DHL Supply Chain announced Tuesday it has partnered with HappyRobot, a startup focused on agentic AI-based communication.
The logistics player is using HappyRobot’s technology to autonomously handle phone calls, email and other communications with partners and internal stakeholders.
The companies said the technology underneath those capabilities is agentic AI, which acts independently and autonomously to solve problems and handle tasks on behalf of a person or organization. A voice agent, for instance, might speak on the phone with a partner working to schedule drivers, while another agent might handle email correspondence for a particular shipment.
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DHL has deployed the agents in several markets; its use cases include “appointment scheduling, driver follow-up calls and high-priority warehouse coordination,” according to a release. The company noted that the technology is slated to save DHL Supply Chain millions of minutes spent on the phone each year, and that it can handle hundreds of thousands of emails annually.
Sally Miller, chief information officer at DHL Supply Chain, said the company has spent more than a year and a half evaluating and testing use cases for both generative AI and agentic AI.
“Building on our extensive operational experience with data analytics, robotic process automation, and self-learning software tools, we are now integrating AI agents to drive greater process efficiency for customers while making operational roles more engaging and rewarding for employees by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks such as manual data entry, routine scheduling and standardized communications,” Miller said in a statement.
Americans have a fear of AI taking their spot in the workforce; an August poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos showed that more than seven in 10 Americans said they harbored concerns about AI’s ability to put people out of work permanently.
But many companies leveraging the technology—in a number of different ways—contend that the technology is merely reshaping the way jobs work, and the functions underneath them. DHL Supply Chain said HappyRobot’s agents have already started to “deliver faster, more customer-centric services,” improve employee retention and create a more desirable work environment.
Lindsay Bridges, executive vice president of human resources at DHL Supply Chain, said the continued rollout of agentic AI systems will help the company better support its workforce.
“At DHL Supply Chain, our people are at the heart of everything we do,” Bridges said in a statement. “AI agents help us relieve our teams from repetitive, time-consuming tasks and give them space to focus on meaningful, high-value work. In today’s tight labor markets, where qualified talent is increasingly scarce, these technologies allow us to maintain—and even improve—responsiveness, customer centricity and service consistency, while making roles more attractive and sustainable.”
HappyRobot also works with Flexport, Ryder and Circle Logistics, among other clients. Flexport’s CEO, Ryan Petersen, announced earlier this year that the company uses AI for a similar use case to DHL’s new announcement; the company’s Flexport Intelligence tool uses AI agents to streamline cargo management. It leverages voice agents, powered by AI, to check in on shipments, timing and other considerations. Those voice agents, Petersen said, don’t talk directly to Flexport’s customers, but help humans gather information about specific shipments from other providers to relay back to clients.
Petersen predicted in March that it won’t be long until those types of agents are in constant conversation with one another, negotiating and relaying information in real time.
“I suspect that…we’ll start seeing AI talking to AI on the phone, which is going to be very interesting,” he said at the time.
It seems Petersen isn’t alone in bringing that goal to life.
Pablo Palafox, CEO of HappyRobot, said the company is working toward bringing AI to the fore inside logistics organizations.
“At HappyRobot, we envision AI workers coordinating global supply chain operations—not just moving data, but actively managing workflows,” Palafox said in a statement. “Too often, people are stuck maintaining systems and inboxes, with little time to solve exceptions or improve processes. DHL recognized early on the potential of AI agents as a new operating layer—one that brings speed, visibility and consistency to logistics.”
