It was more than 100 years ago when Sears and Montgomery Ward sparked a trade revolution in Chicago, leveraging rail to innovate in trade.

That fundamental change in business was referenced this week by John Sexton Abrams, CEO of supply chain startup Nutrad, in a discussion of the future of supply chains. A similar upheaval is expected in the years ahead — but this time, it'll be digital in nature.

Abrams made the comments during a webinar hosted by innovation hub 1871. The webinar was held in advance of 1871's forthcoming Supply Chain Innovation Lab this summer.

Nutrad was one of the companies that participated in the Supply Chain Innovation Lab last year. Before joining Nutrad, Abrams managed supply chain affairs for Cardinal Health. He also worked in innovation tech for McDonald's, during which time he proposed adding a service that was supposed to sell milk, eggs, cheese and other items in McDonald's parking lots.

"It didn't test very well," Abrams said during the 1871 webinar.

Abrams said it wasn't Covid-19 and pandemic challenges that created supply chain bottlenecks in recent years. Rather, he said, it was conflict and confusion over supply lines.

"There's this fragility to our global supply chains, and it doesn't matter which [sector]: The same challenges exist," he said.

Abrams thinks artificial intelligence can be used to take the person out of the mundane mapping that happens between disparate systems.

"That has big upside," he said.

Ankur Mukherjee, part of the data and AI practice at Accenture, shared his perspective on the AI adoption he's seen from clients as well as overall trends in the industry.

Mukherjee said the highest demand he's seeing from clients is focused on generative AI.

Accenture surveyed 120 supply chain leaders and found that only 14% are currently implementing some Gen AI technology into their platforms. Another 50%, however, are planning to implement it in the next six to 12 months.

Mukherjee said every client he's talked to has at least put Gen AI on the table for discussion in terms of how to move their organization forward.

"I would say comparatively, supply chain has been lagging compared to other sectors in terms of adoption of this technology," he said.

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