Mark Judson

Supply chain organizations have never lacked data. What they have often lacked is the ability to connect it, normalize it, trust it, and turn it into better decisions. That was one of the central themes in a recent conversation between Scott Luton and Matt McKinney, Co-Founder and CEO of Loop. Drawing on his experience helping build Uber Freight and now leading a logistics technology company, McKinney offered a clear-eyed view of where AI is already creating value, as well as why the data foundation still matters more than the model itself. The Real Problem Is Not Data Volume McKinney traces Loop’s origins back to a recurring problem he and his co-founder (Shaosu Liu) saw at Uber Freight: rapid growth on the revenue side paired with a back office still dependent on people manually reconciling invoices, contracts, proofs of delivery, and surcharges. The bigger realization was that this was not unique to Uber. “The thing people miss is that the value isn’t in the quantity of data, it’s in the utility of it,” McKinney explained. “Most companies have plenty of data. What they don’t have is data that connects.” That disconnect is especially painful in logistics, where data is scattered across…

Scott Luton: “SAP Sapphire 2026 featured a major emphasis on the Autonomous Enterprise and AI-powered business operations. From your perspective, what was one session (or prevalent theme amongst attendees) that you found to be particularly intriguing? And why?” Richard Howells: “Great session by Dominik Mark Metzger on the Future of Supply Chain – SAP Sapphire Virtual – Session Catalog. At SAP Sapphire, we’re introducing Autonomous Supply Chain Management, enabled by new Joule Assistants and Industry AI scenarios that apply this model to daily operations across planning, manufacturing, logistics, engineering, and asset management. General availability will be phased throughout 2026, starting now. By introducing a new set of AI-driven assistants and agents, we’re moving orchestration toward an autonomous operating model, where planning, manufacturing, logistics, and asset operations increasingly anticipate, coordinate, and resolve without manual intervention at every step. Highlight for me was the simple definition of the Autonomous Supply Chain where “People direct, AI Assistants orchestrate, and Agents execute”. Also, a callout to Rebecca Kaufmann from Takeda Pharmaceuticals for a great overview of how her company are, and plan to leverage AI to “augment human expertise and reduce the technical burden”.” Scott Luton: “There’s a growing sense across the industry that…