What Evri’s Tailored Delivery Looks Like with Microsoft AI

The convenience of ordering online often clashes with the hassle of waiting at home when it is expected to be delivered. 

Instead of forcing customers to plan their day around a delivery, Evri is enabling couriers to meet the shoppers exactly where they are by deploying Microsoft AI tools.

By leveraging the latest AI product suite of the tech giant, the UK delivery service aims to improve delivery quality and give customers more control over how their parcels arrive.

Marcus Hunter, CTO at Evri, says: “Everybody talks about personalisation. But we’ve never had the tools to do personalisation properly before. Now we do. So over the next few years, we will eventually be able to give individually tailored, personalised deliveries to our 25 million customers.” 

Tackling supply chain challenges

The highly complex network of UK parcel delivery must flex dynamically to meet changing consumer demand.  

Evri operates an expansive network that delivers one billion parcels and one billion business letters annually to 25 million households and businesses through a managed workforce of more than 30,000 couriers.

This network also stretches around peak demand as around 6,000 to 10,000 more are recruited during peak periods, such as Christmas or Black Monday. 

Marcus explains that when issues like damaged labels or mis-routed parcels occur, they create ‘unhappy paths’ that require quick resolution. Handling these issues efficiently is vital for customer satisfaction.

He says: “I know it sounds easy delivering a parcel, but there are lots of complexities in this. If something is damaged, what are we doing about it? How can we support a great outcome? And how can we help the customer if it’s an urgent package?”

To prevent these operational issues, Evri has spent several years building a robust digital foundation in secure cloud environments. The business began testing AI systems and automation three years ago.

Early testing of AI in the customer contact centre helped populate records and produce summaries, saving 500,000 hours of manual work in an initiative that helped retain support jobs in the UK.

Evri has also built a custom vehicle tracking system using Microsoft Power Apps that monitors van size, route details and servicing dates. 

Through these wider automation initiatives, the logistics provider has saved approximately £34m (US$44.2m) over a three-year period, highlighting the commercial value of digital tools.

A controlled Copilot deployment 

The next step in Evri’s digital journey is the methodical rollout of Microsoft 365 E7 to back-office employees. This is Microsoft’s latest product suite, which includes Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365, Microsoft Entra and Microsoft Defender. 

Marcus wants to offer secure AI systems in a measured way that gives him a central view of AI agents, identity and governance controls and security protection for agents that may be working when people aren’t. 

He says: “What I didn’t want to do is just buy everybody a Copilot licence and say, ‘fill your boots’. We want to do it in a methodical way.”

As a part of this move, Evri is deploying 6,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences by the end of September 2026 to assist with drafting and finding information. The rollout will begin in the finance, procurement and legal teams.

In an attempt to avoid a workplace full of separate bots, the organisation is developing five ‘super-agents’ to handle tasks for couriers, clients and customers. 

Evri already has ‘Hey Charlie’ for human resources tasks in Teams, and ‘Eva’ for technology.  Future use-cases could involve these digital team-mates performing tasks such as checking contract clauses and helping employees book their annual leaves in an approach that simplifies the technology for the workforce.

Marcus adds: “I didn’t want to clutter Teams with 1,000 agents going, ‘Oh my God, which agent do I ask for what?’. If we have these five super-agents that also work together, it demystifies all the complexity.”

Transforming middle mile logistics with drones

AI is also helping Evri verify deliveries by scanning parcels and checking photos of safe places where the systems verify if the package matches the delivery preference of the customer.

Customers can also upload specific safe place coordinates and photographs using the mobile application to guide couriers. This communication helps prevent delivery errors and reduces customer complaints.

Marcus sees AI, automation and robotics changing the ‘middle mile’, where automated drones could fly transit routes from hubs to regional depots. For example, a trip from Rugby to Carlisle which might take a lorry three-and-a-half to four hours could take only 30 minutes via drones.

While this depends on regulation, infrastructure and testing, he believes the roadmap is clear: more choice for customers, better visibility for colleagues and consistent services nationwide. 

The CTO concludes: “You’ll see more efficiencies. And with more efficiencies, you’ll see more personalisation and a better service for customers.”