Supply chain leaders looking to enhance operations with artificial intelligence need to start small with large language models, says Dave Evans, chief executive officer of Fictiv.

Evans says a supply chain leader’s job may be the hardest in any company today. If that sounds like exaggeration, hear this: “What we're seeing is a tremendous amount of pressure to expand margins. You're seeing operating expenses and budgets go down. So supply chain leaders are left with doing more with less. And in this environment, everyone's looking for a way to optimize workflows and to drive efficiencies in the business.”

So what’s the answer? “AI can give leaders another tool to automate aspects of their workflow and drive productivity,” Evans says. 

Evans, however, doesn’t see AI replacing the human element. “When I say automate, I think about the human in the loop with assistance from AI, not lights-out,” he says. “We're not going to remove the human from this problem.” 

Where, then, is the best place for this “assistant”? “It can automate emails and paperwork, and it can look at long forms and extract information,” Evans says. “It's about taking a task that takes 10 minutes and doing it in one minute. That's the advantage. It's not about completely removing that task. I don't think we're there yet, but I think that getting a 10x improvement in productivity is something that all supply chain leaders would take all day.”

AI can enhance a company’s global reach, he says. “Do I shift work out of India or move it to Mexico? Am I nearshoring to the U.S.? What's my exposure in China? All questions on supply chain leaders' minds,” Evans says. “Again, technology, productivity, workflow. These are ways the latest AI advancements can really help supply chain leaders.”