Allcargo Logistics: AI Reduces Customer Churn, Improves Order Win Rates

Kapil Mahajan, Global Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO) of Allcargo Logistics speaking with FE CIO elaborates on the various Artificial Intelligence initiatives,their benefits realised and future plans.

The company said, the overarching objective behind adopting AI was to remove manual intervention, enhance decision making and deliver measurable business outcomes.

Edited Excerpts

What were the key AI initiatives undertaken in H1, 2025-26 and FY 2024-25?

Over the last few months, we have developed and deployed 25+ AI projects across the Allcargo group that directly address sales, operations, pricing and procurement. 

Each initiative was chosen for its ability to remove manual effort, improve decision-making and deliver measurable business outcomes. Tools such as ELMA (our process-document AI) are helping enforce process compliance at scale, while SARA (GenAI-enabled sales assistant) is giving our sales teams sharper, more contextual customer insights. Our pricing-intelligence engine now provides near real-time visibility into container-freight cost trends, enabling more competitive, data-backed RFQ responses for our global accounts.

We are already seeing the impact on the ground. AQUA, our quote-automation engine, was designed to solve a very simple but high-value problem, quote email volume and response delay. Now live across six countries, AQUA processes ~12,000 quote emails a month and has brought down average response time from 6–10 minutes to under 2 minutes. That speed advantage directly translates into higher win-rates and improved customer experience.

Similarly, our Dynamic Customer Retention ML program identifies high-value customers and delivers a weekly prioritized outreach list to sales; early results show a ~2.5 percentage-point absolute reduction in churn, which materially supports margin and volume stability in our Less Than Container Load (LCL) export business.

On the domestic supply chain business side, we are finalising an AI product to automate pickup-request handling, significantly reducing turnaround time and materially improving customer experience and on-time pickups.

Our immediate priorities are adoption and scale. Building solutions is only half the battle; the other half is embedding them into frontline processes, change management, and shared services so the value is realised across countries. To that end we are strengthening Centres of Excellence for AI & Analytics, Automation, DevOps and Cloud, and investing in tooling and playbooks that make country roll-outs repeatable and measurable. 

Finally, while technology delivers the capability, every project is measured on reduced manual interventions, efficiency gains, response time improvements, and bottom-line impact. 

What are the usage stats for the myCFS app and the plans for digital adoption in the coming months ?

We are seeing strong adoption of the myCFS app across our customer base. Today, nearly 45–50% of our customers actively use the platform on a regular basis, which reflects the growing comfort and preference for digital interactions within our ecosystem.

From an operational standpoint, we have continued to strengthen digital enablement across our CFS network. Our focused efforts through Q2 FY26 have resulted in a consistent increase in digital clearance levels at almost all locations, be it Mundra, Dadri and JNPT. As we move into Q3 FY26, we are placing even greater emphasis on expanding digital adoption and bringing more customers onto the platform. We have set an internal target of achieving 70% digital clearance across all locations by the end of Q3, supported by product enhancements, customer education, and process simplification initiatives.

Overall, the traction on the myCFS app and the steady upward trend in digital clearance reflect our broader commitment to driving seamless, tech-enabled logistics experiences for our customers.

What were the biggest hurdles in rolling out smart yard systems across facilities?

Smart yard systems change long-standing manual processes i.e. gate operations, truck movement flow, equipment allocation and ensuring that supervisors, operators and partner fleets were comfortable with the new digital steps required sustained training and hand-holding. Integrating the system with legacy equipment was also a practical challenge at a few locations.

Local statutory and procedural differences also played a role. State-specific regulations, customs protocols and yard-level compliance requirements influence how systems can be configured, especially when it comes to gate automation, OCR integration and data capture.

We expect adoption to accelerate further as more sites move to standardised operating models and as we complete infrastructure harmonisation across key hubs.

What has been the vendor engagement strategy, why were they chosen?

Technology has been a foundational pillar in strengthening our global logistics capabilities, and every digital initiative we undertake is backed by carefully selected partners who bring deep domain expertise, proven reliability, and the ability to support scale across 180+ countries. Our philosophy has always been to work with global leaders who understand complex supply-chain environments and can help us build a secure, agile and future-ready digital ecosystem.

A good example is ECU Worldwide’s (the global arm of Allcargo Logistics) partnership with IBM, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build and scale iTopaz, our AI-enabled, cloud-first platform that will redefine operational efficiency and customer centricity. IBM Consulting brings automation and cloud transformation capabilities, TCS strengthens the ERP and integration architecture, and AWS provides the scalable cloud backbone for an open, flexible system. The platform is being rolled out in phases and will be fully deployed by 2027.

ECU Worldwide has also collaborated with Rackspace Technology to modernise global operations by migrating critical workloads to AWS. This move has improved scalability, enhanced system performance, and accelerated our ability to deploy new digital capabilities across markets.

On the customer engagement front, we have standardised our CRM globally on Salesforce, enabling a unified view of customers, consistent service journeys, and real-time collaboration. Our growing API ecosystem further enhances integration across partners and internal systems, driving transparency and seamless end-to-end process visibility.

For our express and consultative logistics business, we partnered with Infolob Global to migrate core ERP workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). OCI’s secure, high-performance architecture has strengthened our digital backbone, delivering measurable operational improvements. With Oracle Base Database Service, Oracle Data Guard and OCI Compute and Storage, we now have an environment that ensures high availability, robust disaster recovery, and the agility to scale with business needs.

Across all these initiatives, the underlying principle remains consistent partnering with technology leaders who align with our long-term vision and can help us build intelligent, automated and resilient logistics systems capable of supporting our growth globally.

Are there plans to integrate AI, IoT, or blockchain in future logistics operations?

We are very clear that the future of logistics will be shaped by intelligent, connected and data-driven operations, and our roadmap reflects exactly that. 

AI is already embedded across multiple workflows, and we are scaling these models globally to drive faster decisions, better forecasting and higher service reliability. 

In parallel, we are expanding our IoT footprint across warehouses, fleets and CFS facilities to enable real-time visibility, predictive insights and a truly responsive command-and-control layer. 

While blockchain is still evolving in terms of ecosystem readiness, we are actively evaluating its role in areas like document digitisation and smart contracts. 

Overall, the direction is consistent, deeper AI adoption, richer IoT-led telemetry, and selective use of emerging technologies where they create clear business value. 

What are the Digital initiatives in H2, 2025-26?

In H2 of FY 2025–26, our digital agenda is focused on scaling the foundations we have already built and accelerating the initiatives that directly enhance customer experience, operational efficiency and network reliability. 

We are continuing the momentum on cloud, AI and IoT across the group. For express and consultative business, the integration with the ONDC platform is a key priority in the second half, as it enables deeper participation in the digital commerce ecosystem and strengthens our last-mile and express delivery capabilities. 

With our successful migration to Oracle OCI, we are also expanding our data lake and rolling out advanced analytics and AI models for network optimisation, line-haul planning, and real-time operational decision-making through an upgraded control tower.

At ECU Worldwide, the international supply chain business, we are sustaining our investments in AI-led pricing, demand forecasting and route optimisation models, while progressively expanding ECU360 features to drive higher digital adoption across our global customer base. 

Our terminals business is enhancing the myCFS platform with smart-yard capabilities, OCR-enabled gate automation and predictive planning tools, which will continue to be deployed across more locations in H2.

Across the group, the direction is clear, deepen automation, increase adoption of digital platforms, and embed AI and IoT into core workflows. H2 will be about scaling these initiatives, improving impact metrics, and ensuring that our digital infrastructure becomes even more agile, intelligent and customer-centric.