DHL Supply Chain has announced a significant expansion of its partnership with AI startup HappyRobot, aiming to deploy autonomous “AI agents” across its global operations to automate routine communications and free up human teams for higher-value work.
The move forms part of DHL’s broader digitalisation and AI strategy. As part of this push, over the past 18 months DHL has systematically identified and validated operational use cases for generative and agentic AI technologies, building on its experience with data analytics, robotic process automation and self-learning software.
Key Areas of Deployment
HappyRobot’s AI agents are already being used in several regions and workflow tasks at DHL. These include:
Appointment scheduling for transport and warehouse operations
Automated follow-up calls with drivers
High-priority warehouse-coordination communications
The agents handle both voice and email interactions, working 24/7 to deliver faster and more consistent communications across DHL’s service network.
Operational Impact and Workforce Benefit
DHL reports that the deployment of these AI agents has helped reduce manual effort, increase responsiveness and bring greater consistency in communications.
Agentic AI: Reshaping the Future of Logistics
According to Sally Miller, CIO of DHL Supply Chain: "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.”
Meanwhile, Lindsay Bridges, EVP Human Resources at DHL Supply Chain, noted: "AI agents help us relieve our teams from repetitive, timeconsuming 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. That’s not just operational progress, it’s also a win for our people.”
Why This Matters in Logistics
Logistics operations are communication-heavy, involving high volumes of status updates, scheduling, follow-ups and exception handling. Traditional manual processes struggle under rising volumes and complexity, making them costly and error-prone.
HappyRobot’s platform is designed for this white-collar, high-volume activity: its “agentic” AI agents are capable of handling tasks such as phone and email dialogues, negotiating, integrating with internal systems, and real-time escalation.
For DHL, the payoff is clear: faster, more reliable communication operations, improved customer experience, fewer delays due to communication gaps, and human staff freed to focus on strategic tasks rather than repetitive ones.
Intention to Scale
DHL’s announcement signals its intention to scale as “hundreds of thousands of emails and millions of voice minutes annually” are already being handled by Agentic AI and that further use-cases across divisions are under test.
AI as Operational Layer
With this broadened partnership, DHL is not simply automating isolated tasks, but embedding AI agents as an operational layer handling the communications that form the connective tissue of supply-chain operations.
For customers, this means more consistent, faster response and fewer touch points. For DHL’s workforce, it means more time spent on meaningful decision-making rather than routine follow-ups. As logistics volumes and complexity continue to rise, the ability to automate communication at scale becomes a clear competitive differentiator.
As logistics becomes as much as about moving boxes as it is about moving information, the DHL-HappyRobot tie-up serves as a case study of how AI agents are beginning to power the conversations behind the networks.
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