C.H. Robinson says AI agents lifted productivity 45% through a freight slump (interview)

C.H. Robinson, the 120-year-old Minnesota freight broker, has deployed hundreds of AI agents built in-house, on Lean-management lines: teams mapped every workflow, eliminated tasks that added no value, and automated the routine ones. CEO Dave Bozeman, three years in the job, told Fortune the programme has lifted employee productivity 45 per cent since 2022 and driven double-digit EPS growth since 2023, even as a post-COVID shipping slump cut revenues about 34 per cent.

The showcase is quoting: AI agents now return customer quotes in 31 seconds, around the clock, where human specialists took 20 minutes — and faster, richer quotes win more requests for business. The specialists moved up to advisory work such as navigating tariff regimes; with natural attrition of 11–14 per cent a year the company has not backfilled leavers, so for quoting, headcount is now largely divorced from volume. In-house building by 450 shipping-domain engineers keeps token costs under $2 million against claimed 'hundreds of millions of dollars' of benefit.

The next phase is strategic: Bozeman wants Robinson to graduate from freight broker to 'supply chain in a box' — running customers' entire supply-chain function — and to regain small and mid-sized customers it had lost, with human reps assisted by AI. Both areas are hiring, he says.

45% productivity uplift since 2022 and double-digit EPS growth since 2023 (self-reported in the interview); quotes cut from 20 minutes to 31 seconds.

A 34% revenue slump meant growth had to come from productivity and win-rates rather than volume.

Workflows were mapped and pruned before automation, so agents took over genuinely repetitive tasks like quoting.

In-house models built by 450 shipping-domain engineers kept token costs under $2M and the moat hard to copy.

Map the workflow before you automate: agents that absorb genuinely repetitive work free specialists for advisory roles instead of deleting them.

Bozeman's stated ambition is 'supply chain in a box' — taking over customers' supply-chain functions outright — plus an AI-assisted push on small and mid-sized customers, with hiring continuing in advisory roles. All performance figures are the company's own, as reported in Fortune's interview.