AI-powered quoting has generated more than 80,000 freight quotations for 3,600-plus customers, while customs automation cuts processing time by 23%, the company says.
C.H. Robinson has expanded its artificial intelligence capabilities across ocean shipping, air freight and customs brokerage, introducing specialised AI agents designed to accelerate freight quotations, streamline booking processes and automate parts of US customs documentation.
Announced on October 26, 2026, the expansion extends the logistics provider’s Lean AI operating model into global freight forwarding. The approach combines AI agents with lean process-management principles, targeting specific manual or time-consuming tasks while retaining human oversight.
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According to the company, its AI-powered pricing technology has generated more than 80,000 quotations for over 3,600 customers. Air freight quotations that previously took around a day, and ocean freight quotations that typically required two to three days, can now be produced in approximately two to three minutes.
Faster quotations and smarter routing
The AI agents are designed to handle the multiple variables involved in international freight pricing, including origin and destination requirements, port selection, terminal charges and inland transportation options.
Where a shipper does not specify a port, the technology can assess available information and recommend suitable alternatives. It can also help determine inland connections by truck, rail or barge, and identify consolidation centres where required.
C.H. Robinson said its pricing technology was first introduced in 2025 for less-than-container-load (LCL) ocean freight customers in the United States and Canada. It has since been extended to full-container-load ocean freight and air cargo, serving customers in Mexico, Europe, Latin America and Oceania.
The company is piloting the technology with customers in China and expects to extend it to Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa during the fourth quarter of 2026.
Mike Short, president of Global Forwarding at C.H. Robinson, said the technology enables customers to receive information sooner, improves data consistency and makes processes more predictable. Faster quotations and booking decisions can also help shippers respond more quickly when routing, schedules or transport modes need to change.
Ocean booking automation expands
C.H. Robinson is also deploying AI agents to manage ocean booking requests. The company receives thousands of such requests each week, many of which involve coordination among customers and their suppliers.
Mike Neill, chief technology officer, said the company had achieved only around 5% automation of ocean and air booking requests over approximately a decade using digital booking forms and data-exchange systems.
The new agent-based approach is intended to reduce manual handling by processing booking requests and incorporating customer-specific requirements. The booking agents launched in China in August 2026, with expansion across the rest of Asia planned for the fourth quarter. A global rollout is expected in the first quarter of 2027.
C.H. Robinson acknowledged that further work is required to automate the full booking process.
Customs processing time falls 23%
The company is also applying AI to documentation workflows supporting US customs clearance. Its systems handle more than four dozen types of documents supplied by shippers, carriers and government agencies.
The process includes separating and classifying incoming documents, associating them with the relevant shipments, extracting key information and identifying missing paperwork. The system can also request outstanding documents and generate invoices and information packets.
C.H. Robinson said these measures have reduced the time its Customs team spends on the relevant work by 23%. The company says the reduction allows customs brokers to concentrate more closely on validation, compliance and other tasks requiring professional judgement.
Arun Rajan, chief strategy and innovation officer, said the company began building its proprietary AI agents in 2023 and continues to select processes where automation can deliver measurable operational benefits.
The company said its AI agents operate across a data environment containing 100 trillion data points and customer-specific information. It also has 450 in-house software engineers and data scientists working on technology across its logistics businesses.
The expansion highlights the growing role of agentic AI in freight forwarding, where multiple specialised systems can work together on complex tasks. C.H. Robinson says its model is intended to improve speed and consistency while maintaining human involvement in critical operational and compliance decisions.
