AI, automation, and data intelligence drive our focus this year: Delhivery’s Parashar

In the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape, effective logistics is crucial for customer satisfaction – driving faster delivery, better inventory management, and personalised experiences. In an interview with TechCircle, Prashant Parashar, Senior Vice President of Technology at Delhivery, a logistics and supply chain company based in Gurgaon, shares insights on how the company is leveraging technology like predictive analytics, automation, and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to meet the growing customer demands in this sector. Edited excerpts:

Which technologies are you most excited about for the e-commerce logistics sector?

We’re extremely excited about the applications of GenAI and Agentic workflows in our space. These technologies are helping us reimagine core logistics processes—from routing and delivery optimisation to customer support—with greater autonomy, adaptability, and scale. In the broader e-commerce sector, GenAI promises to unlock hyper-personalisation and significantly improve efficiency across operations. I'm personally excited about our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, the OS1 platform, which functions as the operating system for business logistics. Our AI-powered transport management system, TransportOne, and LocateOne, a location intelligence solution, to help businesses run their logistics and supply chain operations offerings, among others, are already generating significant efficiency gains for our customers, and I believe this growth will accelerate considerably this year.

Which areas in technology will be your focus this year and why?

This year, we’re doubling down on three core areas: AI-led decision systems, automation, and data intelligence. They’re central to how we’re reimagining logistics to be smarter, faster, and more responsive. We're using AI and machine learning to make better decisions in real time—whether it’s choosing the most efficient delivery route, predicting shipment volumes, or managing exceptions before they become issues. The goal is to bring more agility and precision into every layer of our operations. At the same time, we’re expanding our automation capabilities—from sortation to last-mile delivery—so our systems can handle scale seamlessly and consistently. And of course, data sits at the heart of everything. We’re continuing to build intelligence into our platform, giving teams and customers the insights they need to stay ahead. Ultimately, all of this comes back to delivering more value—more reliability, more transparency, and a better overall experience for our customers and partners.

Are you planning to expand in the next year by hiring new talent or upskilling existing employees?

As a technology-first logistics company, we work with a modern technology stack spanning cloud technologies, modern databases, machine learning and data science, cybersecurity, infrastructure, automation, and robotics. Our focus is to continue hiring across technology teams to keep growing business.

What kind of digital transformation has the company undertaken that helped improve revenue, customer experience, or service speed?

AI, cloud computing, automation, location intelligence, and data-driven systems have been at the core of our technology that drives excellence in our business. Each of these areas has played a critical role in strengthening the foundation of our operations and directly impacting the speed, quality, and consistency of our service. For instance, our AI and machine learning models now power everything from demand forecasting and route optimisation to dynamic allocation of resources across the network. This has helped us reduce delivery times, minimise delays, and increase overall network efficiency—even during peak demand periods. Automation continues to be a major lever—our tech-enabled sortation and warehousing processes now handle higher volumes with greater precision, reducing turnaround times and improving throughput across the network.

At the heart of all these changes are our resilient and intelligent logistics systems— that not only scale with demand but also deliver a consistently reliable and transparent experience to our customers and partners. These technology innovations have not just improved operational performance—they’ve also created new avenues for revenue growth by enabling us to serve more clients, more efficiently.

When looking at competitor benchmarking, which key technology areas do you see a need to increase activity in, considering what your peers have done in the past?

While we do track industry trends, our approach is guided more by internal innovation and customer needs than external benchmarking. We prioritise building differentiated, scalable solutions that serve our customers best, rather than reacting to what others in the space are doing.

What is your tech roadmap for the next 2-3 years?

Our roadmap is centred on embedding GenAI and Agentic workflow technologies across the logistics value chain—spanning first-mile, mid-mile, and last-mile operations, as well as customer experience, decision intelligence, location intelligence and operational efficiency. These systems help us build more responsive, autonomous, and scalable logistics infrastructure for the future.