The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' (CSCMP) latest Hot Topics publication identifies technology trends that will shape the supply chain of the future—from artificial intelligence (AI) to blockchain to intelligent order management.

Written by Lori Webber, chief marketing officer of IBM Watson Supply Chain, the Hot Topics report, "The AI Revolution. Coming to Transform Your Business Network" discusses how emerging technologies are impacting business and industry, with AI being "perhaps the most transformative of our era." According to nonpartisan fact tank Pew Center Research Center's research, by 2025, "AI will be 'built into the algorithmic architecture of countless functions of business and communication, increasing relevance, reducing noise, increasing efficiency, and reducing risk across everything from finding information to making transactions.'"

In fact, TechRepublic, an online trade publication dedicated to information technology (IT) professionals, agrees that current technology capabilities and economics have brought us to a "tipping point after which the use of [AI] will become commonplace." According to a recent IBM survey, 69% of supply chain professionals think improving supply chain visibility is important, while 91% of the respondents believe AI technology will be the catalyst to meeting that improved visibility objective.

Webber provides examples of how AI technology can allow companies to access detailed, real-time transactional intelligence to enhance visibility and insight into their supply chains. In addition, since AI technologies can process a high-volume of data in a short amount of time, businesses can use these technologies to respond more quickly to transactions and customer service issues, which allows IT departments to spend less time answering questions from users and more time on "higher-level tasks."

This Hot Topics is free to CSCMP members and nonmembers by visiting cscmp.org.