Role of AI in Supply Chain Management

Once upon a time, the workplace looked like this: 🔺 A wide base of operators ⬛ A middle of managers 🔝 A small circle of execs at the top making “strategic” decisions And each layer was dependent on the prior layers knowledge and context. But that is no longer the case - AI is cracking that structure apart and now #1 question I get asked is “Where Should AI sit?” I have an entire framework for that, based on trail and error and over 60+ different structures and outcomes across a variety of industries, but to keep it super duper simple, the new mental model is: The Upside Down Pyramid. 🔻 Bottom layer: Automated out. Replaced by RPA, bots, agents. (FYI … Deloitte reports that intelligent automation has led to zero net growth in administrative headcount in over 65% of enterprises) 🧍🏻Middle layer: Thinned out, middle-management pruning some say - as real-time insights and AI copilots give execs direct access to context. They are no longer the widest & thickest structure. 🔝 Top layer: Amplified, not eliminated, with a new diverse set of players at the top. AI translators and cross-functional builders who know tech and business (fyi, Harvard Business Review reported that 42% of managers’ tasks are now deemed automatable—and that number is climbing) In summary: We’re not watching a job extinction event, we’re witnessing an extreme skills migration. 🤯 RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Redefine your middle. If you’re a middle manager, become the bridge—not the bottleneck. Strategic orchestration beats tactical supervision. 2. Train your top. Your leaders need fluency in AI—not prompt tokens. Nothing is a silver bullet. Invest in simulation-based leadership programs. The new org chart favors the thinkers, the builders, the doers—with AI as their multiplier. Are you adapting to the new shape of work? #FutureOfWork #AITransformation #Leadership #OrgDesign #WorkforceShift #DigitalStrategy #CareerAdvice #DataLeadership >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Worlds 1st Chief AI Officer for Enterprise, 10 patents, former Amazon & C-Suite Exec (5x), best-selling author, FORBES “AI Maverick & Visionary of the 21st Century” , Top 100 AI Thought Leaders, helped IBM launch Watson My 2nd #TEDx talk will be released in 2 weeks!

AI is not coming for ALL procurement jobs. But let’s be honest, some roles are disappearing faster than we think. We’ve seen AI reshape industries before, but procurement and supply chain are now at a turning point. 🔹 McKinsey reports that up to 60% of procurement tasks could be automated. 🔹 Gartner predicts that by 2026, 75% of large enterprises will have AI-driven procurement tools. 🔹 Amazon’s AI-powered supply chain models have cut inventory errors by 50%. I personally see two types of conversations happening: 1️⃣ The Doomsayers – AI will replace everyone. 2️⃣ The Deniers – Procurement is too complex for AI to take over. The truth? AI will automate transactional tasks first, but strategic procurement isn't going anywhere. 🔹 Already being replaced: Purchase order processing Invoice approvals Basic spend analysis Low-value sourcing 🔹 AI will assist, but not replace: Category management Contract negotiations Supplier risk management 🔹 AI cannot replace (yet): Complex supplier relationships Ethical & sustainable procurement Crisis management & strategic leadership If Your Role Is at Risk, Here’s What to Do: 1️⃣ Learn Procurement Analytics Get hands-on with SQL, Power BI, or predictive modelling to move beyond basic reporting. 2️⃣ Get Supplier & Stakeholder Experience Shadow senior colleagues, lead a small negotiation, or take ownership of a contract renewal. 3️⃣ Build Risk & ESG Expertise Take free courses on risk management and sustainability (Coursera, CIPS, MIT) and apply them. 4️⃣ Join Cross-Functional Projects Get involved in cost-saving, supplier innovation, or sustainability initiatives to gain strategic exposure. The shift is already happening: The procurement professionals who adapt and upskill will lead the industry. Those who rely on manual processes won’t last. Where does your job fall? 👇

Your job description hasn't changed. But your job already has. Middle managers used to be the corporate dashboard — collecting updates, coordinating teams, and passing information up and down the chain. Then AI learned to do all of that automatically. So what's left? Everything that actually matters. Drawn from my new article in CEOWORLD, here are 7 ways AI is reinventing middle management right now: 1. From Human Dashboard → Sense-Maker: AI generates the status reports. You explain what they mean and what we should do about them. Algorithms handle the "what." Managers own the "why" and "now what." 2. From Bottleneck Navigator → Dynamic Orchestrator: AI tracks the work. As in an orchestra, you conduct the performance — cueing solos, adjusting for nuance, and adapting when plans inevitably shift. 3. From Approver → Empowerer: When your team has AI-powered insights at their fingertips, they don't need your permission to act. They need your clarity on priorities and confidence they're supported if they get it wrong. 4. From Periodic Check-ins → Always-On Coaching: AI surfaces productivity patterns and sentiment signals in real time. This shifts you from reactive reviews to proactive, in-the-moment support. 5. From Department-First → Ecosystem Thinker: AI enables cross-functional visibility that makes silos harder to defend. Your job is understanding ripple effects and knowing when to collaborate, and when not to meddle. 6. From Playbook Follower → Playbook Rewriter: AI accelerates change, so you must challenge precedent. Spot new opportunities, flag outdated processes, and question AI when its recommendations miss the mark. 7. From Mediator → Culture Carrier: AI can't build psychological safety, foster inclusion, or communicate with authenticity. As workflows speed up, people need human anchors more than ever. Most managers didn't sign up for this. But the organizations investing in manager transformation are discovering that the middle is becoming the most strategic layer of the business. This isn't the death of middle management. It's the rebirth.

🚀 Why are Mid-management professionals under pressure? A lot has already been said about why management folks are feeling the heat with the latest wave of AI innovation. But let’s move past the emotional angle for a moment and ask — what’s really going on? Mid-management seems to be the sweet spot where redundancies are getting identified in tech companies. Why is that? Because the role of a manager is undergoing a dramatic shift. 🔹 In the first wave, a manager was typically a strong IC or functional expert who grew into a role focused on leading people. They were expected to manage people — solve technical issues, handle business queries, and care for the emotional and professional growth of young professionals. It was a full-time people-first role. 🔹 The second wave came in over the last decade. Pure people managers became a thing of the past. Now, managers were expected to be techno-functional — to understand the domain, be hands-on, and lead with both tech and people expertise. 🔹 And now, we're in the third wave. Managers are being asked to manage tools, AI agents, and the humans leveraging them. That’s where the real challenge lies. If your core role is managing people, and AI is now taking care of tasks, timelines, quality, and even feedback — what remains of the traditional manager’s job? The ones who can’t pivot — from managing people to managing systems that manage people or work — are finding themselves displaced. Because today: Quality? Measured by AI. Timeliness? Tracked by tools. Morale? Often detected by behavior analysis platforms or almost invisible with fewer people. The human angle of management is reducing — fast. And that’s precisely why managers today need to pause and ask: Where do I stand in this new world of AI-augmented teams? What do I need to re-learn or unlearn? The role of a manager is no longer just about people — it’s about orchestrating performance in a human+AI world. Those who evolve will lead the future. The rest risk becoming part of the past. I write about #artificialintelligence | #technology | #startups | #mentoring | #leadership | #financialindependence   PS: All views are personal Vignesh Kumar

Gartner recently predicted that by 2028, 56% of CEOs expect to use AI to restructure middle management. This is not to reduce headcount, but to expand a manager’s span of value and move away from routine oversight. 𝗜𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹. For years, middle management has carried the weight of coordination, tracking progress, ensuring compliance, and resolving bottlenecks. Much of that effort has been necessary… but also largely administrative. AI is beginning to take that load off. When systems can monitor workflows in real time and surface risks early, the need for 'oversight' as we know starts to diminish. This is of course, with the human-in-the-loop model. And that raises an important question: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀? In my view, it becomes far more human. Managers are no longer defined by how closely they track work, but by how effectively they are able to enable it. At the same time, these middle managers will need to be more hands-on in this new world, rather than being pure people managers. Companies that expect their managers to be technical and understand field design, architecture, and the related complexity will likely do much better. The roles will shift from supervision to amplification. It will further evolve from simply checking that things don’t go wrong, to actually helping teams do their best work. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆: • From checking status to shaping direction • From enforcing process to building capability • From managing tasks to mentoring people AI can expand a manager’s span of control, but the real opportunity is expanding their span of impact. This is because while AI can provide visibility, but it cannot replace judgment, context, or trust. 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆. #Leadership #AI #FutureOfWork #Management #DigitalTransformation #PegaIndia #Pega

Middle managers truly are the unsung heroes of organizations. They play a critical role in translating strategy into action; they bridge the gap between leadership and the teams they manage; and they're tasked with creating a positive work environment, impacting organizational success and employee engagement over time. But it has not been all roses for this group. They have been hit with everything from lack of empowerment, stress from heavy workloads, difficulty implementing change, and layoffs, to name a few. I think it's also about to get worse, unfortunately. How? With the advent of more powerful AI Agents being introduced to the workforce, the importance of the Individual Contributor who can optimize output with AI increases. I think this shift can undermine the traditional role of middle managers by reducing layers of human oversight and directly challenging the value added by management in optimizing output. And as AI Agents prescribe, and even automate, activities, including summarizing what's happening in an executive-level update, I think this trend will accelerate over the next few years. What are Middle Managers to do? First, develop a clear understanding of AI capabilities and digital tools. Equip yourself with the skills needed to integrate these tools into your workflow. Consider courses on digital leadership and AI from reputable sources, such as Harvard Business School Online or MIT Sloan. Second, invest in training programs for your team to build competence in emerging tech. A knowledgeable team can use AI to improve productivity while reinforcing your strategic role in translating organizational vision into actionable steps. Resources and frameworks from McKinsey & Company offer insightful guidance on building digitally savvy teams. Third, act as the bridge between top leadership and front-line employees by ensuring that strategic changes, including the adoption of AI, are communicated clearly and implemented effectively. This reinforces your role as a key connector, ensuring that both leadership goals and team insights are aligned. Fourth, shift your focus from managing tasks to nurturing talent and driving innovation. Leverage data analytics to inform decision-making. This justifies your role in a digitally advanced workplace and enhances team performance and engagement. Finally, stay current with the latest industry trends and technological advancements. Connecting the dots allows you to adapt your leadership style to meet evolving business needs. Publications like MIT Technology Review and HBR provide regular insights into emerging technologies and leadership strategies. If you're a Middle Manager, now is the time to get super focused on tech innovations and how your team can leverage AI to improve outcomes. You can have a critical role to play, but you have to get skilled up quickly. The clock is ticking! #employeeexperience #middlemanagement #leadership #ai

I didn’t spend 20 years climbing the ladder, collecting direct reports like Pokémon, and writing books about “leadership in the digital age” I just watched a 17-minute video (by full disclosure) on whether middle managers will exist next year and honestly, it perfectly captured where a lot of teams quietly are right now. Now we’re closing out 2025 and Gartner is saying that by 2026, 20% of organisations will use AI to cut more than half of their middle management roles. Big Tech is already there: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Meta all trimming layers, raising spans of control, and asking why they need three people in the middle to move information from A to B. And here’s the uncomfortable part the video calls out: Most middle managers haven’t been “replaced by AI”- they’ve been exposed by it. The repetitive admin work that used to quietly fill their week (status updates, reporting, email ping‑pong, meeting orchestration) is exactly what AI tools now do faster, cheaper, and with fewer errors. If your calendar is 80% coordination and 20% actual leadership… the Great Flattening hits hard. The video frames the survivor profile as an “insight architect”: Not the person who forwards dashboards, but the one who can read them, question them, and turn them into decisions the team actually understands and executes. High EQ plus real data literacy; less status-collector, more change agent. If this hit a nerve, don’t just save the post. Audit your calendar, kill one low‑value task, and replace it with one strategic or coaching conversation this week.

I'm in Melbourne this week for CEMAT, talking to supply chain leaders from across the region. However, the same anxiety keeps surfacing, whether I'm talking to someone from Singapore, Manila, the US, or Melbourne. "Will AI take my job?" I believe this is the wrong question. The honest answer is that jobs are going to look very different, and the real question should be "what will my job actually look like?" The core issue isn't job insecurity but role insecurity. And across Asia/Pacific, I think it's even more pointed than the global picture suggests, as people try to work out what they are doing versus what the bot does. A manufacturing CFO put it bluntly in our recent research: "If I am going to pay for AI, I need to see its impact on either the top line or the bottom line. Vague assertions of productivity improvement are not going to cut it." That's the shift. We've had two years of pilots. Now, finance is asking what we actually got for it. In practice, across Asia/Pacific, I'm seeing supply chain roles move in four directions: someone who stewards risk before it becomes a crisis, someone who converts supply chain signals into revenue opportunities, someone who governs what the agents do and don't decide on their own, and someone who owns the coordination layer across trading partners, borders, and regulatory regimes. That last one is genuinely harder here than anywhere, as our supply chains cross more borders, have more data rules, and touch more systems than most. Two questions worth sitting with if you are looking at the future of agents and the role shifts in your organization: 1. What decisions in your supply chain team happen the same way, every time? 2. And when something goes genuinely wrong, who has the experience to understand why? The gap between those two answers is where agentic AI lands — and where roles will shift. There's also a succession problem no one is talking about loudly enough. In more mature markets across the region, deep expertise sits with people a decade from retiring. In faster-growing markets, the workforce is AI-native but hasn't had time to build operational depth. AI absorbing the learn-by-doing tasks makes both problems worse. Curious where others in the region are sitting with this — are you still in the "pilot everything, scale nothing" phase, or are you seeing real role redesign starting to happen? Read the full research here [gated]: https://lnkd.in/gK9PEXyE Simon Ellis #willAItakemyJob #AI #jobinsecurity #supplychainjobs

AI makes buttons easy—and mid-level jobs fragile. 🧠 Usage won’t save you. Work design will. Recent mid-manager cuts at giants (Microsoft, TCS) are a message: coordination, reporting, and routine decisions are the first to be automated. Many firms shout “use AI now,” yet starve people of time, training, and guardrails. From coaching 6,000+ leaders, I see it clearly: managers who merely adopt tools get squeezed; managers who redesign workflows become force multipliers. In 90 days, pivot from “user” to “architect”: map repeatables → pilot 2 AI workflows → codify a playbook → socialise wins with simple metrics. • Block 10% protected learn-build time; tie it to KPIs so it survives. • Ship 1 AI SOP/week (prompt, inputs/outputs, risk, human-in-loop). • Automate the status layer (notes, summaries, dashboards); spend your time on trade-offs and narrative. • Run a monthly “Judgment Line” review: what can AI take next—and what must stay human, and why? • Teach up & across: 30-minute brown-bags to raise team literacy. If you had six weeks and exec cover, which workflow would you redesign first—and what proof would convince your CFO? ⚙️ “AI won’t replace managers; managers who redesign work with AI will replace those who don’t.” Follow me, Sudhakar Reddy G., for more insights on Leadership and Board Governance. Coach. Mirror. Certified Corporate Board Director. “Like a silent conch in the storm — true coaching calms, awakens, and guides from within.”

Supply chain isn't 1 job. It's 12 roles in a relay, and AI is already running parts of the track. Most planners ask the wrong question: "Will AI replace me?" The honest answer: AI is not replacing roles. It's eating specific tasks inside each role. Some roles lose 60% of their daily work. Others lose 10%. And a few get harder, not easier. Here's how the 12 SCM roles look in 2026, and what AI is actually doing inside each one 👇 🔹 Demand Planner AI generates the baseline, cleans outliers, models promo lift. The planner stops tuning models to make the number look right. 🔹 Supply Planner AI nets requirements and ranks exceptions. Out of 5,000 lines, it shows you the 50 that matter. 🔹 Master Scheduler Solvers handled sequencing for years. Agents finally make the output usable on Monday morning. 🔹 Production Planner A line goes down at 09:00. AI reschedules the day before you finish your first coffee. 🔹 Inventory Planner Safety stock recalc, slow mover detection. In mature setups, 70% of this is already on autopilot. 🔹 S&OP / IBP Manager AI drafts the scenarios, the gap narrative, the exec pre-read. The planner still owns the room. 🔹 Strategic Buyer Co-pilots crunch spend data and build supplier shortlists. The negotiation stays human. 🔹 Tactical Buyer PR-to-PO, 3-way match, expedite chasing. This is the role most exposed to disappearance. 🔹 Logistics Planner Mode selection and load building used to be planner intuition. AI now optimizes both, hour by hour. 🔹 Warehouse Planner Slotting and labor balancing handled inside the WMS, with no meeting required. 🔹 Capacity Planner Concurrent planning made this a real-time job (Kinaxis, o9, OMP). Weekly capacity reviews are dead. 🔹 Control Tower Analyst Agents read the data and write the alert. The analyst still has to make the call. Every role still needs a human. But the work inside each role is shifting fast. The planners who'll matter in 3 years aren't the ones who fear AI. They're the ones who already let it do the boring 60%. 👉 Which of these 12 roles is yours? And how much of your weekly work has AI already touched? ♻️ Repost to share with a planner who's still asking the wrong question. 🔔 Follow Sergey Masyagin for insights on AI Supply Chain Architecture. Hashtags: #SupplyChain #SupplyChainPlanning #DemandPlanning #SupplyPlanning #S&OP #IBP #Kinaxis #ControlTower #SCM