FedEx CEO on How AI Can Fix a $1.8 Trillion Global Supply Chain Problem

Moving nearly two trillion dollars worth of goods every year, FedEx is deeply connected to the flow of global trade. Facing unpredictable tariffs, fleet disruptions, and intense competition, the company is entering a new era of re-globalization where automated belt systems, edge robotics, and new trade patterns are rewriting the rules of global supply chains. In essence, we are moving from one equilibrium state to another equilibrium state. I'm here in Memphis where FedEx is headquartered and I spoke with CEO Raj Subramaniam. We talked about his rise within the company from the lowest level possible up to the CEO seat, how he's overhauling the logistics company and taking it through three transformations, and how he's thinking about AI, robotics, and the future of the company. I'm Alison Chantel and this is Fortune 500 Titans and Disruptors of Industry. We'll be back after a brief message from our sponsor. Fortune spoke with Deloitte U.S. CEO Jason Gersadis on maximizing AI agents and what CEOs should consider as they assess and prioritize use cases for AI. This is on the topic of every CXO conversation I'm a part of and I think the thought process has to be looking for high-impact areas that may not be necessarily the most glamorous or high-profile functional areas but are ripe for automation and use of this technology to create efficiencies as well as innovation. And over time, AI agents will be also in customer-facing and growth-oriented domains. In our case, Deloitte, we're using it within our financial organization looking at, you know, very mundane processes like expense management and working capital management. We're seeing other organizations use it in call centers and with software development that can be automated. What are the key elements for successfully implementing AI agents? It comes down to intentionality and so I think that intentionality in going functional area by functional area in concert with business and IT leadership in an enterprise, it needs to be a mainstream business planning effort that's budgeted, that KPIs are developed and there's real accountability for actual business outcomes and impact because of agentic capabilities. Raj, thank you so much for having me here in Memphis at your FedEx Experience Center. It's a gorgeous, huge facility and it's an honor to be with you. You're a Fortune 500 number 50 CEO. Well Alison, great to see you in Memphis and we would love to have you in Memphis and I'm glad that you're right here in our Experience Center and we look forward to this conversation. Yeah, thank you. I was just saying I've had my second helping of barbecue so I'm good for this interview. So I know you move about 18 million packages all over the world on average per day. That is a lot of insight that you have into the physical economy and just the global economy at scale and I'm curious as you look at all the metrics that you have at your disposal, what are the things that you're seeing about the global economy that the rest of us might not have from your vantage point? Yeah, well that's an excellent question Alison. First of all, these 18 million packages actually they represent shipments from about two to three million active shippers and about 300 million recipients around the world and we are in the center of this ecosystem. The interesting thing is that it also generates two petabytes of data every single day about the system. So we see the supply chains from the bottom up. In many ways we are the referendum on global supply chains. This may not have been that interesting two or three years ago but it is very interesting today because the supply chain patterns are changing very rapidly. I've been doing this for 35 years and I've been watching this flows and we had one set of equilibrium over this period of time and in 2025 we had a lot of changes and I've never seen a change in one year like we've seen in 2025. I'll let you know what I mean. For example, the U.S. import was down and U.S. export was up and those combinations thereof haven't seen in a long time. The intra-regional traffic is up. We have Latin America inbound up significantly. A lot of countries Southeast Asia, India, they're growing very rapidly. So it's all happening all at the same time. In essence, the supply chain patterns are changing and we are moving from one equilibrium state to another equilibrium state and we are in the middle of such a transition. I just coined the term re-globalization to kind of capture the point but it's a very interesting time as we are watching these changes happen firsthand in real time. I know the Liberation Day tariffs were a little more than a year ago and FedEx experienced that impact firsthand as a business but so did every other business and the supply chains have been changed as accordingly. Geopolitical reordering has happened accordingly and I'm curious from your vantage point of that moment in April when these tariffs changed globally for everybody, what was the impact you saw and how is the geopolitical world order changing based on who's doing business that maybe wasn't doing business before? Well, from our point of view, there were three things that were important. Firstly, as we just talked about, the patterns of physical movement of goods changed. So in this context, having a scaled physical network was very important. That's the great advantage for FedEx is that over the last 53 years, we have built this global network and I mean network in the truest of sense. People use the word very loosely sometimes. It's the ability to pick up a package from any one point in the world and get it to any other point in the world. There are only two or three companies who can do that and we do it the best. So we had that scaled physical network. So if a company was thinking of moving their supply chain from A to B before and they're now moving from P to Q, well we are in A, B, P, and Q and so we already have that established network. So that was the first thing. The second thing is the operational aspect of it because we are, unlike other companies, we're actually involved in moving the goods across the border. That's our job. That's what we're set up to do and that became increasingly more complicated. But this is where, you know, when, you know, before basic math would have done, now you need advanced calculus and we do advanced calculus. This is what we do for a living. So ironically, this became an advantage even though we had to hire a lot of new people because the number of packages that had to be formally cleared through customs went up six or seven fold and we had to hire about a couple of thousand people to make sure that that happened. So operationally, we had to make some changes but again we had an advantage because of the experience and expertise that we have. And then thirdly is the digital intelligence. Just imagine for every country to every other country for every commodity, you need a clearance code information. We have it again through the dint of practice and our experience and here's where AI came very handy. If you try to ship this shirt to UK tomorrow, there are probably 50 different classification codes that you may have to choose from. But because of our experience, we can just suggest to you which ones you should use for example. And we've done it for small and medium customers and we are trying to take that practice up as well. So those are the three elements of changes that we have seen and, you know, it's a while very complex. This is when, you know, people who really know what they're doing can step up to the plate. FedEx employs roughly half a million people around the world and it runs a fleet of roughly 200,000 trucks and 700 planes and it operates across more than 200 countries and territories. To stay ahead, the company has spent the past several years overhauling its massive network through a transformation known as Drive. By consolidating local routes and operations as well as using AI to predict shipping disruptions, the company has cut billions of dollars in operational costs. Investors have certainly taken notice. In 2026, FedEx's market value surpassed UPS for the first time in the company's history. For carriers like FedEx, speed and efficiency are key differentiators in the competitive landscape and it all starts with getting a single package from point A to point B. People see the FedEx driver show up at their door. Yeah. But really, like, how does a package get from point A to point B in the simplest form? You make it seem easy and almost magical. It just appears, you know, a couple days after you send it. But what goes on behind the scenes at FedEx? Yeah, so obviously that is, that's what we do, but it just depends upon where starting and where it's ending up. It could start in another end of the world and it could be in any zip code in America, for example. You know, if that's the case, then obviously it starts off, you know, on the pickup side. We have a FedEx service and a courier and a driver just like you see in your, you know, here and, you know, eventually gets to the air ramp in that city and the flight, you know, let's say it's from Japan, you know, and if we're getting it to, let's say, Michigan, then, you know, it'll probably come here to Memphis that night. You know, it's sorted in our huge hub that we have here and then gets on a plane to Michigan the next day and then, let's say, Detroit. And then, you know, there's a whole process that happens from the air ramp to the courier who gets it to the final deliveries. So, that's a whole orchestration that has to happen and you just multiply that by every origin, every destination in the world and you see the infrastructure that's required to move that. So, it just depends upon where it's coming from. If it is, you know, if it's coming from Chicago to Detroit and if, you know, overnight, then probably it goes on a truck, you know, for a couple of days service or if you really want it by 1030, then it comes from Memphis and back to Detroit. So, depending upon the service requirements and the expectations from every point, every other point in the world, we have a sophisticated network of possibilities to get that package to the end destination. It sounds easy but clearly, it's obviously not, especially with all the data today. Two terabytes. I don't even know how many. That sounds like a lot. Many, many zeros. And, you know, I was listening to an interview. You said, you know, I wake up every morning and I say a little prayer because unpredictability is plaguing every CEO right now. There's never been more. That's harder to predict as a leader of any company but at FedEx with all this logistics involved, I'm sure I would be saying many, many prayers. So, what is a day in the life like of you? How does your day tend to unfold? Well, see, first of all, to answer that specific thing, we are a very kinetic organization and that's the great thing about FedEx. We are in motion pretty much every second of the day in every corner of the world. But the great thing about that is we have a fantastic team around the world, steeped in FedEx culture. 500,000 people? 500,000 folks. And so, that actually, you know, that part of it, I know we will take care of it. It's just that some of the external environments, you know, they change and they, you know, we have to think about how the network will adjust to something happening. That's, you know, that's where, you know, we have to keep managing and monitoring. And again, we have a superb team from an engineering organization perspective and our frontline operations that really keep running and great leadership that makes it happen every single day. To the other question about, you know, what do I do? You know, that's an interesting question because actually I realized after I took this job that the most important currency that I have is time. So, I actually sat down and thought about it. I said, what is my role exactly? And so, I determined that first of all is to guide the strategic direction of the company, obviously. Second is to create an execution framework, you know, that is not having to deal with every day, but to have the framework for execution. Make sure you have the right set of folks around the table to make this happen. And then, you know, be the guardian of the culture of FedEx and then represent the company well internally and externally, which I'm hopefully doing right now. So, that's how I parcel my time. And, you know, more or less, you know, it follows those patterns, but of course, sometimes, you know, you're going to have to jump in on certain emergencies. Yeah, I mean, I think that's such a good insight that your time is your most valuable resource that you have and everybody wants a piece of you when you're the CEO and you have to be really diligent about it's that meeting one of my priorities. It's helping me be the external voice or the culture setter or what have you. I'm curious, you've been in the job for now a few years and previously you were the COO and the president. How different is it to be in the CEO seat versus one of those? I would have thought time management, you know, you're probably getting to the C-suite, had to figure that out. Yes. No, time management, that's exactly right. But the roles have changed. So, as president and COO and increasingly over time, our founder, Fred Smith, had, you know, handed off more and more responsibilities. So, when the time came, I said, okay, it's one more step up, but I can do this. But no, the whole thing changed. The world changed. The number of stakeholders that were demanding your attention was completely different and more numerous than I anticipated. So, I had, that's why I had to rethink and figure out, this is like, you know, how do I parcel my time and actually having to say no a heck of a lot more. And it really prioritized because that was very, because if you try to do everything, it's not possible. But this was, takes it to a whole another level. And that was very important. And again, you know, the fact that I was president and COO for three years before, that was a huge help. But, you know, this is a whole different level. Yeah. And, you know, Fred was the legendary founder of FedEx. He created it in the 70s. And, you know, unfortunately, he passed away a year ago, but I know he was a great mentor and friend to you as well. What is it like taking the reins from a legendary founder? I mean, that is, it's daunting, I would imagine, to step into the CEO job of a Fortune 50 company, let alone to handle, take, be the second CEO in the company's history. Yeah, well, it's just, it's a, I consider it a great privilege to have had that opportunity to take over from our founder. I always say that I can see far because I'm standing on the shoulder of a giant. The preparation for the handover was over a period of time, as Fred was always extremely well planned and thinking through things ahead of time. And so this transition was also equally well planned. And so there was no surprise. So when the appointment, when I got appointed as president and COO, that was when the transition started, really. He kidnapped you on his jet somewhere, right? No, he asked me to show up on, he was traveling Los Angeles, and he said, I, you know, just, you know, I've checked your calendar, you're doing nothing, be there. So that's when I got the word that I was going to take over. So it was, you know, quite an interesting trip, for sure. Raj Subramaniam's journey with FedEx had an unusual start. In 1991, his roommate backed out of a campus interview with FedEx recruiters, so Raj called to see if he could take the spot instead. He was then offered a job as Associate Marketing Analyst. Three decades later, he became the second CEO in the company's 55-year history, succeeding founder Fred Smith. Did he tell you then that you'd be the CEO, and this would be the first step as COO? Well, it was, you know, it was quite well understood at that point that this is a, you know, this is a stepping stone. Nothing was guaranteed, of course, but there's a stepping stone into the job. So there was no, it was pretty clear internal and external world that this was the path that was going to be, only the timing was only the question. So, you know, I think that was just, when I stepped into the CEO role, it was very, you know, he handled the transition so beautifully, so well, from a communications perspective, from a mentoring perspective. It was very clear, he told me from the very beginning that you're now the final decision maker on anything. We can debate anything you want, but at the end of the day, if this is the direction you're headed, then you're the final call. So it was great. There was, you know, we talked about a lot of things, and one of the things that I, you know, he and I had a conversation about was I told him that a lot of things might change about, you know, whether we have new technology, we may have new people, we may buy new companies, but one thing that is not going to change is the FedEx culture. And that's why I came to work here in the first place. That's why I come to work every single day. That's a special thing. And, you know, Fred gets a credit for a lot of different things, but he doesn't get nearly enough credit for creating this phenomenal culture that we have at FedEx from the very founding of the company. And so that's one thing that's a constant for us. Yeah, I was going to ask you about the culture, because to execute in the way that you guys need to, you have to be kind of uniform. And I've heard you say, you know, no matter what country you're in, the language of FedEx is the same. And so what is it about the culture that gets you all to execute? What did he instill? And what are you instilling? Yeah, well, first of all, it's a, you know, we are a service business. And so this principle of what we call paperless service profit, you take care of your people, they provide outstanding customer service, which turns into profit for the company, which you reinvest back in the people. That's the unending cycle of PSP. Well, that's, you know, it's not something woolly-haired, or it's actually a hard-nosed business proposition. Because imagine somebody was doing a job just enough not to get fired, versus going above and beyond the call of duty to deliver an outstanding experience, which we call the Purple Promise. That's the difference between failure and success. And you do it 18 million packages a day. That's really the hallmark of FedEx. So I have had the opportunity to live and work and travel different parts of the world. And I always find myself like the language of the country may be different, but the language of FedEx is the same. It all goes back to the fundamentals of humanity. You respect the individual, you make sure people understand what is important to be done and what we expect from them. And you reward and recognize the right behavior. It cuts across humanity, no matter where you are. And that's the heartbeat of the FedEx culture. And it's just fabulous. And, you know, that's really, you know, that's the foundation from which everything springs from. And did you say Purple Promise? What's that? Yeah. Purple Promise is we make every FedEx experience outstanding. And hopefully, you stop any FedEx person anywhere in the world, ask them what the Purple Promise is, they'll give you that answer. Amazing. I'm gonna try that next time one shows up at my house. Maybe I'll send my son out to do it. Okay, good. So your rise at FedEx is really inspiring. There's not many people, although there are a few Fortune 500 CEOs that this is the case for, that started, as you described, like the lowest person on the totem pole at FedEx, your first job, really, that you had. And now you're the CEO. That's the kind of mobility that I think people hope for when they join an American corporation, but you've actually done it. At what point? Well, first off, could you just tell me how you got to FedEx in the first place? You and I are fellow Syracuse grads, and I know you're from India. But why FedEx? How did you get here? Yeah, well, I'm glad that I'm talking to a Syracuse grad. You go orange, I guess. My first port of call from moving from India was to Syracuse. And I had not seen temperatures below 80 degrees before I moved here, and then surely got surprised when I got to Syracuse. It was so cold. It got buried in snow. Yes, but it was great fun. It was a great experience. But yeah, I was doing my MBA at the University of Texas at Austin. And at that point, really, 1991 was a recession, and jobs were hard to come by. And my roommate at that time had decided to go back to India. So anyway, when I was walking into the apartment, I heard him on the phone. He's like, no, I can't do that. And he hung up the phone. I said, what's going on? He said, that's FedEx calling. And that it was for an interview. But he has obviously decided to leave the country. So he was like, no, you can't do it. I immediately picked up the phone and said, give me the number. And I called over and said, just talk to my roommate. He doesn't want to do the interview, but I'm still here. Can I send you my resume? And they said, OK. And the rest is history. So that's how I got started at FedEx. And it's at the lowest level here in Memphis, which I didn't know anything about Memphis at that time. But it was great. It was a great opportunity. We started off in the international, at that point, international marketing. But international business was a fledgling business. So you get to do a lot of things when you're small. And it was such a great opportunity. So that's how I got here. Interesting. And at what point in the career path did you think, whoa, actually, maybe the C-suite could be something I could aspire to. And I want to be on that path. Well, I think in my particular case is that pretty much every job that I've gotten, maybe with the exception of one or so, was somebody said, yep, I want you to do this. I can move around with the geography or job responsibilities. And I was given multiple opportunities. And I just took it. And it was a great learning experience, whether it's living in different geographies or doing different jobs. So I was just learning and growing. I'm naturally one. And continuous learning is my thing. And so it was always exciting to take on something new. It's only when I got to the job as the president of FedEx Canada in 2003, when I was in a senior role, I realized, oh, this is starting to look pretty interesting now. Because I get a general management kind of role, the title of president of FedEx Canada. That's probably when I first thought, OK, this could lead to something. And so at what point did you realize there was an arrow in the FedEx logo? Well, we moved from the original Federal Express branding to FedEx. I think it was in the early 90s when this was the case. And the agency that was doing the work, they unveiled a new logo, but they pointedly did not mention the arrow. They wanted it to be a discovery. And there was one person in the room who actually saw the arrow instantly, and that was Fred Smith. So he said, well, that's an arrow. And then there you go. Then once you see the arrow, you can't see it, right? So it's incredible. It's a party trick even now. Because a lot of people I know have never seen the arrow in that FedEx logo. And it reveals itself when you actually look at it. So it's great. Yeah. It's not surprising, I guess, to hear that the founder, of course, is the person who recognized it. And the only reason I know about it is because I was an advertising major, and it was like a logo we studied in class. And I was like, whoa, look at that. Now I can never look at a FedEx trick the same again. Yeah. Once you see the arrow, you just simply can't see it. It's great. But a lot of people still realize they haven't seen that arrow between the E and the X. So when you're at a company for as long as you've been here at FedEx, I feel like you definitely can drink the Kool-Aid and you become part of the culture. But when it's your turn to lead, how do you keep the ideas fresh? And how do you know where to take the company once it's finally your turn in the seat? And how did you work that out with Fred? It sounds like he gave you a great leg up by saying, look, this is your company now. And I'll be here to support you. But they're your decisions. That's such a great thing for him to do. Well, you know, the great thing is that change has always been part of our culture. And if you don't like change, you're going to hate extinction. And so that's never been a problem. It's just always, we've always been this underdog. You know, differentiation and driving change was always the game. And so when we were expanding or creating new value for our customers or innovating, there's always change. So it's just the next era of change is all the way I think about it. So, you know, when the time is right for change, we have to make the change. And the team is ready for that. And as long as the mission is clear, and timelines are certain, things get done. And so that's kind of where we are. And we are in an era of transformation of FedEx, the time was time was ready for me to time to move to make those kind of changes. And that's what we did. Since taking the helm, Raj has led some of the biggest changes in FedEx's history, including the creation of a digital twin of the company's global network, a virtual model that maps millions of packages, routes, and logistics nodes in real time. That technology helps FedEx use AI to predict disruptions caused by tariff volatility, geopolitical tensions, and talent shortage. And it optimizes deliveries by managing inventory and logistics flow. This change is expected to save $2 billion by 2027 and generate about $6 billion in cash flow by 2029. And so there's three different transformations happening under the drive initiative that FedEx, if I understand. Well, you know, so we have what we had to do in the shadow of the pandemic was to firstly, reduce structural cost. And that was hard to do, but we had to do it. And we just the business just, you know, we got from the pandemic high, you know, kind of definitely across the world, you know, we started to come back. So we had to bring down structural cost. Once we knew that was a mission, the team just did an amazingly brilliant job, billions of dollars of structural cost reduction in the last four years. I just couldn't be prouder of a team because that's not easy to do, right? It's not, it's not variable cost, it's structural, true cost that goes gone, that's not coming back. So we did that. But that's not the most exciting part. The exciting part was the transformation. The transformation has got three components of it. And the first one was a network transformation. That's we have in the domestic, US domestic, we have what we call network 2.0. We are bringing both the erstwhile express network and the ground networks into one common network in the United States. Easier said than done. It's easy to say. It sounds like from the outside, like, yeah, of course, they should be the same. Well, well, there was a reason why it was different. And I can talk about that because before, primarily the packages were B2B business. And we were, you know, our number of stops were a lot of stops were business stops. Meaning I'm coming to this building, and I have two trucks, one delivering 10 packages, another delivering six packages, but everything else is optimized. And it worked just fine. In fact, we gained market share in the ground parcel business for 52 straight quarters. And so we were at 10% market share turn of the century. And the gap in the market market share was 70 points versus the nearest competitor was 70 points. That's now single digits. So, you know, that's what happened because of that. But as e commerce started to grow, the number of stops at residences started to go up. So now we're going with one truck with one package, and the other truck with the other package. Now that doesn't work. So it was the business evolution that, you know, we had that we knew we had to make this change. And that's why, you know, we originally the way the FedEx was, you know, we created FedEx Express, we bought this company caliber systems in 98, just FedEx ground, so two separate units, but now we had to bring it together. And time was time was right to do that. So that's that was the network transformation. We also using the same time frame to do a transformation internationally. And I won't go through the details of it, suffice it to say that what we call tricolor is a incredibly time perfectly right, because without that, we couldn't have done so well during this period of time with a lot of supply chain patterns changing. I'll tell you evidence in the last quarter, we just finished, we had, you know, 5% increase in volume, but number of flight hours actually went down, which means more density through our system. So that that was, that's, that's working. So those are the network transformation. You also have an organizational part of the transformation, because you're not collapsing all these different organizations into one FedEx. And that makes us, you know, much, much more efficient, but also, more importantly, much more effective. And then we have this digital transformation, again, pointing to the fact that the intelligence that we have about the global supply chain is valuable in its own asset, while we are modernizing our technology at the same time. So all these three elements are underway. I know it's a lot of work, but I'm just been delighted how the team has rallied to the cause. The mission is clear. And we're just executing right now. And it's working. And you know, it's great when a plan comes together. Definitely. And how long do you think before the total transformation of FedEx is complete? Well, you know, in essence, you know, we get this an ongoing journey, but our network transformation, what we call Network 2.0, we will be wrapped by end of next year. And the fall of 2027 is our target. We are right on target. We are 45% of the way done. By the end of this calendar year, we'll be 65% way done. And so that's our target is to get that done by that period of time. Having said that, that's also not the end, it's actually the beginning, because now it gives us a lot more opportunities than to optimize across the air and the surface going forward. So it's a, it's in, that leads to the next level of things we can do. But this, this element will be done by 27. The organizational, the we already put the organization together, or it's already done. But I think we are in the early innings, in terms of what we can create in terms of effectiveness of this one FedEx, I would say over the next two years, we will see the benefits of that coming. And the digital transformation. I think it's again, it's ongoing thing. But I think we put we plan to lay the infrastructure down over the next two to three years. So it's we are about halfway in this journey. And it's just it's, like I said, it's great to see the plan come together. Yeah. And I wanted to talk about the data layer that you're building for FedEx. It was a journey you started pre really AI craze. And now it seems like a no brainer with AI and all that it's capable of doing. When did you realize how powerful the data you were collecting is and that that could be a product in and of itself? And how is that revenue line growing? Yeah, well, you know, that realization was in early 2020. Actually, I have a smart, you know, young person organization, he wrote me a white paper. And so I didn't know him very well, that time he just sent me the paper. So it was in about October of 2019. And I asked him to come and see me and walk me through what he's writing. Basically, the premise was the data we're sitting on is very, very important and valuable. Oh, no, by the way, we right now it's an exhaust. And there's not been really collected in the right places or engineered the right way. So, you know, that was a wake up call. I guess I had the good sense to understand that I was onto something here. So we put about eight people in downtown Memphis in a building, and I said, Go build the infrastructure to make this happen. And it was, you know, it started there. And I had this incredible set of young folks who kind of joined that effort. And it was really incredible that we started building our data platform. And then we saw the benefits that came right out of it. In fact, we couldn't have done a network integration without that, because that was the one that kind of blurred the boundaries of between all these organizations and companies that were just package as a package as a package construct. So then comes AI. I mean, two and a half years later, of course, the fuel for AI is data. And everyone's talking about AI about publicly available data. But there is the proprietary data, the tacit intelligence that every company has, that's really, really important. And to extract value from that, you need to have your data engineered and organized. You just can't wave your wand and say, Oh, I mean, so luckily, we are already two and a half years down the road on this journey. Another bet FedEx is placing on AI is to stop shipping disruptions before they happen. A supply chain disruption is a domino effect where a local issue such as a component shortage, a labor strike or geopolitical event can ripple through a network. By 2028, the company expects to have AI integrated into the majority of its core operations. A key part of this strategy is the partnership with ServiceNow, feeding real time logistics data into enterprise software. The goal is to help business detect delays earlier and respond sooner. For the rest of us, it means a supply chain that's faster, more reliable and better equipped to handle the unexpected. So we started then using this AI and I think the way I see it, it's a no brainer, we're going to use AI to improve the efficiency of our back office operation. We have to do it necessary, but that's not what excites me. What excites me is what we are doing to optimize our networks. For example, we're using deep learning models to really optimize our flows of packages. You asked the question earlier, how does a package get from one place to another? Just multiply that by 18 million every single night. The other thing that is even more exciting is we are now providing valuable, predictive and visibility solutions for the high value goods supply chain. And that's winning more business on the transportation side. Now, we are nearly $10 billion of business for healthcare right now. That is a substantial growth in the last three, four years. And these technology and tools that we're building in AI is already helping drive more business to FedEx. So that's actually terrific for us. And then thirdly, we're using technology as a value creator in its own right. So we are now established partnership with Dun & Bradstreet. We are working with ServiceNow. We are starting to externalize some of our services we're already doing on route optimization. We know more about route optimization than probably anybody else, but other companies need it. We have predictive maintenance capability that we can start to externalize. Customs clearance capabilities we can externalize. So those are the kind of things. And then ultimately, I do want to go up even higher in the value chain, especially on supply chain orchestration. There's $1.8 trillion of inefficiency in global supply chains today. And we think we can, because of the intelligence that we have and the expertise that we have, we think we can make a dent of that. So that's the longer scale term vision for that. So this is a journey where we've got started in 2020. We've made a lot of progress, but in a way of long way to go. The best is yet to come. Yeah, that's really exciting. It's a $1.8 trillion? $1.8 trillion of supply chain inefficiencies, because just the goods are in the wrong place. They have obsolescence. They have wastage. Especially the value of the goods we're talking about. Each of these things is healthcare, electronics, you know. Right, it's not letters. I mean, there's a small percentage, but no, like defense things and like healthcare, those are big parts of what you do. Yeah, so we moved $2 trillion of commerce, and there was obviously the value per pound of the things we move are very high. So, you know, the other thing people think about is, when is an autonomous truck going to be delivering my goods? Or I suppose even autonomous plane? What do you see for the future of autonomous vehicles within FedEx? And what timeline? So we have been working with a company called Aurora over the last few years. You know, actually have 700,000 autonomous miles already driven with, of course, this time with a driver next to it, you know, but we're testing the technology. And so we're proving it out. The important thing is that, you know, you have to combine the technology with the assets on the ground that FedEx has got. So you know, in essence, you know, the first place to try these things are on the highway, right? You don't expect an autonomous truck driving on your street. But we can go to we have so many points in the country, you can just go point to point there, then a human driver can take it out for the local delivery. So we that's also an important component of that. So we're testing that it's a I would say we're, you know, you know, we've been happy with what we're seeing, but there's still some ways to go to finally get to the prove it out and make it make it fully autonomous without the driver. So at least a few more years, I would say. Yeah, a few more years. And I'm sure you know, on the back end with loading trucks and things like that you're doing. Well, that's a so there's that's a completely separate effort. If you go to our largest, you know, surface hubs that we have, you know, it's just huge facilities. And it is actually fully automated. And the only place where it is not automated is truck unloading and truck loading. Once it's in the system, it comes out the other side in a matter of minutes, and there's no human being touching it. So it is the place where, you know, where there's the more difficult jobs of the, you know, truck loading and truck unloading. So when I was up in, you know, Silicon Valley, about four or five years ago, I've started hearing about robotics development, especially in the age of AI. And we started working with some of these companies. And lo and behold, we now have solutions actually working in our facilities to do this truck loading and truck unloading. And it's actually working. And so you have to we got to get through a few more steps here. But I would envision that we will be scaling something like that, you know, more broadly into our smaller facilities, working hand in hand with our team members to make their jobs easier. And so this is something that, you know, hopefully could come in the next couple of years. That's amazing. Yeah. People talk about robotics, or I guess in nerd speak, it's a physical AI. Yeah, physical AI. That's what's coming. And amazing that you guys are already starting to implement that. Yeah, no, this is real physical AI. I mean, if you really think about it, trying to load a truck with packages of different shapes, sizes, Weights. Weights, and it is playing Tetris. That's an extremely complicated robotics problem to solve. And it's only because of the advances in AI that's been able to solve that. It works. It's kind of it's actually to see if you see it in action. It's actually quite interesting that, you know, it figures out it's got a view of what the next set of packages are coming down the belt, and it kind of maps it out where it needs to go. And it starts to put it in there. Is it a startup you're working with? Yes. What's the company? One is called Dexterity. And they are, you know, they're on the package loading. And then we have a company called Berkshire Gray on the unloading side. You know, a huge thing also that you just accomplished was spinning out FedEx Freight into its own business, its own publicly traded company. And I think there's lots of reasons why that makes sense. I'm curious, from the leadership perspective of how you execute that, get buy-in from everybody, and make it a reality. Yeah, I think it was it was non-obvious solution to the front end. But when we looked at the logic of why it makes sense, is the ability to focus in on a segment, provide the right customer experience and the right technology, just focus only on that LTL segment without optimizing, having to optimize across, you know, parcel worldwide. You just focus on North America, focus on the LTL segment. And, you know, there's a lot of value to be had by doing that. And once it was clear that this was the direction that needed to go, that's one of the great, fantastic things about FedEx. This is the alpha of FedEx, I would say, is once the mission is clear, and once the timeline is certain, it gets done. And so I'm just, you know, extremely thankful for the incredible team that simply got on the mission and executed, you know, flawlessly to get here. And, you know, so far so good. You know, we have, you know, FedEx right now is, you know, trading as an independent company. They have their first earnings call coming up here. I'm glad that we decided to do it, but also extremely glad that we got to the implementation phase, execution phase, so well. So you mentioned earlier that, what you and Fred have said, one of the sayings here at FedEx is, if you don't like change, you're going to really hate extinction. From your vantage point, what is like the biggest threat that you're trying to fight against here at FedEx? Well, for me, it's much more of an opportunity. I'm a believer in making sure we continuously need to differentiate our services versus the customer. We are a customer-centric organization. Every company has got their core strengths. Some are engineering-oriented, some are whatever, but finance-oriented. We are a customer-centric organization. So we put ourselves in the shoes of a customer. We think what value proposition that we can offer that others cannot. So that is our constant challenge as to how do we differentiate. And now we are to put in both the physical and the digital and how they work together. And again, because of the way the world is changing, our expertise becomes even more important in this space. So we are very, I think, in the most broadest sense, how we become the heartbeat of the industrial economy and make supply chains smarter for everyone because we can do specific service in this regard. And so that's what's excited us. I mean, it's less of a threat, more of an opportunity. Before the pandemic, the word supply chain, I mean, really was not in anybody's lexicon. And it was maybe in the realm of the procurement manager, maybe the CFO. But ever since the pandemic, supply chains have become a boardroom conversation. And suddenly what we do became cool. And so we evolved our vision to make supply chains smarter for everyone. And that's something. And so we are now constantly driving ourselves to make sure how do we do that for our customers. So that's what keeps us excited. And how do we differentiate? And I guess lastly, I would ask you for advice for the future generation of Fortune 500 CEOs. Say there's someone, a future Raj sitting in FedEx somewhere who's, you know, maybe 10, 15 years out from the ability to get the top job. What would you say they need to do to prepare? And what advice would you have for them now that you are the CEO of a Fortune 500? Yeah, I think the first of all, the role of the CEO is continues to evolve. And so that's definitely not a fixed target in that sense. So you have to have that appreciation, that what exactly is it? Or at least what do you think it's going to be? So I think if someone has aspirations to be a CEO of any company, I think it's important, first of all, to truly understand what it is going to take to the extent you can, of course, with the assumption that it is going to change, but at least, you know, understand what it means. In the truest sense, it's not just me talking to you, Allison. There's a lot of other things that happen. So they have to understand that do they really want it? I mean, that's a big question. The only individuals can answer for themselves, because there's a lot of stress and sacrifice that goes with it. And they have to really ask themselves that question, is it, do you really want it? And once you say yes to that, okay, then you have to go about preparing to do those different aspects of the job. And I think the, for me, what has helped is some curious mindset, you know, never be judgmental, there's a fine line between curiosity and judgment, have a curious mindset and be able to adapt to what's coming, have this continuous learning mindset, and maybe take some calculated risks along the way, you know, as we move along here. So I think it's really important that you first really have to want it and truly understand what it's going to take. Yeah, I think that's such a good point of the really wanting it. And actually, there's a lot of executives now that when we ask them in rooms at Fortune, do you want to be on the CEO path, they won't raise their hands. I think there's such a complex world that people are navigating, it can be intimidating. And I know you're on the road, like three out of five days or something, too. There's a lot involved. Well, travel is a constant. That's just what it is at this point, especially in our business, you know, with so many different stakeholders and global adapt. So that's a given. I mean, you just need to just need to be comfortable with jet lag. That's just a given. But there are so many other aspects of the job these days and all the stakeholders. So again, I mean, like I said, it's exciting. It's exhilarating. It's challenging all at the same time. But you've got to truly know in your heart that you want it. Well, Raj, thank you so much for spending the time with us. Thank you very much, Alison. I appreciate you being here. Yes, likewise.