Today’s supply chain leaders are faced with a complex and tangled web of issues, but fortunately, AI holds the key to navigating this fast-paced landscape with ease.

Breaking Down Business Silos

Supply chains don’t exist in isolation. To truly build resilience across the entire organization — including supply chain and logistics — businesses need to remove the internal silos that can lead to restricted data flow and collaboration. AI has the potential to truly eliminate these boundaries by integrating departmental workflows. 

Many leading organizations are already putting this into practice to harness business data, integrate technology infrastructure, and embed AI to drive fast, cross-functional decision-making. There are several ways this comes to life, from creating unified platforms where every department works from the same playbook, to aligning priorities created through AI-driven insights. AI removes delays with cross-departmental communication as well, allowing for instant feedback loops when timelines require it.

The result is a synchronized and efficient supply chain operation where teams allocate resources more effectively, and mitigate risks across the company. But to get there, organizations must be prepared to disrupt their traditional supply chain models, and make way for stronger modern systems. 

Transform Supply Chains for Agility 

Building a resilient supply chain requires agility and flexibility in each layer of operations. Truth be told, the number of ways AI can strengthen your supply chain cannot be accurately measured, but there are several significant ones that leaders can initiate today.

It all starts with adaptability. AI allows suppliers to review data in real time, so they can stress-test scenarios, make changes and tweak their responsiveness.  With predictive insights, they can also accurately anticipate demand and supply shifts so adjustments can be made quickly, such as calling in alternative suppliers, routes and options. 

AI also improves the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of supply chain operations, both in terms of automating processes, and finding ways to refine pricing strategies and take advantage of forecast trends. And the cherry on top? Teams are more transparent and closely connected, further improving efficiency when responding to an event. 

In one case, a leading Japanese consumer goods company with over 40 brands and 600 products struggled to maintain a vast network of vending machines accounting for over half of its sales. Over-reliance on manual processes and outdated systems hampered their growth and increased both their costs and inefficiencies. By implementing an AI-powered planning solution that analyzed inventory levels, forecast needs and guided agents to service revenue-producing assets, the company was able to redefine its business model and save roughly $100 million. 

Only when you integrate AI as the backbone of your supply chain operations will you build the agility and speed you need to withstand disruption.

Adopt Proactive Decision-Making

Business leaders need tools to strategically adapt and make informed decisions as conditions change. 

This is where generative AI and agentic AI in supply chains step in to lead the charge. Gen AI is excellent at gathering insights, simulating scenarios based on huge amounts of data, and collecting data when decisions need to be made rapidly. Agentic AI, on the other hand, allows for autonomous decision-making and contextual adaptation in the face of evolving conditions.

Consider an AI solution that analyzes supplier locations by region and the potential effects of a new tariff. In this case, gen AI gathers insights from this data, while agentic AI autonomously adjusts sourcing strategies for supply chain risk mitigation. Combining these in the supply chain is the ideal way to advance beyond reactive strategies to proactive and even predictive ones.

Another example of AI’s effectiveness occurred within a leading transportation and logistics company with nearly 450,000 trucks and 150 locations. The business required 100% vehicle uptime but struggled to meet this goal and manage spare parts inventory. But pairing agentic and gen AI completely changed the game. Leveraging data on the fleet age, vendor capabilities, and location capacity, the company was able to improve forecast accuracy by 15%, reduce inventory levels by 10%, and even increase customer satisfaction.

While gen AI provides valuable what-if scenarios, it’s human expertise that guides the interpretation and application of these insights. Meanwhile, agentic AI handles the what-next actions, augmenting human decision-making with precision and speed.

Supply chains will always face disruptions. But with the integration of AI, enterprise leaders have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build smarter, more resilient supply chain operations capable of withstanding any storm.  By embedding AI-powered capabilities, building up resilience, and overcoming business silos, there’s the opportunity to transform your supply chain ecosystem into a competitive powerhouse. Are you ready for the challenge?  

Tanguy Caillet is global supply chain leader at Genpact.