The Supply Chain Challenge Continues
Retailers and consumer goods companies have faced constant change, particularly in supply chains. New sales and distribution models, such as online sales, omnichannel approaches, direct-to-consumer sales, and complex ecosystems, have evolved. External disruptions are frequent, with 90% of leaders reporting supply chain challenges in 2024.
Supply chain agility and resiliency rely on fast and accurate decision making. Poor decisions or slow responses lead to missed promises, negatively impacting revenue and customer satisfaction, and increasing costs due to inefficient shipments and higher inventory levels.
To address these challenges, there is an urgent need to improve both the quality and speed of decision making in supply chain management.
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Enter Agents and Agentic Systems
Agentic systems offer a revolutionary opportunity to enhance decision making quality and speed. Triggered by business events, agents collect and analyze relevant data to either act directly or recommend actions.
Microsoft announced the ability to build autonomous agents using Microsoft Copilot Studio during Microsoft Ignite in October 2024. In a supply chain context, this capability could, for example, allow for the identification and action upon alternative supply sources in the event of a delayed shipment, with minimal human intervention.
Overview of Agentic Systems
In the context of agentic systems, an agent refers to a system capable of autonomous decision making and action. These systems can pursue goals independently without direct human intervention. Agentic systems have the following characteristics:
- Autonomy. They operate independently, making decisions and executing tasks without human oversight, escalating to a human when necessary.
- Context aware. They interpret data and adjust actions accordingly.
- Goal orientation. They can aim to achieve specific objectives.
- Learning. They enhance their performance by using new data and past outcomes.
- Reasoning and decision making. Agents use reasoning to process information, infer relationships, and make decisions.
- Perception and sensing. Agents perceive their environment through sensors or other means, which allows them to be triggered by changes in the process.
- Skills and capabilities. Agents possess specific skills or capabilities to perform tasks. These skills can be learned or programmed.
- Memory. An agent’s memory stores relevant information for decision making and future actions.
How Agents Can Operate in the Retail and Consumer Goods (RCG) Supply Chain
Agents can be widely applied across the RCG supply chain to automate repetitive tasks, analyze vast amounts of data for insights, and improve supply chain management. An ideal use case involves tasks that are human-intensive, repetitive, and require real-time decision making, where agentic AI will redefine strategic value and productivity derived from technology, incorporating more advanced decision making processes with greater accuracy and speed.
Identify Business Problems and Scenarios for More Strategic Engagement
As you consider how to use AI agents in a strategic manner, it is vital to frame applications of agentic AI in the larger context of identifying line of business processes that lend themselves to automation: optimizing time-consuming and mundane tasks/scenarios; establishing user trust in the agent’s capabilities and establishing clear operational guardrails for agentic AI, including data governance, privacy, security; and instilling confidence in the agent’s value delivery, extending collaborative work management beyond task tracking to planning and execution functions.
Learn More About Agentic Systems
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