Forwarding, Freight News, IT, Logistics


CH Robinson develops first AI supply chain engineer

[ June 24, 2026   //   ]

US-based forwarder CH Robinson has built what it describes as the first AI technology to both operate a shipper’s global supply chain and continuously assess and improve its performance.  Now serving the company’s 4PL Managed Solutions customers, the Lean AI Engineer works in concert with the Lean AI Planner introduced last year to enhance a supply chain as it runs.  

The company says that Lean AI Engineer can assess an entire supply chain in 25 to 30 minutes and determine improvements compared to supply chain assessments that typically take up to four weeks and look backward at what has happened instead of what should happen.

President of managed solutions, Jordan Kass, said: “The breakthrough here is that it’s one closed-loop AI system,” said. “It will run continuously, improve the operation it’s running and heal itself when something breaks — without an alert or a human noticing a problem first.

The Lean AI Planner executes in real time while the Lean AI Engineer studies the results, identifies patterns, adapts logic and influences future decisions.

“This level of premium logistics service has traditionally depended on talented people to manage complexity, make smart decisions day to day and intervene during disruption,” said Kass. “The problem was that talent didn’t scale. We’ve changed that by encoding expertise in the technology itself. Shippers will get infinite talent and expertise, consistently applied across every shipment, regardless of who’s available in what time zone or how much their shipping volume grows or spikes. Their team and our team can focus on strategic priorities and driving the best business results.”

CH Robinson’s AI takes into account more variables than human analysis or typical software analysis could, and recommendations are more actionable as well as prioritised.

It says that one early adopter learned that switching from a varied shipping schedule to once a week would reduce their loads by 17% across 20 locations for an annual savings of over £750,000 ($1 million). For another, reorganising their shipments so that one pickup serves three different delivery locations would cut their loads by 81% and save them 40%.

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