This Company’s IT Team Builds Chatbots and Tests Drones

$1 billion. That’s how much UPS invests in technology initiatives every single year. Surprised? A lot of people think UPS is all about delivering packages in those iconic brown trucks. But there’s so much more to this company than meets the eye—especially when it comes to a career in IT. The UPS IT team is thinking outside the [cardboard shipping] box and building some amazing things together. And they’re hiring summer engineering interns now.

Automating the Perfect Delivery Route

In a single day, UPS delivers 19.1 million packages and documents to people around the world. All those deliveries require a level of coordination that’s impossible to achieve manually. That’s why engineers at UPS built ORION, a system that determines the ideal route for each driver before they even step into the truck. It only takes seconds for ORION to work its magic, which means drivers are always armed with the most up-to-date delivery information. Even more impressive? This game-changing system sorts out tens of thousands of routes per minute (and all UPS customers see is the end result of on-time delivery).

Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work

Want instant help when you’re looking for a UPS store location or need to track a package? Just ask a chatbot. The UPS IT team launched a chatbot for UPS.com, and we’ve got to say, it’s one of the more useful chatbot ideas we’ve seen. Anyone can use the AI-powered bot to access shipping rates, tracking information and other useful information without clicking through the site. Plus, the chatbot’s approach to understanding natural language is only getting better. The more people ask it questions, the more it learns and the better it responds.

Going Above and Beyond with Drones

Drones may be great for capturing eye-catching aerial photos, but at UPS, they serve a much bigger purpose. The highest warehouse storage racks are now easier to reach than ever. Thanks to some creative programming experiments, UPS drones now do fly-by warehouse checks to monitor stock and available storage space. Far beyond the warehouse, UPS is working on engineering drones that assist with humanitarian aid by delivering packages to hard-to-reach areas.

And that’s just a small part of what UPS’ IT employees are building together. Ready to join them? Head over to WayUp now to check out open jobs at UPS.