Lessons on Intrapreneurship at Scale | With the Head of AI & Innovation at UPS

Sunzay Passari, Director and Global Head of AI and Innovation at UPS, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to unpack what it really means to drive AI inside a 118-year-old global enterprise operating in 200 countries.From route optimization and warehouse automation to AI-driven pricing models generating measurable ROI, Sunzay explains how UPS applies both operational AI (“physical AI”) and business AI at enormous scale. With 26 million packages moving daily in the U.S. alone, even a one-cent optimization per package becomes transformational.The conversation explores intrapreneurship inside legacy organizations, how to build cross-functional AI task forces, measuring ROI across hundreds of use cases, and when agentic AI can make real decisions versus keeping humans in the loop.If you're a founder, enterprise leader, or AI operator wondering how large organizations actually implement AI beyond pilots, this episode offers practical insight at global scale._______________________________________________________________Timestamps00:00 Intro and leading AI innovation at UPS01:20 From eBay product leadership to UPS02:30 Why UPS hired externally for innovation03:10 118 years of legacy meets AI transformation04:10 Operational AI: route optimization & “no left turns”05:30 6,000 warehouses, 150,000 trucks, 300 planes06:30 Business AI: optimizing complex pricing models08:00 AI for product portfolio recommendations09:10 Building the AI task force and org structure10:20 ROI-first mindset: how UPS prioritizes use cases11:30 Dashboarding initiatives and GTM tracking12:30 Working with hyperscalers and enterprise platforms13:00 What it takes for startups to work with UPS14:20 Why UPS is the most reliable (and most expensive) carrier15:30 Profitable volume vs pure growth strategy16:20 Scale math: 26M packages per day in the U.S.17:10 Agentic AI: low-risk autonomous decisions18:10 Physical AI: drones, humanoids & warehouse robotics19:10 Happy Returns acquisition & No Box No Label20:30 Measuring AI adoption internally21:00 Killer use case: pricing, pricing, pricing22:00 Advice on AI adoption and resilience23:00 “There is no failure in technology” mindset_______________________________________________________________🔗 Connect with Sunzay Passari → https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunzaypassari/🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan🎧 Subscribe to the podcastYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4ASpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malas-podcast/id1848618438Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai