Artificial intelligence enhances alignment of supply and demand, says Matt Hoffman, vice president of product industry solutions at John Galt Solutions.

There’s been endless talk of disruption in the supply chain during and since COVID-19. However, as Hoffman notes, trade and transportation disruptions have always existed — nothing new there. What is new — and causing heartburn in the supply chain world — is the heightened expectation of consumers who don’t care to hear about chip shortages, blockages in the Suez Canal or war in Ukraine. They want what they ordered, and they want it in near-real time.

“They still expect that delivery to get there in a few hours or the next day,” says Hoffman. “The supply chain leaders we talk to feel pushed to make well-informed, thought-out decisions very quickly, almost instantaneously with these disruptions. And that's causing a lot of heartburn.”

Supply chain decision-making can’t remain within the four walls of a company, Hoffman says. From sourcing to order fulfillment, there must be a complete view of the end-to-end impact, not just of disruptions but of customer demands. “You have to look at the different trade-offs between, for instance, service and things like revenue margin and even cash flow. So it's more important now to have automation and decision-making that gives you insight into the different financial impacts.”

AI can certainly help, but don’t forget the human component, he says. “A lot of companies talk about AI and machine learning and how it's this great, exciting thing, but unless you have a data scientist or somebody translating that into your business needs, it doesn't necessarily deliver what companies are looking for.” They want their forecasts, analyses, data transformation and business insights to be greatly improved. In the hands of the right folks, AI may be what they need.