AI 'greatest opportunity since cloud'

SAP UKI managing director Ryan Poggi, says: “Traditional supply chain management processes are not fit for purpose to address the volume and variety of disruption that exists today. Future AI innovation, especially generative AI, will change this and is the greatest opportunity since the rise of cloud. 

“The benefits are so big that it this has triggered a race for executives to quickly develop plans to create AI-enabled value across their organisation. But, as leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure our businesses use AI responsibly to help transform companies faster than ever. Supply chains are generally low risk, so are a great place to start. Now is the time to embrace AI ethically and leverage company data to make your business much more resilient now and in the future.”

Demand for supply chain resiliency has surged following a series of disruptions to global trade, and due to highly publicised shortages of goods, from microchips to vegetable oil —supply chain issues continue to take centre stage in boardroom discussions. Steps have been taken to address supply chain challenges facing the UK, but disruptions continue to have a significant impact, leading to 59% of organisations facing production delays, 55% suffering decreased revenues and nearly half (46%) losing customers (according to new research from SAP).

Suggested AI-centric strategies:

• Optimising decisions across the supply chain with AI-driven insights: Companies can now leverage higher volumes of machine data and integrate AI-driven visual inspection by computer into their production processes, enabling a remarkable increase in quality through automation. 

• Streamlining product development: Product developers can now use SAP’s AI copilot Joule to gather and enhance new product ideas quickly and effectively using natural language queries. Joule also helps tag product designs with business data, so they visually contextualise business-critical information. 

• Detecting equipment anomalies: Using AI, asset operators can proactively address potential breakdowns based on sensor data collected from smart devices and edge gateways. This new capacity utilises the cutting-edge Cumulocity IoT platform from Software AG, which is planned to be embedded in the SAP Asset Performance Management application in Q3. 

• Improving field response: Customers can optimise driving routes and allocate job assignments efficiently with integrated real-time traffic data and machine-learning-trained models, which enable the right field service technicians to reach their destinations on time. 

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