'It Is Not Ready For Prime Time Yet,' FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam Says—Even As He Pushes 'Super Humanoid Robots' And AI For 17M Daily Deliveries

Warehouse robots and artificial intelligence are moving fast through logistics, but one major delivery company is slowing down. FedEx (NYSE:FDX) is expanding its use of AI across a global network while taking a cautious approach to warehouse robotics and drones, CEO Raj Subramaniam recently told The New York Times. Subramaniam said shipping and logistics giant FedEx handles roughly $2 trillion in global commerce annually, calling the company "the heartbeat of the industrial economy," with about 70% of revenue coming from business-to-business shipping. Don't Miss: The AI Marketing Platform Backed by Insiders from Google, Meta, and Amazon — Invest at $0.85/Share Blue-chip art has historically outpaced the S&P 500 since 1995, and fractional investing is now opening this institutional asset class to everyday investors. The Work Starts Far Before The Doorstep "When people talk about the ‘last mile,' they sometimes forget about the first 10,000 miles," Subramaniam told the Times. FedEx connects "one end of the planet to another," and that reach has become "very, very important for the global economy," he said, adding that the scale of the company's infrastructure, rather than any single innovation, gives FedEx its edge. That advantage has grown as trade patterns shift. Routes that were previously easier to predict have changed quickly over the past year, prompting FedEx to reconfigure its network, he said. In response, Subramaniam told the Times FedEx has opened new facilities in Istanbul, Bangalore, India, and Dublin, expanded operations across Asia, and launched a new platform in Osaka, Japan, as part of what he called "re-globalization." Trending: Wall Street's $12B Real Estate Manager Is Opening Its Doors to Individual Investors — Without the Crowdfunding Middlemen Data Is The Engine Under The Hood AI already plays a central role in FedEx's operations, Subramaniam told the Times. The company moves about 17 million packages a day, generating multiple petabytes of data across its global system. "The fuel for AI is data," he said, adding that how well that data is organized determines what AI can realistically do. FedEx is using AI to make supply chains smarter and to predict delivery times with increasing precision, he said. With business-to-business shipping accounting for most revenue, Subramaniam said FedEx uses data and AI to predict delivery times with greater precision. See Also: Americans With a Financial Plan Can 4X Their Wealth — Get Your Personalized Plan from a CFP Pro Why Some Technology Is Still On Pause Automation inside FedEx warehouses remains limited, according to Subramaniam. He told the Times that truck loading and unloading are among the hardest problems for robotics because packages arrive in "every size, shape and weight." FedEx is testing whether robots can handle that variability reliably, but Subramaniam said the effort remains experimental. "We're in the pilot stage. It is not ready for prime time yet," he said. Subramaniam said FedEx looks at drones through the lens of aviation, focusing on whether they can fly longer and carry more packages. Flying a single package from one place to another can work for specialized uses, he said, but not for a network that moves millions of packages daily. He also said that FedEx worked on drone technology for about two to three years before ending the project after it failed to work or scale "from the dollar perspective." Read Next: This ETF issuer isn't chasing the index — it's building tools for income, leverage, and conviction Image: Shutterstock