111 planners are equipped with the most up-to-date and accurate forecasts. As market dynamics shift, planners can rely on the foresight provided by predictive AI to make agile decisions in different areas including production schedules, resource allocation and distribution channel optimisation. For example, by anticipating demand fluctuations, predictive AI helps organisations to optimise inventory levels, preventing overstock or stockouts. This not only reduces carrying costs but also enhances customer satisfaction by ensuring timely product availability. Upleveling performance and unlocking productivity While predictive AI anticipates and refines, generative AI takes planning to the next level by actively contributing to the creative process. Generative AI can reveal contextaware, data-driven insights and explore innovative solutions to even the most complex challenges. By analysing vast data sets, interpreting connections and understanding the intricacies of the manufacturing landscape, generative AI doesn’t just provide answers, it asks questions and guides next steps. This innovation in productivity means tasks that used to take hours or days now only take minutes. The converging advancements in data availability, computational power and algorithmic innovation present an optimal stage for businesses to adopt AI today. Supply chains are, to a certain extent, well suited for generative AI, with a growing number of use cases being discovered, such as assisted decision-making and automating repetitive workflows. Blue Yonder’s latest AI-powered solution, Blue Yonder Orchestrator, combines the power of generative AI and large language models to provide dynamic decision-making at the user’s fingertips. The solution is integrated within the Luminate Cognitive Platform and allows users to query in everyday language, then pulls data from all relevant sources and serves up data-driven insights along with guided recommendations. Blue Yonder Orchestrator can then execute decisions across the breadth of Blue Yonder’s suite of solutions, meaning that team capacity is better utilised and more can be achieved. The synergy of technologies and the future of planning If demand and supply planning can become a dynamic and forwardlooking process, this will lay the foundation for a resilient and innovative supply chain that is able to efficiently and successfully navigate the complexities of the modern industrial landscape. These emerging technologies position manufacturers to thrive in an era that has been defined by perpetual disruption. The integration of automated scenario planning, predictive AI and generative AI shifts the day-to-day lives of planners from a series of reactive responses into an orchestrated performance of proactive decision-making and continuous innovation. Puneet Saxena is corporate vice president of industry strategies for manufacturing at Blue Yonder INDUSTRIALS & MANUFACTURING Photo: Shutterstock/Zapp2Photo
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