What's the real impact that artificial intelligence is having in supply chain and manufacturing? Niraj Jha, senior director of logistics-Southwest with Niagara Bottling, offers a view of AI now and in the coming years.

Is AI making its mark in the supply chain? “The short answer is not yet,” Jha says. “The longer answer is, you have to look at it with the same lens as every major technology revolution.”

From the internal combustion engine to mechanized farming and the internet, it has always been a process dominated at the outset by “massive hype,” followed by as bursting of the enthusiasm bubble, then the achievement of true value, he says.

Not every AI company in existence today will survive, he adds, but AI as an innovative technology “absolutely will.”

As a true contributor to the supply chain, AI’s prolonged adolescence is partly a function of its technological immaturity and partly the failure of tradition-bound users to fully adopt it. For now, Jha says, it can automate a lot of manual labor, but if it’s suddenly required to begin making autonomous decisions through the use of AI agents, it can “fall flat on its face.”

What AI will be able to do well is spare users a flood of data involved in making decisions, then explain why it has come to a particular conclusion based on that data. Meanwhile, Jha says, humans will still be “at the wheel,” deciding whether or not to follow the system’s recommendations. AI is just now entering a “magical moment,” in which it assumes the role of “co-pilot” instead of flying the metaphorical plane by itself.

Over the next five to 10 years, AI will play an increasingly important role in reducing the latency of decision-making, cutting down on the time that was previously spent by humans in endless meetings and perusal of dashboards.