Special Ed (Ed Archer)

We are excited to celebrate Scott Luton, Founder & CEO of Supply Chain Now, for being recognized as a 2025 Pro to Know by Supply & Demand Chain Executive—a distinction that underscores his unwavering impact and leadership in the field. This recognition honors Scott’s year-in and year-out commitment to excellence—from thought leadership to community engagement. It stands alongside his previous accolade as a Pro to Know in 2019 and now again in 2025, highlighting a sustained legacy of influence within the supply chain profession. See the complete list of 2025 Pros to Know here.

Execution Is Everything At Manifest 2026, Scott Luton spoke with Aadil Kazmi, Head of AI at Infios, to discuss the next chapter of intelligent supply chain execution. Infios provides an integrated suite of supply chain execution software: order management, warehouse management, and transportation management – all running on a single data model. “When a supply chain runs on a single data model, you can make better decisions,” Kazmi explained. Fragmented systems require expensive data lakes and normalization efforts before even basic BI is possible. An integrated ecosystem simplifies intelligence from the start. For Kazmi, AI is not about flashy demos. But rather, it is about execution. The most advanced technologies mean little if companies cannot execute faster, smarter, and more resiliently in the real world.   Disruption Isn’t Going Away Reflecting on 2025, Kazmi did not sugarcoat reality. Ports closed. Trade wars escalated. Wildfires disrupted domestic production. Shipping lanes tightened. “We don’t believe that supply chain disruptions are going away anytime soon,” he said. Volatility is becoming the baseline, not the exception. But what is changing in 2026 is mindset. Kazmi describes what he calls the “Amazon effect for AI.” Just as Amazon forced retailers to rethink last-mile execution a…