Why This Matters to Distributors: Employee skills, management participation and cybersecurity remain obstacles to putting artificial intelligence into daily operations. The findings suggest distributors need to prepare employees and establish clear responsibilities alongside investments in purchasing, inventory planning, and other AI applications.
Supply chain organizations are pursuing artificial intelligence faster than they are preparing employees to use it, according to research finding that 83% of respondents consider their workforce unprepared.
The Association for Supply Chain Management and the Digital Supply Chain Institute announced the findings Oct. 14 in The People Paradox in Supply Chain AI Integration. While 91% of organizations plan to use AI to support employees, only 14% consider themselves fully prepared for an AI-supported future.
“The organizations making real progress treat workforce readiness as part of the technology investment, not an afterthought,” ASCM CEO Abe Eshkenazi said.
The findings reveal a substantial gap between interest and everyday use. Across 13 supply chain functions, the average adoption score was 1.94 on a five-point scale, ranging from no use to fully autonomous operation.
Organizations with an AI-ready workforce reported using the technology across an average of six functions and a 71% project success rate. Unprepared organizations reported a 28% success rate. The comparison associates readiness with success but does not establish that employee preparation alone caused the difference.
Planning applications were further along than tasks involving physical operations. Demand planning scored 2.28, followed by supply and inventory planning at 2.12. Reverse logistics, which include managing returned products, ranked lowest at 1.59.
A shortage of workforce skills and resources and an unclear business case tied as the most frequently cited barriers, each named by 33% of respondents. Poor data quality followed at 25%.
The research also found that participation weakens below senior management. Active AI leadership falls from 82% among senior executives to 12% at the director’s level, suggesting that executive support is not consistently translating into involvement closer to daily operations.
Security preparations also lag concern. Organizations had implemented an average of 2.3 of six standard cybersecurity practices, despite widespread concern about AI-related risks through trading partners.
The report includes an executive action roadmap and questions for assessing readiness. Its central challenge is moving AI from isolated projects into broader use supported by employees, reliable controls, and measurable business results.
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