As companies have worked on new ways to boost supply chain resiliency, many have turned to artificial intelligence. Early results are promising, with companies reporting a 15 percent reduction in logistics costs. AI continues to evolve with new solutions emerging that could positively impact your supply chain, particularly agentic AI.
What is Agentic AI?
Agentic AI is a term used to refer to AI systems that have a higher degree of autonomy than their early counterparts. Generative AI uses human input to create new content such as images, text, and even code. Generative AI and traditional systems require people to enter prompts and train the program. Even though these tools help with automation, you still need to enter commands to make them work.
Agentic AI continuously learns from its previous experiences without human intervention to generate a series of actions or decisions. This technology uses machine learning and natural language processing to set goals and make decisions based on available information. Unlike generative AI, agentic AI can make its own decisions.
Key Benefits of Agentic AI in Supply Chain Management
Agentic systems expand the benefits of generative AI and traditional systems.
Enhanced Decision-Making With AI
Because agentic AI is continuously learning, it uses real-time data for decision-making. An agentic AI system reads and analyses historical data, market trends, and competitor information to deliver insights that can help you improve your supply chain. These tools can help you predict seasonal shifts in demand and identify unique factors that may disrupt your ability to serve customers.
For example, an agentic AI system could generate a report showing that you have a peak in demand every year in the fall. It can also identify rare stockouts that happen because of unforeseen circumstances. Without this data, you might plan future inventory around a demand trend that is really just an outlier.
Agentic AI can also help you manage other common supply chain challenges. Pinpoint areas in which costs are rising quickly and develop solutions to manage them before the increases impact your business. For example, you may notice that one of your shipping partners has increased its prices more than others. In this case, you could contact the vendor to renegotiate your rate or switch to a less expensive provider.
Boosting Operational Efficiency and Productivity
With AI, agentic workflows are automated, helping streamline your operations. You can use them to track shipments in real-time, plan and optimize routes and loads, and even tackle customer service. Because agentic AI doesn’t require human oversight, your human workforce can spend their time working on more complex tasks.
Agentic AI can also assess your daily operations and help you improve workflows so your human team members are more productive. For example, you may have multiple touchpoints in your manufacturing process before a product is considered complete. Agentic AI can assess all of these touch points to see if eliminating one would impact product quality.
Building Resilient Supply Chains
Information is critical to supply chain resilience. Agentic AI systems can run advanced analytics on large volumes of data providing valuable information to supply chain management. Traditional AI tools require you to identify and input the data and enter a series of prompts that guide analysis. Agentic AI systems run analyses themselves based on tasks they have already done.
Because you don’t have to enter a prompt, an agentic AI system can run analyses you may not have considered. With this data, you can create more accurate demand forecasts and identify potential supply chain disruptions much sooner.
Optimizing Logistics for Cost Efficiency
Agentic AI workflows can help you optimize your routes to deliver merchandise quickly without damaging it in the process. You can use it to navigate around natural disasters, political unrest, and other factors that temporarily disrupt the supply chain or even plan a delivery truck’s route through the city. You can also track your inventory from beginning to end and identify areas to improve your supply chain and logistics.
Innovations Driving Agentic AI in Supply Chain
Other technology is also evolving and driving innovations that make AI more effective.
IoT and Blockchain Integration
IoT stands for the Internet of Things, and this technology powers devices that collect data. If you have a smart thermostat in your home that automatically adjusts the temperature based on the time of day or how many people are in the room, it is likely powered by IoT technology.
In supply chain management, IoT powers sensors that are used in asset tracking, inventory management, and other applications.
Blockchain refers to a secure database shared by multiple parties that allows people to exchange encrypted data. For example, you may share a blockchain database with your vendors allowing everyone to input data as they initiate and complete transactions. Instead of having to update your own accounting systems and reconcile them against your vendors, you each have real-time access to all transactions.
Together, AI, IoT, and blockchain create an ideal environment for managing data and optimizing processes.
Advancements in Predictive Analytics
Since agentic AI can analyze loads of historical data, it can provide more accurate predictive analysis than traditional systems. Insights generated by these systems let your company plan and manage inventory levels more accurately so you can fulfill customer orders without carrying excesses.
Predictive analytics also helps you better understand your customers and stay competitive in your industry. If you’re losing customers, agentic AI can help you understand why. Use this information to strengthen your unique value proposition or improve your products so they better meet customer needs.
Stay on top of the market by using predictive analytics to identify new, profitable business opportunities that won’t disrupt your operations or cost too much to launch.
Integrate Artificial Intelligence into Your Supply Chain Operations
Surgere’s supply chain management solution leverages AI to analyze your supply chain and drive informed decision-making. Our solution uses natural language processing and deep learning algorithms to assess your supply chain and generate meaningful insights.
We have built a reputation on data accuracy so you can tackle complex supply chain planning and management tasks. Together, we can help you optimize your supply chain and improve operations by harnessing the power of AI. Learn more about our AI-powered supply chain solutions by contacting us today.
