DHL Group is positioning itself as an early mover in agentic AI for logistics operations, expanding its enterprise-wide AI roadmap through a new partnership between DHL Supply Chain and AI startup HappyRobot. For retail and e‑commerce players that depend on DHL’s contract logistics network, the deal signals a shift toward AI-managed communications as a core layer of fulfillment, transportation, and warehouse orchestration.
DHL’s AI push in logistics
DHL Supply Chain is using HappyRobot’s AI agents in live environments for appointment scheduling, driver follow-up calls, and high-priority warehouse coordination across multiple regions. These agents autonomously manage phone and email interactions at scale, aiming to deliver faster, more reliable, and more standardized communication to shippers and retailers.
For a sector under pressure from next-day delivery expectations and volatile order volumes, AI-driven communication layers promise to reduce friction between transportation, warehouse teams, and retail customers. By moving routine status checks and coordination tasks to AI agents, DHL is targeting both higher service levels and lower per-order communication costs.
Strategic AI deployment at DHL Supply Chain
“As part of our structured and strategic approach to AI, DHL Supply Chain has been systematically identifying and validating operational use cases for generative and agentic AI technologies for over 18 months. 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”, Sally Miller, CIO DHL Supply Chain, explained.
Current deployments already address hundreds of thousands of emails and millions of voice minutes per year, focusing on workflows like appointment scheduling, transport status calls, and high-priority warehouse coordination. For retail tech stakeholders, this positions agentic AI not as a side experiment, but as an operational layer that directly impacts on-time performance, dock utilization, and exception response time in omnichannel fulfillment networks.
Inside the HappyRobot platform
Quili Peña, HappyRobot’s Head of Strategy & Operations and the lead for this strategic partnership effort, emphasized the significance of the collaboration, stating: “Working with the DHL Supply Chain leadership on this landmark initiative has been fantastic. Their teams brought clarity, urgency, and real commitment to making this a reality, and we’re grateful for the strong collaboration and excited to continue building together.”
Yamil Mateo, HappyRobot’s Head of Product, said that close collaboration between the product and engineering teams and DHL Supply Chain’s technology departments has been crucial to designing new agentic capabilities that reflect the nuances of DHL’s operations. He remarked, “The DHL team understood very early the scale of enablement our platform brings to their organization. They were clear that they wanted a partner with state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure.”
Omnichannel orchestration and reliability
Danny Luo, a senior engineer on the founding team, added, “To enable this transformation, we’ve created a unified AI worker orchestration layer across email, WhatsApp, and SMS, enabling omnichannel capabilities with built-in fault tolerance and recovery.” He and his team have also been working on major reliability improvements in the infrastructure to support the scale and criticality of the operational processes running on the HappyRobot deployment for DHL, a non‑negotiable requirement when AI sits in the middle of time-sensitive freight operations.
HappyRobot’s platform enables fully autonomous AI agents to interact via phone, email, and messaging while integrating with DHL’s internal systems, from transport and warehouse management to CRM and workforce tools. This deep integration allows AI workers to read and write operational data, not just converse, turning communication events into structured signals that can feed analytics, SLA monitoring, and continuous optimization.
AI agents as a new operating layer
These implementations have already shown measurable impact – significantly reducing manual effort, increasing responsiveness, and enabling teams to focus on more strategic tasks and exception handling. By automating high-volume communication workflows, AI agents like those from HappyRobot are helping DHL deliver faster, more customer-centric services, while improving the work experience for employees and contributing to long-term workforce retention.
“At DHL Supply Chain, our people are at the heart of everything we do,” said Lindsay Bridges, EVP Human Resources at DHL Supply Chain. “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.”
Implications for retail and supply chain tech
HappyRobot’s positioning of AI “workers” aligns with a broader industry vision in which logistics communications are increasingly automated, with humans reserved for exceptions, relationship management, and network design. For retailers, this could mean more predictable shipment visibility, fewer dropped follow-ups, and tighter adherence to on-time and in-full (OTIF) metrics that drive shelf availability and penalty avoidance.
“At HappyRobot, we envision AI workers coordinating global supply chain operations – not just moving data, but actively managing workflows,” said Pablo Palafox, CEO of HappyRobot. “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. We’re proud to collaborate with such forward-thinking partners to scale this vision globally.”
DHL Group continues to expand its AI strategy across all divisions, with further use cases under test beyond the current pilots in communications. For retail leaders evaluating their own AI roadmaps, the DHL–HappyRobot partnership offers an emerging blueprint: vertically specialized AI agents embedded directly into logistics workflows, operating as an always-on coordination fabric between brands, carriers, and warehouses
