Wanda Johnson, supply chain technology fellow with Deloitte Consulting LLP, reveals the findings of the firm's annual industry survey, in collaboration with MHI, on the adoption of technology in the supply chain.

The Deloitte report, surveying some 1,500 executives, addresses the topic from a “human-centric, technology-driven” perspective. That means keeping humans in the loop at all times, Johnson says. Now in its 10^th year, the report sought in its latest version to tie together all of the major issues that emerged in that decade: “How to get industry and people to understand how trends are changing, where we’re going, and what the future looks like for leaders.”

The emphasis on people serves as a reminder that “no matter how you grow in the technology space, there’s always going to be a human angle,” Johnson says. That means always addressing the issue of change management — how people respond to and accept new technology, and how it affects their roles in the workplace.

Robotics, automation and artificial intelligence were the three consistent themes emerging from the report as key aspects of supply chain technology, Johnson says. Generative AI specifically was a major topic of concern, in particular its ability to enhance human capabilities and enable reskilling, all with the goal of providing better data to predict outcomes and improve decision-making.

There was much talk in the report about data governance, especially the need to obtain clean data in order to obtain accurate results.

The power of GenAI lies in its ability to process massive amounts of data and enable humans to choose the best options for elements such as routing of deliveries. Still, Johnson acknowledges, planners must be on the lookout for the tendency of GenAI to “hallucinate” results. “You still have to take time to look at the data,” she says.