Artificial intelligence will be worth about $17.5 billion in the global supply chain management (SCM) software market by 2028, according to a new market report, “Global Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain Management Market by Technology, Processes, Solutions, Management Function (Automation, Planning & Logistics, Inventory, Risk), Deployment Model, Business Type, and Industry Verticals 2023-2028.” The authors said that market analysis shows AI-enabled supply chains are 67% more effective than their non-AI counterparts, thanks to reduced risks and lower overall costs. 

The study, released by ResearchAndMarkets.com April 10, noted that the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is expected to be the largest and fastest-growing supplier of artificial intelligence for the global SCM market. 

The report also examined several forms of AI, including cloud-based AI-as-a-service solutions, which it predicted will be worth more than $3.7 billion by 2028, reaching more than 21% of the total market in the next five years. 

Additionally, the report predicted, AI technology for SCM that deploys edge computing for IoT (Internet of Things) systems will achieve a value of $6.12 billion by 2028. Edge computing gathers and processes data closer to the actual data sources, rather than in a centralized location – something particularly well-suited to the widely dispersed nature of international supply chains. 

The study reported that material movement and tracking is the largest sub-segment of AI SCM available today. 

The report’s authors said that one of the primary goals is to leverage AI to make supply chain improvements, from production to consumption, within product-related industries as well as to create opportunities for supporting “servitization” of products in a cloud-based “as a service” model. According to Nexsys, “servitization” is the idea that companies can sell customers an “outcome as a service” rather than selling them a one-off product. In the manufacturing and supply chain industries, companies provide servitization by offering additional services to customers in order to increase the use of their traditional products. 

“AI will identify opportunities for supply chain members to have greater ownership of ‘outcomes as a service’ and control of overall product/service experience and profitability,” the report’s authors said.