Every business has a handful of processes that quietly eat up valuable time. One of the most common culprits? Handling order status inquiries from customers. Whether you’re a growing e-commerce brand or an established retailer, your inbox is probably filled with variations of the same question: “Where’s my order?”

Why is this process still manual for so many businesses? The answer is simple: it feels personal. Customers want a quick, reassuring response, and many teams believe only a human can provide that. As a result, staff spend hours each week looking up order numbers, checking shipping statuses, and crafting nearly identical replies. It’s repetitive, but it feels too important to hand off.

But what if you could automate this process—without losing the personal touch? Here’s how AI can handle order status inquiries step-by-step:

1. The customer emails you asking about their order.
2. The AI reads the email and recognizes it’s an order status request.
3. It pulls the customer’s order number from the email or your database.
4. The AI checks your order management system for the latest shipping update.
5. It drafts a friendly, accurate reply with the current status, estimated delivery date, and any tracking links.
6. The response appears in your inbox, ready for you to review or send automatically.

Let’s look at a realistic example. Imagine you receive 30 order status emails a day. Each one takes about 3 minutes to answer—finding the order, checking the status, and writing a reply. That’s 90 minutes a day, or over 7 hours a week. With automation, those replies can be handled in seconds, freeing up your team to focus on more complex customer needs or proactive outreach.

Of course, you might have concerns about cost, complexity, or reliability. The good news is that today’s automation tools are designed to be accessible. Many integrate directly with platforms like Shopify and Gmail, so you don’t need to overhaul your workflow or invest in expensive custom software. Most solutions offer transparent pricing, and you can start small—automating just one type of inquiry to see how it works for your team. As for reliability, modern AI is surprisingly accurate, and you can always set it to require human approval before sending responses, ensuring nothing goes out without your review.

Automating order status inquiries isn’t about replacing your team—it’s about giving them back their time. If you’re curious how automation could work for your business, consider exploring a simple pilot project. You might be surprised by how much time you can save, and how much happier your customers (and staff) can be.