Sat. Jan 11th, 2025 1:07:42 PM
Epicor Research Finds Fastest Growing Supply Chain Companies Adopt Ai And

by 2024 Agility Index Research by Epicor and Nucleus Research, Nearly half of companies surveyed across manufacturing, transportation and distribution industries cited concerns about rising costs as the biggest challenge facing their supply chain, and more than half are using artificial intelligence, automation or machine learning in at least one supply chain management application to address the issue.

Notably, many high-growth companies (63%), defined as revenue growth of 20% or more over the past three years, are already integrating generative AI into their respective supply chain operations to manage costs and operational challenges.

Nucleus Research surveyed more than 1,700 supply chain management leaders around the world to understand how they are succeeding with powerful technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning while navigating challenges such as supply chain disruptions, rising costs and skilled labor shortages. The survey also revealed their expected future investments in these technologies.

“When you empower workers to spend more time innovating, they can spend more time doing what humans do best: innovating. That’s where the real value comes from: agility,” said Vaibhav Vora, chief product and technology officer at Epicor. 2024 Agility Index “It highlights that the adoption of AI and other automation technologies is essential for supply chain businesses to thrive and compete better. Together, these cognitive capabilities will enable workers and their businesses to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and better serve customers.”

Survey respondents said they are integrating generative AI into their digital supply chain operations across a range of functions, including product descriptions, customer service chatbots, natural language queries, reporting, in-application assistance, etc. Specifically, the adoption of generative AI in customer service chatbots was highlighted as the most common use case, noted by 72% of organizations. This widespread implementation is attributed to the technology’s ability to streamline customer interactions across sectors.

Similarly, 67% of organizations are now adopting generative AI to create product descriptions, leveraging the technology’s ability to analyze customer sentiment and forecast market demand, which allows for more informed product design and feature development.

Companies are most frequently deploying machine learning in inventory optimization (45%) and demand forecasting (40%), highlighting the critical role these technologies play in managing stock levels and accurately predicting future demand.

According to survey respondents, the greatest expectations for the impact of automation technologies are increased efficiency and productivity (32%), cost reduction (26%), and improved supply chain automation (23%), reflecting a strong belief in the potential of these technologies to significantly improve supply chain management.

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