Convergence because we cannot afford to have planning and operations working in separate silos where plans cannot be executed or, if they can, are very costly to execute. Good business plan. Big companies execute.
–Tom Moore
Founder and CEO
ProvisionAi
Optimization. 2025 will be a year of optimization as businesses seek to offset the impact of high inflation in previous years. After considerable effort dedicated to improving our supply chain footprint, sustainability profile and tools/processes over the past two years, we look forward to building on this to optimize the way we manufacture and deliver our products.
–Crist Jennings
COO
Bragg Live Food Products
Stagflation– a mix of slow growth and rising costs – could strain shippers, carriers and third-party logistics providers, reducing their profit margins. To achieve this, companies must diversify their suppliers, leverage technology to improve efficiency, and evaluate their transportation models. Plan now for reduced demand and increased costs.
–Frank Granieri
Chief Operating Officer, Supply Chain Solutions
A. Duie Pyle
Data-driven supply chains. Companies have invested in technology that creates massive amounts of data across the supply chain: customer behaviors, orders, warehousing, delivery, vehicles, drivers, and more. There is a growing need to use AI to make sense of data. If businesses don’t start to make sense of it, they will be left behind in the wave of innovation coming from AI-driven analytics.
–Cyndi Brandt
Vice President, Fleet Solutions
Descartes
Artificial intelligence Attract attention
AI will be the defining term of supply chain in 2025. This high-potential technology will bring real benefits to many processes, from predictive analysis to real-time automation and optimization. Implementing AI will be essential to manage risk and remain competitive as supply chains become increasingly complex.
–Lilian Bories
Director, Marketing
TradeBeyond
The true power of artificial intelligence capabilities remains to be seen and we are all trying to figure out how to deploy it effectively in our businesses. AI will play a major role in supporting sustainability initiatives, personalization of customer and worker experiences, supply chain visibility, quality, accuracy and overall customer satisfaction.
–Bart Cera
CEO
VARGO®
An obvious answer, but it’s clearly artificial intelligence. Embrace it or fall behind. This will dominate the discussions.
–Mark McEntire
CEO
Princeton TMX
Cross-border will be a priority. International sales are growing twice as fast as domestic sales, and as e-commerce booms, international markets offer huge opportunities. Without a strong cross-border strategy, businesses face risks such as shipping delays, higher costs, compliance issues and poor customer experience, which harm customer trust and brand growth .
–Sylvia Ng
CEO
BackBear
Scenario planning. Disruptions, from strikes to geopolitical tensions, have defined the supply chain in 2024 and become the new normal in operations. Businesses must proactively prepare for disruption through short- and long-term scenario planning.
–Ara Ohanian
CEO
Net stock
Digital twin technology will be in the spotlight as supply chains face unprecedented complexity and unpredictability. Digital twins will evolve from a niche tool to a critical asset, enabling businesses to simulate and test entire networks, anticipate disruptions and optimize operations.
–Fred Baumann
Senior Director of Industry
Kinaxis
Predictive analytics will lead supply chain conversations, as small businesses leverage it to refine their demand forecasts. With better planning, businesses can avoid costly surprises, reduce expedited shipping, and avoid overstocks, streamlining their entire supply chain.
–Ben Hussey
Co-CEO
Katana Cloud Inventory
Sustainability. Augmented reality and 3D modeling will drive this direction by reducing returns and waste. They streamline operations, aligning supply chains with growing consumer and business demand for sustainable practices.
–Angelo Coletta
CEO and Founder
Zakéké
Resilience at the top of priority lists
Building resilient supply chains involves adopting risk management, diversifying suppliers and building adaptive capacity to deal with disruptions.
–Kelly Martinez
Founder and co-president
Worldwide Post
Resilience will be the key term in the supply chain. As businesses adapt to changes such as de minimis limits, they will notice that relying on a single supply chain strategy or carrier is not always the best option. Cyber resilience will also be crucial as recent attacks have exposed supply chain vulnerabilities.
–Maggie Barnett
CEO
LVK
Supply chain resilience will be a prioritydriven by climate-related disasters, post-pandemic cost-cutting and political instability. Supply chains will use artificial intelligence models and simulations that predict global disruptions, expose supply chain vulnerabilities and identify value generation opportunities.
–Matthew Bunce
Responsible for decision intelligence missions
Aerial technology
We have seen the impact of disruptions like weather events and geopolitical instability can impact global supply chains. We expect these challenges to persist. By prioritizing proactive risk management and diversifying your supply chain, you can mitigate disruptions to your operations and become resilient.
–John Marrow
President, Supply Chain Solutions
RRD
Antifragile. Beyond resilience, antifragile supply chains enable businesses to adapt, learn, and strengthen in the face of volatility. This approach goes beyond simple shock resistance and actually aims to improve them. Companies that adopt antifragility in their supply chains will be better positioned to thrive amid uncertainty and gain a competitive advantage.
–LeAnne Hester
Product Manager
Resilinc
Natural language processing (NLP) is a technical application that leading supply chain companies will be talking about in 2025. Using NLP in email improves efficiency through automation and could be the biggest value add in the field supply chain technology in the years to come.
–Zach Jecklin
Director of Information
Global Logistics Echo
Ground truth insights. As the industry moves from passive shipment tracking to real-time location and status tracking, the ability to collect multi-modal, hyper-accurate, real-time shipping data paves the way for enormous Ground truth information that optimizes lanes and routes, minimizes downtime, geolocates cargo theft danger zones, and more.
–Steve Bonadio
Vice President, Global Marketing
Tive
Theft of goods will always be a major problem because there is no solution at the moment. This remains a major problem. The situation may have calmed down a bit at the end of 2023, but the problem remains very present and will not disappear anytime soon.
–Frank Matarazzo
CEO
Fusion Transportation
Antifragility will be the main supply chain term for 2025. Antifragility refers to supply chain systems that not only withstand shocks, but actually benefit from them, strengthening in the face of adversity. As supply chains continue to face increasing disruptions, ranging from pandemics to geopolitical shifts, there is growing interest in building supply chains that are not only resilient, but also antifragile.
–Dan Abramson
Senior Vice President of Growth Markets
Four kites
Private fleet. Advances in technology are helping shippers with private fleets realize logistics efficiencies and increase revenue by increasing utilization. As these shippers invest heavily in increasing the number of tractors in order to capture greater market share, this creates a downstream effect of reducing demand in the spot market for the for-hire trucking market .
–David Spencer
Vice President of Market Intelligence
Arrival Logistics
AI-powered resilience is fast becoming the defining term in supply chain discussions. As global uncertainties continue to disrupt traditional models, AI will become the cornerstone of agile, self-healing supply networks.
–Jyot Singh
CEO and Founder
RTS Laboratories
Regulatory risk. With the influx of new legislation, like CSDDD and EUFLR, companies find themselves held accountable for where and how their products are manufactured. This increased focus adds new levels of complexity, pushing organizations to rethink how to anticipate and mitigate risks to ensure long-term growth.
–Henry Sherman
Product Director
Sayari
Adaptability will be a priority in 2025. With constant supply chain disruptions due to weather disasters and port closures over the past year, businesses must invest in agile supply chain solutions that can pivot to any time. This includes researching new technologies that can help organizations digitize their operations to adapt to today’s environment.
–Jeff Iannone
Vice-president
UPS Capital
Fluidity. The first part of the decade was fraught with uncertainty, disruption, geopolitical instability and climate-related disruptions. The increasing deployment of technologies to ingest and analyze retrospective data, coupled with the ability to incorporate evidence-based forward-looking forecasts, will be necessary for planning and placing raw materials and finished products.
–Scott case
Founder and Chief Storyteller
Position: Global