C. H. Robinson (CHRW) Citi’s 2026 Global TMT Conference summary

Transformation and productivity gains

• Achieved over 60% increase in gross profit per employee and double-digit growth in shipments per employee, while reducing headcount by 30% over the past few years.

• Implemented a lean operating model focused on continuous improvement, speed, and problem-solving, transforming a legacy company into an industry disruptor.

• Leveraged proprietary technology and the largest industry dataset to drive operational efficiency and bottom-line results.

• AI and Lean AI strategies have delivered significant productivity, revenue growth, and margin expansion across the P&L.

• Custom-built technology is highly defensible and difficult to replicate, with marginal cost of ownership for AI agents close to zero.

Technology and AI platform

• Shifted from traditional software engineering to an agentic AI platform, enabling scalable operations and decoupling headcount from volume growth.

• Built a harness on top of LLMs, allowing context-driven, English-programmed workflows and significant acceleration in productivity.

• Machine learning-based pricing algorithms and cost discovery tools optimize gross margins and enable dynamic, personalized pricing.

• Mature AI agents automate transactional quoting, reducing response time from 17-20 minutes to 31 seconds and scaling without additional headcount.

• Strategic partnerships with Microsoft and Snowflake provide infrastructure, while a custom harness routes workloads to the most cost-effective LLMs.

Financial impact and operating leverage

• Generated hundreds of millions in operating income value since 2022, with annualized token costs under $1.2 million.

• Achieved over 20% earnings growth in 2024 and 2025 despite a prolonged freight recession, with expectations for continued growth even in flat or down markets.

• Demonstrated best-in-industry operating leverage, transforming from a variable to a semi-fixed cost model, combining asset-like leverage with asset-light flexibility.

• Insurance and claims costs remain immaterial, with less than 50 basis points of gross revenue, and inflationary pressures expected to be manageable.