When it comes to customer support online, nearly half of people still explicitly prefer talking to a human (compared to 12% who explicitly prefer an AI chat agent), but needs and expectations are changing fast. Some folks say that they like a mix of human and AI support, others say that it depends on the complexity of their problem, but by and large people are open to receiving satisfying customer support powered by AI.
The study cited above isn’t specific to delivery experience (which includes a lot more than just online chatting), but the data that’s beginning to accumulate can still be suggestive: people are accepting of the ways that AI is cropping up in their interactions, but retailers and other delivery businesses still need to get it right from end to end.
If there’s anything we’ve learned from the past few years, it’s that predicting exactly what’s going to happen in the next twelve months is a crapshoot. But there’s no question that AI is here to stay, and the trends that are going to impact the way it interacts with customer experience this year are already emerging.
Fighting the Logistics Performance Gap
Technology in logistics has only gotten better in the last few years, but by and large it hasn’t translated into widespread improvements in performance. Sure, there are plenty of individual businesses who are running more efficiently than they were a few years ago, but across the delivery market the waters are a lot muddier.
In parcel delivery, major carriers have seen recent dips in their on-time performance, especially around the holidays. While data here is sparser, we’re confident that you could tell the same story around big and bulky deliveries like bulk food, building supplies, appliances, etc.
While the performance gap we’re describing isn’t new, the urgency to fight it is only increasing. Labor shortages, unpredictable tariffs, and other economic and operational headwinds are putting a lot of logistics operations in a position where optimization is no longer optional—and more than ever you can expect these businesses to turn towards technology.
Up to this point, AI has been most visible in warehouse operations (along with some upstream stretches of the supply chain), but this year we expect it to become more prevalent in last mile delivery management in particular. This can and will include everything from improving route and ETA accuracy to streamlining customer, driver, and dispatcher interactions.
AI might not be reshaping customer expectations on the performance front, but it will absolutely give delivery organizations the tools they need to actually meet those lofty customer expectations.
It can also help keep costs down, making it easier for logistics operators to compete on price and stay profitable—no small feat in an era where consumers are feeling the inflationary pressure and showing less brand loyalty than ever.
Chat Agents Are the New Normal—But Not Everyone Gets It Right
Like we saw above, there aren’t too many people who prefer interacting with an AI agent for customer support. But, by and large, delivery customers will be happy as long as they get the information they want and they get any issues resolved quickly and easily.
What’s normal and expected naturally changes over time, but what counts as good customer service doesn’t. In 2026, customer delivery experience will be defined not just by the increasing prevalence of AI-powered chat agents—but by a hard split between businesses that get it right and businesses that don’t.
What does “getting it right” look like? It looks like leveraging the existing best practices for customer engagement and leveraging AI in an intelligent way within that context:
- Customers should be receiving helpful, proactive messages and alerts across the lifecycle of their delivery—from order confirmation to “next stop” notifications to feedback surveys.
- Between notifications, customers should have a direct line to your team, so that they can ask questions about their delivery and make updates as needed. This is where you can layer in AI agents to field customer questions.
- For questions that are complex or out of scope, the agent escalates to a human in a clear, transparent way—so that customer questions and issues across the board get handled quickly and seamlessly.
Throughout these customer experience cadences, the goal is to maintain a consistent and helpful tone. Something that reflects your brand and makes the customer feel like they’re getting a cohesive (and delightful) experience.
More and more, this kind of connected experience is going to stand in stark contrast to the alternative: chatbots that make it impossible to connect with a human and simply act as an impediment to good customer service.
These experiences are worlds apart—which is equally true when we’re just talking about customer experience more broadly—and customers across industries instinctively know and care about the difference.
Businesses that can harness AI in an integrated way will offer better customer experiences than ever before—those that don’t will take a hit in terms of NPS.
Getting More out of Your Workforce with the Right Technology
One of the reasons that AI has been able to make an impact in customer service is that, by and large, customer support teams are stretched too thin. Giving those teams the tools they need to deal with high volumes can go a long way towards speeding up responses to customers and ensuring attentive service across the board. AI can help decrease the total number of phone calls and messages that your teams have to deal with, giving them the time to focus on the ones that really require a human’s attention.
In 2026, that’s exactly the kind of value that AI is going to provide. It will be a way to get more out of the teams that make deliveries go smoothly and efficiently.
This isn’t limited to customer experience, either. Lean routing and planning teams can use AI to speed up the route optimization process by more than 75% in many cases. AI can even help drivers get their jobs done more quickly and effectively. How? By providing contextual intelligence for each stop to make it easier for the driver to park, access the job site, and complete the delivery successfully.
With workforce management top of mind for logistics operators across so many industries, we expect 2026 to be a big year for AI augmenting human teams and helping them stretch their efforts.
As this trend unfolds, delivery customers will see a direct impact: delivery ETAs will be more accurate, drivers will be better prepared when they reach the delivery site, and any questions they may have will be answered more quickly and seamlessly.
Conclusion: How to Meet Shifting Customer Expectations in 2026
If our idea of how 2026 was going to play out was sure to be 100% accurate, we’d start buying lottery tickets. Suffice it to say that a lot is bound to surprise us in the coming year—but when it comes to AI reshaping customer delivery experience in logistics, we’re confident that 2026 will be another big year.
For logistics operators who are wondering how best to prepare, the key is the same as it’s always been: keep a laser focus on the needs of the customer. If you can do that, and make sure your technology implementations (AI included) are in service of a great customer experience, you can set yourself up for success this year and beyond.
