David Contreras

Special Guest Blog Post written by Matt McKinney, Co-Founder and CEO of Loop   I spend most of my time with supply chain and innovation leaders at major enterprises who are sitting on significant AI budgets but struggling to show measurable business impact in an increasingly complex and volatile supply chain environment.   These conversations have evolved dramatically. A year ago, executives were asking basic questions about AI feasibility. Today, the questions have shifted to strategic implementation at enterprise scale.   Based on hundreds of these discussions, three questions consistently emerge that separate companies making transformational progress from those stuck in pilot purgatory.   How do we move from AI experiments to enterprise-scale impact?   Most organizations have yet to see organization-wide, bottom-line impact from AI use. This is the strategic challenge keeping C-suite leaders awake at night.   The problem isn’t the technology. It’s the application of the technology. Too many enterprises are trying to treat AI like a magic wand they can bolt onto existing systems. But garbage in, garbage out. If your underlying data is fragmented and inconsistent, AI won’t solve your problems; in fact they’ll get worse.   At its core, anything automated is powered by…

Tariffs have the entire world on edge, and the Supply Chain Now hosts are staying abreast of the very latest developments on the tariffs front to share them with listeners. But believe it or not, there’s a lot more going on in the world that affects the supply chain industry than tariffs, and Supply Chain Now is keeping listeners informed about all the topics important to them. Tariffs, Of Course, and Government Regulations The Trump administration has cranked up trade tensions with its 145% tariff on most imports from China and the end of the de minimis exemption that allowed packages worth less than $800 to enter the United States duty-free. The Port of Los Angeles, the United States’ largest maritime gateway, is one of the American powerhouses that has been bracing for the impact. Port Executive Director Gene Seroka said on April 24 that he expected within the next two weeks container ship arrivals would “drop by 35% as essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased, and cargo coming out of Southeast Asia locations is much softer than normal.” At Supply Chain Now, we’re constantly monitoring what’s happening in LA and Washington —…