Tag: agents

OM in the News: FedEx Is Planning an AI Agent Workforce

FedEx is building out an army of AI agents to work alongside its human workforce, positioning itself to tap the latest wave of technology crashing through corporate America, reports The Wall Street Journal (March 13, 2026).

The shipping giant, which already deploys artificial intelligence in software development and other areas, is now looking to drive AI agents further into operations, including network planning and business processes. By 2028, FedEx expects to have AI integrated into more than half of its core operational workflows.  FedEx is currently focused on setting up the underlying data and management foundation to oversee its AI bots.

Though logistics providers like FedEx are aiming to adopt AI, they’re grappling with challenges like managing numerous, disconnected data sources. “Logistics can be very fragmented—especially if you think of a global organization with their network being everywhere, it makes it difficult to standardize,” said an industry consultant.

As its underlying tech is completed, FedEx expects to roll out AI and AI agents that connect macro and microeconomic trends to better plan its network. In marketing and campaign management, FedEx will create a hierarchy in which there’s a “manager agent,” an “audit agent” and a “worker agent.” The goal of the hierarchy is to ensure that the agents have a trail of accountability for their actions.

At the moment, FedEx’s enterprise data platform, called Atlas, supports more than 200 AI use cases across the supply chain, commercial teams and enterprise functions. It has already turned on AI agents in areas such as software development, where they are developing and testing code. In operations, agents are helping customers clear customs more quickly.

Plans for FedEx’s AI agents also involve getting its humans ready to interact with the technology. the company just launched an AI education program for 300,000 of its employees, as well as a more advanced version for its technology workers. Each employee received a customized training depending on their role. FedEx says it doesn’t plan for those agents to replace its workers.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. Why is FedEx pushing for more AI agents?
  2. How will agents be used in operations?

OM in the News: AI, Lean Cultures and Toyota

“Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.,” said Ford’s CEO Jim Farley, in the latest in a succession of executives warning of large-scale job cuts from AI.

Such claims can be pretty convincing—and unsettling.  Large-scale AI-related workforce reductions to date, however, are almost exclusively limited to AI-aligned companies like Meta and Google, writes Industry Week (Aug. 7, 2025).

That said, it’s undeniable that tools like ChatGPT are already having a profound influence on the future of OM work. And the bar keeps raising as AI platform providers release more powerful versions. (ChatGPT currently has around 700 million weekly users).

AI-first companies may be willing to shell out big money for AI “agents” that take the place of human workers. A popular target is workflows that are standard across many companies, such as handling employee queries to accounting or HR. Such work, however, is not as straightforward as it may seem.

Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu  predicts that over the next 10 years, only 5% of all tasks currently undertaken by humans will be profitably automated. He calls for a more human-centric approach. “That best possible way is a much more pro-human approach to AI that’s much more targeted at working with human decision-makers”.

Acemoglu’s findings are consistent with what lean leaders have been saying for decades. Uniquely human capabilities are essential to continuous improvement and central to lean’s most important pillar—respect for people.

Toyota’s approach to technology has been to articulate the need to improve the process and then, before evaluating automation solutions, investigate ways of meeting that need by simplifying the process (e.g., removing unnecessary steps). Taking this step avoids the common mistake of automating waste and leads to more effective and durable technology solutions.

A key point here is that continuous improvement is a holistic undertaking that seeks to reduce costs and increase value. This is starkly opposed to the common preoccupation with cost cutting, and the use of AI as primarily a vehicle for reducing headcount. The human skill areas in the left column of the above table, however, are not widely recognized or developed in most organizations, and a culture that supports them takes years to build. Lean organizations, accordingly, place considerable emphasis on developing and nurturing skills such as listening, collaborating, problem solving, following a vision and mentoring.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. How does Toyota’s approach tie with AI use?
  2. How can Chat GPT impact manufacturing work?