< Back to Blogs
Share:

AI and the Future of Supply Chains: How Leaders Move from Hype to Real Impact

Special Guest Blog Post written by Karin Bursa, Founder and CEO of NIRAKIO and Supply Chain Now Host 

 

Artificial intelligence is no longer a “what if” in supply chain — it is here. In fact, Gartner predicts that 50% of cross-functional supply chain management solutions will use intelligent agents to autonomously execute decisions in the ecosystem by 2030. But how do leaders move from hype to real impact? During our recent Supply Chain Now Power Panel, I asked five senior executives to share where they see AI making the biggest impact. Their answers revealed not just excitement, but a roadmap for how supply chains can evolve.

Here is how they responded, in their own words.

Q: Where do you see AI making the greatest impact in your supply chain?

Eliza Simeonova – VP Global Supply, Mars Pet Nutrition

“AI forces operational discipline. Clean data is no longer optional. The system itself demands it. I also see AI shaping supply chain synchronization — aligning suppliers, factories, warehouses, and customers in new ways.”

Whitney Shlesinger – VP Global Planning & Logistics, McCormick

“For me, it’s about people. Employees want to move beyond non-value-added work. AI allows us to free them up for strategic thinking, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.”

Sylvia Wilks – CSCO, Lamb Weston

“AI is an enabler for better forecasting, inventory optimization, and cash flow management. It’s about using analytics not just to see the future, but to improve working capital today.”

Stephanie Beal – CSCO, Hasbro

“We’ve rolled out tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to every employee, and adoption has been phenomenal. We’re also applying AI to demand planning and strategy reviews. It is already a game-changer for decision-making.”

Tamera Fenske – CSCO, Kimberly-Clark

“The next stage is Agentic AI — not just seeing insights but offering recommendations. One use case we love is knowledge management: decades of tissue manufacturing expertise now searchable in seconds.”

Closing Thoughts

What I found remarkable is how each leader sees AI not as a replacement, but as an accelerator: of discipline, of creativity, of financial impact, and of decision-making.

Their perspectives highlight a bigger truth: AI won’t transform supply chains on its own. Leaders will. And as these executives showed, the future is not about replacing people — it is about empowering them.

Check out the full conversation in this on-demand link and let us know how you think AI will impact your supply chain. And join us for the next “Never Normal” Power Panel on January 7th- register here!

More Blogs

supply chain
Blogs
August 21, 2025

Hire, Onboard, Manage: Treating AI Agents Like New Team Members

Special Guest Blog Post written by Deborah Dull   Imagine it’s launch season in your supply chain, and a team of AI agents is hard at work: coordinating shipments with suppliers, allocating inventory, and handling a missed delivery. It’s hard to go a day without hearing about the latest AI headlines: new LLMs, new applications, new use cases. These discussions are part of my every day. Business leaders and IT teams are eager to explore – and they have a lot of questions… and apprehension. In these discussions, we have found one framework that lands consistently: consider AI agents like new hires, not new software.   Step 1: Hire Like You Mean It Just like hiring humans, this step is about defining what you need. The first decision is the purpose of the role: what problems are you trying to solve? Where are your people overwhelmed? Where is your business growing in coming months? From here, the next decision is to build the business case just like you would for a new headcount. For example, consider the ROI of having a digital employee who can process supplier performance data 24/7. Now, decide on the type of agent that will join…
circular supply chain
Blogs
April 10, 2026

Critical Mass: Inside the Coalition Building America’s Circular Supply Chain

written by Deborah Dull, on site at GreenBiz 2026   It started over drinks, 80s music, and a shared frustration that has probably launched more good organizations than any strategic planning process ever has. The Circular Supply Chain Coalition, or CSCC, came out of a realization that a lot of the right work was already happening, in reverse logistics, in remanufacturing, in local procurement, in community-based value chains, but nobody had connected it. The people doing the work were not in the same room. The companies with the materials were not talking to the processors who could recover them. The states with enabling policies were not linked to the investors looking for exactly those environments. So the coalition became, as its founders describe it, a collector of collectors. The focus right now is on three priority waste streams: batteries, semiconductors, and e-waste. These were not chosen randomly. They have two elements in common. They carry geopolitical consequence, meaning the supply chains behind them are controlled by other countries and that is a known vulnerability. And they have business cases that a CFO can actually evaluate. That second part matters more than people in the sustainability world usually admit. The hub…