Gartner Supply Chain Practice, Distinguished VP Analyst, Noha Tohamy
Ask the CEO what's in their minds in 2025 and you can hear the familiar, modest growth. Despite the world that feels unpredictable by that day (thinking the trade wars, geopolitical changes, and labor market turmoil), growth remains firmly at the top of the executive agenda. In fact, 59% of CEOs surveyed by Gartner said it was their top priority and outweighed technology and economic concerns.
However, achieving growth in today's environment is not business as usual. Playbooks are changing, and when it comes to the role that supply chains play, it's not enough to focus solely on cost and efficiency.
Not only does supply chain leaders maintain, but they also put pressure on AI to move forward, especially to move forward. 65% of CEOs say AI defines the next era. Just as the Internet has defined the e-business era, 73% believe that AI is the top technology that supports business growth.
CEOs are trying to supply chains for dynamic capabilities as well as resilience. The ability to bending, expanding and acquiring new opportunities as the market changes. Designing, segmentation, and capacity optimization for agile networks is no longer “good to have.” These are essential to supporting geographical expansion, M&A, and new revenue streams.
Customers often want enhanced personalization, seamless technology and sustainable options at the lowest possible cost. CSCOs need to respond by building outcome-driven supply chain models that can provide differentiated service levels across different customer segments. This means going beyond traditional cost analysis to understand the true cost of a service, commercialize excess capacity as a new service, and work directly with customers to define success.
What can CSCOS do to support CEO duties in this AI-dominated era?
By taking bold action on three important priorities, supply chain leaders can turn today's uncertainty into tomorrow's growth engine.
1. Rewiring your AI supply chain
Our study believes that less than a quarter of supply chain-intensive industry CEOs are equipped with operating models for an AI-driven future. Even more impressive, only 8% of CEOs say they are familiar with AI with CSCOs. The biggest barrier? Human elements: talent, skills, culture.
For supply chain leaders, this is a wake-up call and an opportunity to step up. CSCOs must become champions of AI transformation, deepen their own expertise, build a common language around AI, and advocate supply chain needs as enterprise operating models evolve.
This new model of operation must go beyond knowledge workers and embrace the reality of frontline operations. It requires investment in both basic technology, process redesign, and high-skills, both digital and physical roles.
Additionally, CSCO will partner with digital leaders, industry groups and external partners to identify high-impact AI use cases, clarify how operational benefits and risks are shared, and ensure supply chain requirements are incorporated into the blueprints of AI-enabled companies. By leading from Front, CSCO helps organizations bridge the gap in preparation and unlock AI's conversion power.
2. Address the automation and workforce priorities dilemma
This year's CEO survey reveals significant conflict. Though expectations for automation and AI are rising, they focus on workforce development. The percentage of CEOs prioritizing workforce issues fell 20% year-on-year, with efforts to attract and retain talent almost half. However, 44% of CEOs say that the inability to hire or develop the right AI talent is the second biggest barrier to AI adoption.
At the same time, CEOs are making a big bet on automation: 44% have plans to deploy fully automated logistics, distribution and production systems within three years, and expect to be involved with AI agents or machines customers by 2026.
For CSCO, this is a key moment to fill the gap. CSCOs should focus on building up their existing workforce, leveraging the technology resources of the entire enterprise, and building a blueprint for human collaboration. This means keeping people in a loop for decision-making, providing ethical guardrails, and ensuring mutual learning between people and machines.
Training and monitoring become even more important in physical operations where AI-driven robots interact with frontline workers. By leading the workforce strategy, CSCOS can help organizations realize their AI potential fully without leaving people behind.
3. Expand AI for business value
65% of CEOs surveyed believe that AI will define the next business era, while 73% of CSCOs consider it the most important technology in the next three years. However, the appetite for AI “for innovation for innovation” is declining. CEOs want AI to deliver measurable and scalable business value. It's an increase in efficiency, reduce costs, and a new source of revenue.
The supply chain is uniquely positioned to realize this promise. Embedding AI in forecasting demand, optimizing inventory, and maintaining assets generates direct quantifiable improvements in financial performance. However, to realize these benefits, CSCOs need to develop a comprehensive AI strategy with a clear governance framework for tracking, expanding or leaving pilot projects based on their actual business impact.
Leaders of digital strategy should ensure that isolated pilots and non-silent AI are woven into the existing technology stack. By adopting the spectrum of traditional, generative, agent AI technology, CSCO can drive operational improvements and demonstrate the business value of large-scale AI.
Progress: Grab the moment
Acting boldly by turning the supply chain into a growth engine, CSCO is best positioned to guide organizations into an era of uncertainty and new opportunities.
First, we will focus on prioritizing workforce strategies that deepen AI expertise, advocate for functional advocacy, and balance automation with human ingenuity. The future of the supply chain and business growth depends on it.
About the author:
Noha Tohamy is a renowned research vice president of Gartner's CSCO enablement team for Supply Chain Practices. She advises leaders on how to adopt digital and AI strategies to augment and automate decision-making.
