Supply chains used to run in the background, but extreme forces have thrust them front and center. On the external side, events from COVID to tariffs proved just how dependent business success is on supply chains. On the internal side, C-Suite executives are pressuring supply chains to be more agile in the face of new competitors and market shifts.
Even the smallest disruptions can upend supply chains and cause ripples across an organization. Outside the big headlines, mundane events can throw an organization into chaos. Dean Ocampo, director of product marketing at ServiceNow, reflects on the shipper Hanjin’s bankruptcy as an example. “We were working with a major auto manufacturer after it happened, and they had no idea how big an issue it was, where their containers were, or what was in them,” he recalls. “Using spreadsheets and emails, it took over a month to figure out.”
We used to talk about black swan events for supply chain planning, but “Every day there are gray swans, beige swans, and every color affecting supply chain operations,” Ocampo points out. “We’ve reached a point where calling them black swans doesn’t make sense and underrepresents the scope of the problem.”
So it’s no surprise Supply Chains have largely focused on trying to better sense disruptions and collaborate for solutions to bid more resilient supply chains. But organizations have ignored the one part of the equation they have control over — how well an organization can marshal its resources in the face of disruptions and execute a plan across boundaries.
Plans are Just the Start
Companies invest significant time and money in developing risk models and contingency plans. They’ve built the playbooks, mapped out the scenarios and invested in the tools, but when a disruption hits, those plans don’t always drive meaningful action.
Instead, the response often breaks down into confusion around who needs to be involved and what happens next. Teams scramble to figure out who owns the issue, who needs to weigh in and how decisions should move forward. “Regardless of how sophisticated an organization is, a lot of these situations end up being addressed in group emails,” Ocampo says. “Something happens, they pull out the playbook, but it never really gets put into practice. There’s just a lot of chaos in the organization.”
Even the best intentions can stall out in that gap between planning and execution, which can’t be filled with spreadsheets, emails or phone calls. It’s not that companies don’t understand the risks, but when something changes, there’s no clear way to coordinate the people, decisions and steps that need to happen next.
Take automakers that are dealing with new tariffs on imported components while already operating on tight margins. Instead of scrambling to offset those costs with last-minute sourcing changes, some are turning inward and tightening up their own operations. Artificial intelligence-driven quality checks reduce rework on the line, predictive maintenance keeps equipment running and workforce tools better match labor to demand.
In logistics and transportation, real-time visibility helps teams avoid costly expedited shipments when plans change. Each of these improvements adds up, creating margin headroom that helps absorb higher costs while companies adjust their supply chains. It also pushes organizations to address inefficiencies that were easier to tolerate under more stable conditions.
A Generational Opportunity
For Supply Chain professionals, the AI impact on sensing and deciding is obvious. But what is less obvious is what is happening in other parts of the organization as the workflow revolution of the past decade in organizations like HR, IT, etc., is being disrupted by AI’s ability to take action and help cross-functional teams outside of supply chain work faster. But here’s the thing- the technology underpinnings are the same. For savvy supply chain executives, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address the supply chain disruption problem and the need to build more agile organizations that work seamlessly across teams and boundaries.
Most companies are still treating AI in unrelated departmental functions, but the new AI revolution opens the possibility for technology and agents to work across functions towards a common outcome. First is sensing, or pulling scattered, unstructured information together fast enough to matter. The second is getting the right people together to decide on the best action available. The third is getting everyone moving in the right direction at the same time to execute actions. And lastly is a security process that ensures it complies with corporate and governance requirements.
Ocampo sees these AI efforts as essential and inseparable. Raw data without coordinated action is just noise, he explains, and action without accurate information is guesswork. "There's the tactical piece of sensing and getting information quickly on an event — that act of getting it all in one place," he says. “And then there's how an organization thinks through that information and executes a response. Those are the two pieces of the puzzle."
As AI has matured, it's been handling that second part differently. For example, it can now generate workflows on the fly, built around a set of policies and desired outcomes rather than decision trees someone scripted in advance. The system figures out who needs to be in the decision cycle and what steps come next, without anyone having to pre-script it. That shift from rigid playbooks to dynamic response makes today's AI meaningfully different from its predecessors.
The case for moving now
Tariffs and continual disruptions hurt, but they also force a decision. For supply chain executives who've been trying to make the case internally for better technology, this is the justification they never had before. Budget pressure, organizational urgency and a real problem to solve are a rare combination that most companies underestimate.
"Use the current environment as an opportunity," Ocampo says. "We know it's creating internal heartburn, so why not bring in the technology to fix it? Behind the scenes, you’ll be building the supply chain you've wanted for right now, next year and the following year.”
Every supply chain professional knows AI is already reshaping which companies pull ahead and which ones get left behind. Waiting for things to settle down is risky in and of itself. Organizations that use the disruption to build something better now will have an advantage when conditions shift again. “It’s a unique time for supply chains, we can solve two challenges at the same time, how we better respond to disruptions and build a more agile and responsive supply chain organization,” Ocampo offers.
