery time. So far, this is done 3,000 times a day across more than 26,000 locations within 60 seconds.
- In-transit visibility: For instances when a carrier’s automated status updates aren’t working, C.H. Robinson is piloting the use of generative AI to interact with the carrier, rather than taking up staff time to send an email, text or instant message.
“While other companies may be using generative AI for simple data queries or chatbots, we’re harnessing that power to create tangible business value for our customers,” Rajan said. “The faster we can accomplish every routine step in getting their freight on a truck, the greater their potential cost savings. The more we free our staff from mundane tasks, the more they can enhance and strengthen our customers’ supply chains. In a world where a port strike, a hurricane and a
ABOUT C.H. ROBINSON
C.H. Robinson delivers logistics like no one else™. Companies around the world look to us to reimagine supply chains, advance freight technology and solve logistics challenges—from the simple to the most complex. Over 90,000 customers and 450,000 contract carriers in our network trust us to manage
CHRW-IR
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241031448369/en/
Maria Lettman
maria.lettman@chrobinson.com
Source: C.H. Robinson
FAQ
How many email transactions does C.H. Robinson (CHRW) automate daily with its new AI system?
What is the processing time reduction for load tenders at C.H. Robinson (CHRW)?
How many price quotes does C.H. Robinson (CHRW) process daily with AI automation?
How many appointment settings does C.H. Robinson (CHRW) handle daily with AI?
