Some assumptions and beliefs about the contribution that generative AI will make to supply chains are misplaced, says Dana Stiffler, distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner.

Many supply chain leaders believe generative AI will be a substitute for institutional knowledge, reduce headcount considerably, mostly affect white-collar workers, and that benefits will flow simply from hiring folks with AI familiarity, Stiffler says. Her comments are based on Gartner research findings, but she feels managers’ assumptions are often misplaced.

At the moment, institutional knowledge cannot be replaced by generative AI, she says. Inaccuracies mean that fact-checking AI is still needed. Results that look convincing may not be. “In the validation or quality loop,” Stiffler says, “we still need people.”

Gartner is also finding that up-skilling on its own is insufficient to get all of the desired return on investment that one wants from these technologies. “With the time savings and the efficiencies associated with generative AI, what you also need to be thinking about is, what should your people be doing instead? Should they spend more of their time on strategic processes? What are those processes?” Stiffler asks. “With each wave of new technology innovation, you often hear supply chain leaders say people will spend their time on value-added activities because it's taking away some of the ‘administrivia.’ But what are those activities, and do people know how to do them?”

She says it’s vital to ensure that folks, freed from lower-value tasks by AI, are equipped for more strategic work. “We would like to think they will be innovating and creating new ways to do things better. But we need to make sure we've actually designed those processes. We need to think even more cross-functionally than a lot of high-performing supply chain organizations are doing today.”

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