Delivering results is the reason why logistics and shipping support teams are adopting agentic AI, writes Sebastian Glock, Director of Product Marketing & Technology Evangelist at Cognigy.
Billions of letters, parcels, and shipments are delivered each year. They cross international borders and state lines, spanning languages, cultures, and time zones. These are truly global operations. A melting pot of variables at an almost unimaginable scale. Providing consistently strong customer support under these conditions is extremely challenging. As well as acute seasonal peaks in volumes, there are unpredictable spikes in demand. When even 99.8% of transactions go smoothly, companies still face millions of potential inquiries.
Compounding these challenges, labour shortages in contact centres, alongside rising expectations for rapid, digital-first services, are straining customer service teams. Fragmented TMS, WMS, ERP, and CRM systems hinder end-to-end visibility, slowing time to resolution and frustrating customers and staff alike.
AI helping hand
Multinational shipping firms like DHL are turning to the latest generation of AI assistance for support. With human-like interactions in multiple languages, the ability to complete entire workflows, and the reasoning and autonomy to do so, agentic AI is quickly proving to be an invaluable tool in customer service and support.
Not your everyday chatbot
Agentic AI differs from conventional chatbots in almost every way. Where chatbots run off scripts and keyword identification, the AI agents truly understand language and can readily switch between languages. They accurately identify and respond to key information, even when it’s phrased unusually. For example, a customer might say, “I’m expecting a parcel, and so is my housemate,” to which the agent would confirm, “So, we’re talking about two parcels? Please can you confirm the shipment number or numbers if these were two separate orders?”
But the differences between bots and AI agents don’t just stop there. As well as language comprehension, agents have reason and logic. They apply context and variables to their responses, accounting for things like delivery windows or temporary routing conditions. They hold on to this context, even across long and complex interactions, and can work across channels (chat, voice, messaging apps), ensuring customers get the help where and when they need it.
This logic and reasoning shines when we consider agents are integrated with back-end systems and given executional permissions. Not only do they understand the customer’s goal and have access to their profile and account history, but they can also analyze multiple systems at once, deduce the actions needed to resolve the issue, and then see them through – all autonomously. This is incredibly useful for actions like shipment tracking, delivery changes, and pickup requests.
Seb Glock, Cognigy
Agents are, in fact, proactive in their operations. They actively start and complete workflows without direct human prompting, provided it helps them achieve their goal. So, should a delay in shipping arise, for example, agents could proactively inform customers, confirm new delivery windows, and attempt to find the appropriate workaround. Likewise, they can chase up late payments or send reminders.
Supporting DHL internationally
You can begin to see why DHL adopted such a powerful tool to support its customer service teams. Processing over 15 billion letters and parcels annually, the company’s 0.2% inquiry rate means it still handles over 30 million customer service interactions each year. With an increasingly international customer base with a preference for phone interactions, DHL needed multilingual support across time zones that could handle its colossal scale.
The deployment of its AI voice agent, Paula, has helped the company maintain a high customer satisfaction score of over 80%, lowered operational costs, and reduced response times. Fully integrated with their CRM, SAP, and Salesforce, and providing multichannel, multilingual support, Paula has relieved a significant amount of strain on DHL’s customer service teams. And when inquiries sometimes prove too complex, Paula seamlessly hands over to a human agent.
Benefits at scale
Agentic AI presents a new chapter in customer support services. Offering demonstrable value at scale, shipping and logistics companies are becoming more resilient, efficient, and cost-effective as they continue to deploy AI agents. Human workforces are relieved of repetitive, high-volume inquiries and are able to focus on higher-value interactions. And customers continue to enjoy satisfying interactions, with faster resolution times and fully digital support. The future is agentic.
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