‘The First Day Is the Worst Day’: DHL’s Gina Chung on How AI Improves Over Time

As vice president of innovation at logistics company DHL, Gina Chung oversees a 28,000-square-foot innovation facility in Chicago. Fascinated with supply chains since college (“I think it’s something to do with the fact that I’m from New Zealand and grew up in a pretty isolated part of the world,” she explains), she spearheads AI and robotics projects focused on front-line operations — like automated pallet inspection and stacking, delivery route optimization, and aircraft utilization. Gina notes that “the first day for AI is the worst day”: The technology improves with human input over time, achieving accuracy to a level where people trust and embrace it. She describes how success requires closely collaborating with key stakeholders, integrating change management, bringing teams along when introducing new technology, and designing solutions with the end user in mind. Read the episode transcript here. Read more about our show and follow along with the series at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/aipodcast. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast between MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group, hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Its engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger. Guest bio: Gina Chung is vice president, Innovation Americas, at DHL, where she is responsible for DHL’s Americas Innovation Center, a purpose-built platform to engage customers, startups, and industries on the future of logistics. She manages a portfolio of projects focused on the rapid testing and adoption of technologies such as collaborative robotics and artificial intelligence across logistics operations. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials. We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey.