Top supply chain organizations are investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) at a rate more than twice that of their lower-performing peers, a recent survey found.

According to a report published by Gartner January 30, entitled “Supply Chain Executive Report: Future of Supply Chain 2024,” 40% of the high performers surveyed said that they are using AI/ML for demand forecasting, while that figure came in at just 19% for the lower performers.

Thirty-one percent of high performers said they use AI/ML for supply planning while just 12% of lower performers said they used this technology for the same processes. AI/ML was used by 27% of high performers for logistics and distribution compared to just 8% for lower performers. Twenty-four percent of the high performers said they used AI and ML for sales/operations planning, while that number came in at just 10% for lower-performing counterparts.

The greatest disparity came when AI/ML was used for order management and fulfillment. While just 8% of lower performers used this technology for those processes, 33% of high performers said they used AI/ML for the same operations.

“Top-performing supply chain organizations make investment decisions with a different lens than their lower-performing peers,” said Ken Chadwick, the vice president analyst of Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice. “Enhancing productivity is the key factor that will drive future success and the key to unlocking that productivity lies in leveraging intangible assets. We see this divide especially in the digital domain where the best organizations are far ahead in optimizing their supply chain data with AI/ML applications to unlock value.”

Gartner interviewed 818 supply chain professionals from August to October 2023 for this survey. Gartner identified 119 supply chain professionals to be from “high-performing” organizations while the remaining 569 professionals worked for “lower performers.”