C.H. Robinson is rolling out artificial intelligence across its global freight forwarding operations, targeting some of the most labor-intensive processes in global logistics. The company is using a web of specialized AI agents to speed up pricing, ease bookings for ocean and air freight, and reduce the administrative burden of customs clearance.
This is especially true in the treatment of quotations. Ocean freight was three days or more while air freight was a full day. “It takes two to three minutes now.” The technology has already generated more than 80,000 quotes for more than 3,600 customers, the company said.
These gains may be especially important for healthcare and pharmaceutical supply chains. Air freight is frequently called upon to get life-saving medicines and temperature-sensitive products to their destinations within tight timelines. Speedier quoting and booking processes reduce administrative delays, and help critical medical supplies move in a timely manner.
“ We continue to see the benefits of applying our AI capabilities to the international freight operations grow,” said Mike Short, President of Global Forwarding at C.H. Robinson. Customers get information faster, data is more consistent and processes are easier to forecast. If there are disruptions, or if their transport plans change, they can assess alternative routes, shipping modes, schedules and prices more quickly.
Short also spoke of the commercial importance of speed. Getting the right carrier and the right vessel departure or flight early can give customers a competitive edge. Ocean voyages take 15 to 35 days, so lost sailings can cost in lost time. Consistent delivery schedules are also critical for air shipments of essential medicines, perishable agricultural goods and critical automotive components.
The company calls its approach “Lean AI” — an approach designed to make supply chains faster, more efficient and more responsive to changes.
Network of AI agents solving complicated freight calculations
International freight forwarding has many variables to consider, from port selection to terminal charges, inland transport options, and coordination across time zones. Instead of one big algorithm, C.H. Robinson has created a network of specialized AI agents and subagents that are interconnected and each of which is responsible for specific tasks.
The power of the system is apparent when calculating the cost of a shipment leaving Shanghai. The first hurdle, Short says, is deciding which of the two ports in the city the shipper will use. There is an inland route for a toll. Also the 43 terminals charge different fees and fees at origin and destination can change frequently.
Specialized AI agents check terminal websites daily & monitor emails with notifications of fee changes to keep quotations accurate. In this way, employees in two different time zones do not need to call every terminal manually if a new quotation is requested.
It can also suggest routing options if a port is not specified by the customer. For example, a shipment from a factory in Germany to a retailer in Chicago could be routed through Hamburg or Bremerhaven. It may also suggest Rotterdam in the Netherlands, because of its more regular sailings.
Apart from deciding on the port, the AI agents can suggest inland transportation via truck, rail or barge, select the destination port and identify a suitable consolidation center when multiple shipments need to be consolidated.
C.H. Robinson’s experience using AI to support its specialists gives the company a strong foundation to automate freight forwarding, a business with complex operational requirements and constantly changing conditions, Short said.
International expansion carries on through 2027
C.H. Robinson began rolling out its AI-powered pricing technology in 2025, initially targeting less-than-container-load (LCL) ocean freight for customers in the United States and Canada.
Since then the program has expanded into full-container-load (FCL) ocean freight and air cargo across Mexico, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. The system is currently being piloted in China, with plans for deployment in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa in Q4 2026.
The company is also deploying AI to manage ocean freight booking requests. These agents insert customer specific information into the booking process automatically. The feature was launched in China in August and is expected to be rolled out globally by early 2027.
“We still have work to do to automate every step in the booking process,” said Mike Neill, C.H. Robinson’s chief technology officer. Nevertheless, he said the current progress is a big step forward.
The company had already invested in digital booking forms and data-exchange systems designed to engage customers before buying into agentic AI. And after about 10 years of development, these efforts had only automated about 5% of ocean and air booking requests.
Part of the difficulty is the nature of customer supply chains. Once C.H. Robinson provides a quote, the customer’s suppliers may be responsible for making the actual bookings. A customer can have up to 50 suppliers which means lots of requests had to be handled manually before .
The company plans to use AI agents to automate those requests, so employees won’t have to deal with them one at a time. As technology evolves, this could be a huge boost for booking efficiency.
Customs automation cuts processing time by 23%
C.H. Robinson is applying the same thinking to customs brokerage, where international shipments must satisfy a long list of documentation and regulatory requirements before they can be cleared.
Trade agreements are changing and tariffs are changing and customs procedures are getting tougher. Historically, much of the paperwork involved has had to be done manually, increasing admin and the potential for delays.
The AI system the company has developed can recognize dozens of document types and match them to the appropriate shipments. It then pulls out the key information, identifies the missing documents and starts requests to get the paperwork that is still missing.
C.H. Robinson said the capabilities have cut customs processing times by 23%. The system automates routine administrative tasks, allowing human customs brokers to focus on more complex compliance issues that require professional judgment.
“The transformation began for us in 2023 with the development of the first of hundreds of proprietary AI agents that we now have,” said Arun Rajan, chief strategy and innovation officer. Since then, C.H. Robinson has been making very targeted decisions about where to apply its Lean AI approach.
The agents now handle 100 trillion data points and are supplemented with a contextual layer of customer-specific information. Combined with operational context, the company believes this gives it a competitive advantage that would be very difficult for other providers to copy.
Meanwhile, C.H. Robinson’s 450 in-house software engineers and data scientists continue to build technology for its trucking and fourth-party logistics (4PL) businesses. The company is now using these capabilities to strengthen its position in global freight forwarding.
The expansion underscores C.H. Robinson’s broader strategy to use AI for more than just discrete administrative tasks. The group plans to automate pricing, booking and customs operations to reduce processing times, improve data consistency and better serve the needs of global supply chains.
