Innovation with Intention: How We’re Approaching AI at Dependable

At Dependable, we’ve spent over two years thinking strategically about how artificial intelligence (AI) fits into our logistics operation. Given our 75-year operational history and extensive archive of logistics data, we’ve always known we have much to gain from using AI. The question was never whether to utilize AI, but rather where to begin and how to do so effectively.

That answer, for the immediate term, is our Customer Service Representative (CSR) team.

Our Vice President of IT, Deepak Sharma, has led our AI implementation efforts, identifying where AI can provide the best return on investment (ROI). After evaluating numerous vendors and performing detailed workflow analysis across the company, Deepak’s team identified the CSR function as most promising. Our CSRs handle a significant volume of customer inquiries every day, which often involves researching information from multiple sources within the company to pull together a cohesive response.

“We were looking for a ready-made solution that could integrate with our existing systems,” Deepak explained, “not one built from the ground up.”

With a vendor now chosen, we have an implementation timeline with a phased rollout underway for the AI solution. The first phase of the rollout will route all incoming customer emails through an AI system that creates a draft reply for the CSR to review prior to sending. Once the phase is deemed successful after a period of training and fine-tuning based on employee and customer feedback, the next step will involve routing inbound voice calls from participating customers through the AI system, and ultimately developing a customer-facing chatbot tailored to each customer account, which will allow clients to get answers and resolutions to their queries more quickly.

This rollout is particularly meaningful because of the collaborative efforts across the company to make it happen. Susan Hild, who leads our CSR team, and her staff were involved together with Deepak Wahane from IT beginning from the early stages of the development process. They contributed information regarding common types of customer inquiries received, systems used to research information, and typical functions of their jobs. Their input has been foundational to identifying the right solution, and their enthusiasm for the project speaks to the intentional approach we’ve taken with AI implementation from the beginning.

“We made it clear from day one that this isn’t about replacing our team,” Deepak said. “It’s about making them more effective.”

For our customers, the approach is just as thoughtful. As AI-assisted interactions roll out, we’re committed to being transparent about it. We will seek feedback from customers throughout every phase of implementation. When customers are (eventually) speaking with an AI agent, they’ll know. More importantly, the option to connect with a human CSR will always be available.

The goal our efforts is consistent with how we’ve always operated: deliver increased speed and improved accuracy in servicing our customers while keeping our team focused on the work that genuinely requires their expertise. We view AI as a means to support both of these objectives.

It’s an exciting chapter for our IT team and the company as a whole. We’re looking forward to sharing more as the project gets underway.