UPS marked its 119th birthday this week and used the occasion to examine how its workforce fits alongside a widening deployment of artificial intelligence.
The Sandy Springs, Georgia, company held its fifth annual UPS Impact Summit at corporate headquarters on Wednesday, with artificial intelligence and human ingenuity as the theme. Chief executive Carol Tome opened the event, which brought together company executives and outside speakers to discuss technology, trust, workplace culture, and social impact.
Bala Subramanian, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer, said 70 percent of UPS employees now use AI in some form.
Kate Gutmann, executive vice president and president of International, Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions, argued that human connection still determines outcomes even as the tools spread through the organization.
Jenna Lauer, chief commercial officer at The Harris Poll, told the audience that trust underpins customer loyalty, citing pet supply retailer Chewy, which ranked first in the 2026 Axios Harris Poll 100. She pointed to handwritten notes as a driver of that result and noted Starbucks has resumed writing on cups. In a period when speed carries a premium, Lauer said a simple thank you can carry a company further with its customers.
Keynote speaker Angus Fletcher, author of "Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know," described capabilities people bring to problem solving that differ from machine output, including imagining new possibilities and exercising judgment under uncertainty. Fletcher said people often default to approaches that worked before, while creative breakthroughs come from seeing possibilities outside familiar patterns.
UPS was started in 1907 by 18-year-old Jim Casey, who borrowed $100 to launch the business with a friend in the basement of a Seattle bar. The company today employs more than 400,000 people and operates in more than 200 countries and territories.
Source: SaportaReport - https://saportareport.com/ups-marks-anniversary-by-looking-at-ai-and-the-human-touch/columnists/adrianne-murchison/