Kenco’s Agent K recognized for innovative use of artificial intelligence, while Kenco and Takt earned top honors for a warehouse workforce engagement
CHATTANOOGA, TENN. – Oct. 2, 2026 – Kenco, a leading third-party logistics (3PL) provider, has earned two Supply Chain Excellence Awards honors, winning The Innovative Use of Artificial Intelligence Awardfor Agent K and The Warehouse Initiative Awardfor its collaborative “Here for the Holidays” workforce engagement program developed with Takt.
Together, the awards highlight how Kenco is using both technology and employee engagement to help customers solve complex supply chain challenges.
The Supply Chain Excellence Awards are among the industry’s most respected programs, recognizing organizations that use innovation to deliver measurable gains in supply chain performance.
Agent K Recognized for Practical AI Innovation
Kenco earned The Innovative Use of Artificial Intelligence Award for Agent K, the company’s AI-powered warehouse solution that helps operations teams automate some of their repetitive daily decisions.
Traditional automation tools lack the flexibility to reflect a warehouse’s unique business logic, but Agent K uses AI agents that learn workflows after a single demonstration. Once trained, it plans, prioritizes and executes daily operational tasks. One of its current use cases, wave planning, optimizes wave allocation based on ship dates, labor availability, and operational constraints. Agent K also integrates directly with Microsoft Teams, allowing managers to launch tasks, monitor progress, and receive real‑time alerts if issues arise, enabling rapid intervention from anywhere.
Since its deployment in November 2025, Agent K has delivered measurable results across Kenco operations. In one warehouse environment, the solution automated 500 labor hours in a single month while maintaining 99.96% accuracy. One warehouse servicing a major consumer packaged goods customer projects more than $100,000 in annual controllable cost savings resulting from productivity gains enabled by the platform. Today, Agent K supports three customers across five distribution centers, with additional deployments underway.
Workforce Engagement Initiative Earns Warehouse Innovation Honor
Kenco also earned The Warehouse Initiative Award for “Here for the Holidays,” a workforce engagement program developed in partnership with Takt at one of Kenco’s Illinois distribution facilities. Built directly into the Takt workforce management platform, the initiative used gamification to encourage attendance, schedule adherence, productivity, and accountability during the challenging holiday season.
The three-week program brought together 68 associates across six teams, with points awarded for attendance, schedule discipline and productivity. Real-time scoring and team standings were displayed throughout the facility, creating healthy competition while reinforcing operational goals.
Every tracked performance metric improved compared with pre-program levels, generating more than $6,500 in operational savings on approximately $1,500 in incentive spending. The initiative delivered a 337% return on investment while creating a stronger culture of engagement among associates. The program has since become a foundation for future workforce engagement initiatives within the operation.
“These awards reflect our commitment to innovation that creates meaningful value for both customers and associates,” said Pal Narayanan, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Kenco. “Whether we’re applying AI to streamline warehouse planning through Agent K or using workforce engagement tools to enhance associate experience, our focus is always solving real business challenges in ways that support our people and help customers operate more efficiently.”
These honors come on the heels of the opening of the Kenco’s 30,000-square-foot Innovation Lab, which gives customers and OEMs a hands-on environment to test technology, explore automation and unlock real operational value.
To learn more about Kenco’s supply chain optimization initiatives, visit kencogroup.com.
About Kenco
Kenco is a leading North American 3PL delivering custom, integrated logistics solutions that maximize supply chain efficiency. For more than 75 years, Kenco has partnered with customers to provide distribution, transportation, material handling, and automation solutions. Kenco’s people set the organization apart: experienced, committed associates who bring agility and expertise to even the most complex supply chain challenges. Guided by its mission and vision, Kenco innovates relentlessly to deliver solutions on a national scale with the care of a local provider, building trusted partnerships that keep goods moving and businesses growing.