By Stephen DeAngelis
It’s always reassuring when others see things the way you do. Unfortunately, seeking such reassurance can result in only searching for sources of information that agree with your point of view. For years, I’ve argued that supply chain professionals can’t afford to take a biased view of world events and that they need artificial intelligence (AI) to help them sort through all available information. Nevertheless, risking falling into the intellectual trap I just described, I was pleased to read two articles that reinforce my views.
The first article, written by analysts from Kearney, explains, “From shifting regulations to fast-moving technologies and evolving customer expectations, the consumer packaged goods (CPG) landscape is crowded with competing signals. For CPG supply chain leaders, the challenge is cutting through the noise to focus on the dynamics that carry the most strategic weight.”[1] The second article, written by Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) Research analysts, reports results from their 2025 Technology in Supply Chain Management & Logistics Survey.[2] The survey found, “A robust technology strategy is essential for supply chain management & logistics.” Digging deeper into the survey, analysts found that risk mitigation was the biggest external challenge faced by supply chains and that many companies didn’t know where to start when deploying new technologies to counter and/or mitigate supply chain challenges. The survey also found, “94% of respondents … plan to use AI or Gen AI for decision support over the next two years.”[3]
Dealing with the speed of today’s business environment
Kearney analysts identify seven macro forces “reshaping how CPG supply chains operate, compete, and create value.” Those macro forces are:
1. Fast-changing consumer demands. Nestlé CEO Philip Navratil, recently expressed what most CPG leaders are likely thinking, “The world has changed and we need to change faster.”[4] As a result, Kearney analysts insist that the current business situation requires “supply chains built for speed.” They explain, “The explosion of choice across all product categories, combined with economic uncertainty, has sharpened consumer focus on price and quality. … Supply chains are adapting by employing a customer-centric mindset, linking supply chain strategy to product design and innovation. … AI and digital technologies are helping make this integration more intelligent. For example, digital twin technologies can create a virtual replica of a product or system, which can enable design teams to see downstream constraints (for example, manufacturability, cost, sourcing risk) earlier in the process.”
2. Global instability. Kearney analysts observe, “The list of variables driving macro instability continues to grow: trade tensions and shifting tariffs, rising nationalism/anti-globalism, political instability, and ongoing market volatility as GDP growth slows globally.” The Kearney analysts insist that global instability “demands building resilient networks.” I call this “getting REAL.” In a REAL-world environment, businesses become Resilient, current events become Explainable, actions become proactive and Anticipatory, and decision-making is improved because the business environment becomes more Lucid. This framework provides a roadmap for systemic renewal and adaptation, enabling individuals, organizations, and societies to thrive amid complexity and uncertainty rather than merely enduring current conditions or collapsing because of the chaos. The Kearney analysts conclude, “Real-time scenario planning, predictive risk scoring, and continuous monitoring paired with early warning systems are helping CPG companies shift supplier risk management from a largely reactive, periodic process to a more proactive, dynamic, and intelligence-driven activity.”
3. Smart technology. According to the Kearney analysts, “Smart tech is quickly becoming table stakes.” Having said that, they note, “Adjusting to this new baseline of performance requires a fit-for-purpose AI strategy and operating model, but many organizations struggle to move beyond isolated pilots or narrow use cases.” I couldn’t agree more. As I stated in a previous LinkedIn comment, “The AI transformation was never about the technology. It was about the decisions and organizational change management.”
4. Real-time consumer influence. How consumers buy products has probably changed more over the last decade than in the last 100 years. And more changes are coming. Kearney analysts write, “To respond, supply chains are becoming more agile and integrated with retailer partners. Real-time inventory visibility and flexible fulfillment processes are essential to support hyper-personalized experiences.”
5. Growing retailer pressure. Kearney analysts explain, “With retailer economics under pressure, retailers seek tighter integration with suppliers. Inflation, rising labor costs, and increased supplier pricing have made margin growth harder to achieve. In response, many retailers are moving beyond transactional relationships in favor of more collaborative, data-driven approaches.”
6. Employee upskilling and upgrading. While much attention has been given to technology, great business leaders know that processes and people also require continued attention. On the people front, Kearney analysts explain, “Manufacturing and especially logistics are facing serious labor shortages. While AI adoption is increasing, relatively few companies have invested in formal training around digital literacy. At the same time, automation is demanding training and re-skilling, increasing the need for clear career development paths.”
7. Changes to the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) landscape. Kearney analysts note that both consumers and government policies, especially in the United States, are expressing less interest in ESG efforts. They observe, “For supply chains, this recalibration places greater emphasis on ESG actions that deliver measurable financial outcomes and are also attractive to investors. ... New governance models are emerging that prioritize speed, agility, and decentralization.”
How artificial intelligence systems can help
Enterra Solutions® has developed the Enterra System of Intelligence® to help clients thrive in the business landscape described by the Kearney analysts. This System ushers in a new era of AI-enabled management science by merging cutting-edge analytical techniques with a business’ data and knowledge to Sense, Think, Act, and Learn® on enterprise data to meet the changing needs of the market. Enterra’s System acts as central “brain” within an organization, ingesting diverse datasets, business logic and practices, and strategy, to uncover unique insights and generate autonomous recommendations across the enterprise at market speed. Insights and recommendations generated by the Enterra System of Intelligence are acted upon through deep integrations with an organization’s established systems of record and engagement. Enterra’s system uniquely learns the environmental reasons that recommendations are successful or not and persists that learning in its Ontologies and Generative AI knowledge bases to improve future insights and recommendations. The business application modules included in the Enterra System of Intelligence are:
• Enterra Consumer Insights Intelligence System™. This System allows clients to quantitatively uncover and logically understand the inter-relationships that lead to heightened consumer understanding, hyper-personalized product recommendations, and new product innovation.
• Enterra Revenue Growth Intelligence System™ (ERGIS™). ERGIS systemically performs holistic revenue growth optimization (including optimizing strategic and tactical pricing, trade promotion, trade architecture, price pack architecture, media mix, customer segmentation, and assortment).
• Enterra Demand and Supply Chain Intelligence System™. This System concurrently performs non-linear demand and supply planning optimization.
• Enterra Business WarGaming™. Business WarGaming enables organizations to leverage their data to make strategic decisions by anticipating the moves of their competitors and taking direct action to beat the competition, mitigate risk, navigate uncertainty, and maximize market opportunity. Part of Enterra Business WarGaming is the Enterra Global Insights and Decision Superiority System™ (EGIDS™) — powered by the Enterra Autonomous Decision Science™ platform — which can help business leaders rapidly explore a multitude of options and scenarios.
Concluding Thoughts
The Kearney analysts conclude, “Now is the moment to both reflect and look ahead. Reflection means ensuring your organization has the operational discipline, systems, data backbone, and operating model needed to address [the seven forces described above].” As I noted in the LinkedIn post mentioned earlier, “Companies need to revisit their org charts to understand how both Humans and Agents need to play evolved roles within their organization, and integrated business and people management teams need to be stewards in navigating this organizational evolution.” For CPG supply chains, change is in the air. Change won’t come like a warm spring breeze. Change will be more like a rapidly forming hurricane that sweeps over islands of past performance. As a result, change will wreak havoc in CPG supply chains that are unprepared.
Footnotes
[1] Alyson Potenza, Corey Chafin, Steve Mehltretter, Franziska Neumann, and Tulika Vardhan, “CPG supply chains and the seven shifts shaping leadership response,” Kearney, 28 October 2025.
[2] Staff, “2025 Technology In Supply Chain Management & Logistics Survey Results,” Allied Business Intelligence, November 2025.
[3] Staff, “Supply Chains Using AI in Decision-Making,” Material Handling & Logistics, 7 November 2025.
[4] Paul Simpson, “The problem with consumer goods,” Management Today, 10 November 2025.
