UPS marks nearly 12 decades in business this week. The company is celebrating its history, and also looking at how employees today fit into the corporation’s growing use of artificial intelligence.
The Sandy Springs-based company held its fifth annual UPS Impact Summit at its corporate headquarters on Wednesday. Artificial intelligence and the role of human ingenuity was the theme.
“We’re all on the same page with ‘Let’s put the kindness back in human kind,’” said Kate Gutmann, executive vice president and president of International, Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions.
UPS celebrates its 119th birthday on Aug. 28. Eighteen-year-old Jim Casey took out a $100 loan to launch the business in 1907 with a friend in the basement of a Seattle, Washington bar. Today, UPS has more than 400,000 employees and operates in more than 200 countries and territories, according to the company.
UPS CEO Carol Tomé opened the summit, which included company executives and outside speakers discussing technology, trust, workplace culture and social impact.
Jenna Lauer, chief commercial officer at The Harris Poll, said trust is essential to building customer loyalty, citing pet supply retailer Chewy, which ranked No. 1 in the 2026 Axios Harris Poll 100.
“Literally, all signs point to the fact that they write you handwritten notes,” Lauer said.
She also said that as a personal touch, Starbucks has returned to writing on cups.
“Some of this is back to the basics,” she said.
During a time when speed seems more valued, simply saying ‘thank you’ can take a company further with its customers, Lauer added.
Author Angus Fletcher, whose latest book is “Primal Intelligence: You Are Smarter Than You Know,” was the keynote speaker.
In contrast to AI, Fletcher said people bring other abilities to problem-solving including imagining new possibilities and making judgments in uncertain situations.
Fletcher said people tend to fall back on approaches that have worked before, but creative breakthroughs come from seeing possibilities outside familiar patterns. He used Vincent van Gogh as an example, saying artists had relied heavily on red, blue and green colors in paintings before van Gogh’s use of yellow pushed painting in a new direction with the emergence of modern art.
Bala Subramanian, UPS executive vice president & chief digital and technology officer, said 70 percent of UPS employees use AI.
Even so, the human connection can ultimately make the difference, added Gutmann.
“Weighing in. Being curious. Understanding the possibilities rather than possibilities,” Gutmann said. “That’s what we do. That’s redefining what’s possible.”
