Insights

The global supply chain is undergoing a seismic shift, fueled by transformative technologies and strategic realignments. This reality was underscored by Woolpert Digital Innovation’s recent attendance at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium alongside the Google Cloud Supply Chain team.

This front-row seat to the rapidly evolving landscape reveals a resounding message: a pervasive and accelerated digital transformation is underway, with artificial intelligence (AI) and automation at its core. Company c-suites should take note that just as 98 percent of supply chain organizations have embarked on digital initiatives in the last two years, with over half realizing 80 percent or more of their targeted benefits in efficiency, revenue, and cost reduction, they must also weave AI strategy into their core business thinking for 2025.

This requires a more complex understanding, moving beyond general digital transformation to specifically address both customer and employee AI strategies, mirroring the supply chain’s tech-driven evolution. Engaging directly with leading innovators and partners like Google at the symposium provided invaluable insights into the cutting-edge technologies and strategic approaches reshaping the flow of goods and information, highlighting the critical role AI now plays and will continue to play across all facets of business.

The Rise of Intelligent Automation: Beyond Generative AI

While Generative AI, adept at processing and understanding vast amounts of information, is already making waves, the symposium highlighted the exciting progression towards agentic AI. This next evolution promises systems capable of reasoning, planning, and executing solutions—acting more like a proactive business partner to revolutionize supply chain operations. Beyond these, a full suite of critical technologies is emerging:

• Autonomous AI: Systems that can operate independently and make decisions without direct human intervention.
• Polyfunctional robots: AI-powered robots capable of learning and performing a wide range of tasks, blurring the lines between physical and digital labor.
• Autonomous data collection: The utilization of sensors, cameras, and other technologies to gather data automatically, enhancing accuracy and reducing manual effort.
• Decision intelligence: A framework for leveraging data and analytics, often powered by AI, to enhance decision-making processes across the supply chain.
• Intelligent simulation: The employment of AI and machine learning to create models of complex scenarios, enabling better forecasting and risk assessment.
• Multimodal AI: Systems designed for more natural and intuitive interactions with humans through various modalities, such as voice, text, and vision.
• Ambient invisible intelligence: The use of ultra-low-cost smart tags and sensors to collect granular data seamlessly throughout the supply chain.

Real-World Impact: Efficiency, Customer Experience, and Visibility

The drive for automation and efficiency is clearly gaining momentum. The symposium not only explored theoretical possibilities but also showcased tangible results already being achieved through these technologies:

• Polyfunctional robots: The projection that their cost will be comparable to human employees within 5-10 years is a game-changer. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 5 percent of managers may oversee teams of robots, and a staggering 80 percent of people might interact with a smart robot daily.
• AI agents: Automating repetitive digital tasks is already yielding significant efficiency gains. Coke’s “Traci” agent, for example, answers routine “where’s my truck” emails in under 35 seconds, a dramatic improvement from the previous hour-long human effort, and has reduced human-handled inquiries by over 50 percent. The economic viability of using AI for reviewing complex tasks like demurrage and detention is also becoming apparent.
• Autonomous data collection: The impact on inventory accuracy and labor savings is substantial. One global shipping organization reported saving 40 hours per week and achieving 100 percent inventory accuracy by automating cycle counts with robots and cameras.

These technologies are also revolutionizing customer service:

• AI is acting as an underlying layer to enhance human productivity, streamlining interactions and increasing reliability.
• The focus is shifting towards the customer effort score, recognizing that customers prioritize seamless experiences and outcomes over mere speed.

Furthermore, these advancements are critical for managing complex networks and leveraging vast data streams:

• Data integration: Continental Tire demonstrated the power of integrating data from diverse sources to build robust demand plans and gain crucial foresight.
• Intelligent simulation: Rolls-Royce’s use of a “simulation twin” to improve engine operations and model maintenance impacts showcased the power of predictive analysis.
• Ambient invisible intelligence: The ability to collect granular data through low-cost smart tags provides a richer understanding of the entire supply chain. Think “ambient monitoring” to achieve greater granularity of visibility.

Google Cloud: Practical AI Applications in Supply Chain

The collaboration with the Google Cloud Supply Chain team at the symposium provided specific examples of how these AI technologies are being applied in practice to achieve tangible benefits:

• Price forecasting: Google has developed AI-powered models for CPG companies that incorporate news and other data streams to predict demand and monitor sustainability impact.
• Network optimization: Following forecasting, an optimizer module helps businesses choose the most efficient sourcing network for future decisions.
• Supply chain visibility: In complex areas like palm oil sourcing, Google utilizes sophisticated geospatial tools combined with AI to monitor vast areas, enabling the identification of supply chain issues and tracing the origins of raw materials to meet sustainability commitments. This even extends to informing sourcing decisions from individual farmers based on deforestation impacts.
• Efficiency gains: AI assistance has drastically reduced the time required for a full supply chain evaluation from four weeks to less than a day.
• Scenario planning: Generative AI tools allow users to conduct “what-if” scenario analysis, such as assessing the impact of events like the Panama Canal closure.
• Unified visibility: Tools like Tariff 360 and a value chain graph aim to consolidate visibility into a single platform for monitoring and modeling upstream impacts.

Navigating the Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities

Despite the immense potential, the symposium also underscored key challenges in implementing these transformations, notably transactional data quality and change management. Overcoming inaccurate data and resistance to change is critical for successful adoption.

However, companies are demonstrating that these challenges can be overcome:

• Lowe’s rapidly rolled out same-day delivery with a 98 percent on-time delivery rate, significantly boosting customer satisfaction.
• Cox Communications successfully implemented a planning tool after addressing legacy system issues and change management resistance, achieving benefits like statistical forecasting.

Woolpert: Your Partner in Navigating the Future

Woolpert’s deep engagement at the Gartner Symposium, including our collaboration with the Google Cloud Supply Chain team, provides us with a profound understanding of these cutting-edge technologies, the strategies of industry leaders, and the challenges involved. This firsthand knowledge equips us to translate these insights into actionable strategies for our clients.

By understanding how companies like Google are leveraging AI for forecasting, optimization, and visibility, how Amazon is deploying robotics and data agents, and how others are tackling data quality and change management, Woolpert is ideally positioned to guide you through your own digital transformation journey. We can help you address critical issues like data quality and change management and effectively implement advanced technologies and data-driven approaches to unlock significant benefits in your supply chain operations.

The future of supply chains is intelligent, automated, and data driven. Woolpert is here to help you navigate this exciting and transformative landscape.