Talking Supply Chain: Putting Gen AI into action

While many companies remain in the Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) pilot stage, mainstream adoption is rapidly approaching. Some companies, like DHL Supply Chain, are already incorporating the technology into everyday use, and are finding success.

“This is a technology that that we can change our game, and we can become a better provider of choice as a third-party logistics company,” Eric Walters, vice president, analytics & performance management, for DHL Supply Chain, told Talking Supply Chain podcast host Brian Straight. “We were able to partner with the Boston Consulting Group through 2023, and into part of 2024 with the approach of crawl-walk-run. You know they really held our hand in that crawl stage. In the walk stage we were able to do it under their watchful and helpful eye. And now, in the run stage, we graduated and Boston Consulting Group has moved on to help other companies. And we are running fast in this Gen AI space today.”

That running includes many projects pulling in external data to help DHL Supply Chain better predict possible outcomes for its clients. It is also helping the company improve its work environment by using data such as government unemployment rates.

“One [area] that’s super important to us and our quest is, really, being an employer of choice,” Walters said. “We want to make sure that we are looked at as an employer choice in the marketplace, and a big factor in that is labor rates. It allows us to make sure that we are paying people appropriately compared to other opportunities they have in that geographic region.

“And then also, if we would see unemployment rates increase in a marketplace, that could that could impact demand for products that move through our facilities,” he added. “And we could feed that into … volume prediction tools that we also have in use today in our warehouses.”

To hear more of how DHL Supply Chain is using Gen AI, listen to the full conversation today.

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