Orchestrating Automation and Robotics with DHL CIO Sally Miller
Host Evan Reiser (Abnormal AI) welcomes Sally Miller, Global Chief Information Officer at DHL Supply Chain. Sally reveals how AI and robotics are reshaping the warehouse floor, the back office, and customer expectations at a company operating 2,500 sites across more than 50 countries. From early bets on generative tools to inclusive bots supporting multi-language teams, she shares the strategy, systems, and human factors required to scale AI across the globe.
Quick hits from Sally:
On strategic clarity for AI: “We look for where people spend time doing non-value-added tasks and ask if AI can do that for them.”
On AI’s impact at DHL: “Where we would be calling over the course of a week to confirm delivery appointments, we now kick off agents and those appointments are confirmed within a couple of hours. We’ve saved that [manual work], we’ve automated it, and we have the data faster. So the downstream processes are more efficient.”
On business framing for AI usage: “I view AI as to the white-collar workforce what robotics was to the blue-collar workforce. It is going to change the way people work, much like the introduction of the personal computer.”
These smaller, high-velocity facilities store frequently purchased products—from fresh food and groceries to personal-care items and small electronics.