Gartner Survey Shows Just 23% of Supply Chain Organizations Have a Formal AI Strategy
Gartner surveyed 120 supply chain leaders who had deployed AI in their organizations within the past 12 months between December 2024 and January 2025. An analysis of the survey data revealed multiple disconnects between AI expectations and reality within the supply chain function.
Prominent among these disconnects was supply chain AI investment strategy, with most CSCOs focused on “project-by-project” short-term wins, rather than a defined AI investment strategy that ensures adequate funding to long-term, transformational investments (see Figure 1).
This unstructured approach to AI investment poses a significant risk, as CSCOs may focus excessively on short-term returns, potentially undermining the long-term transformative potential of AI and resulting in misalignment with their CEO’s focus on using AI to drive growth.
Figure 1: Most Supply Chain Organizations Lack a Formal AI Strategy
![[Image Alt Text for SEO]](https://emt.gartnerweb.com/ngw/globalassets/en/newsroom/images/graphs/2025-06-11-ai-strategies-in-supply-chain-oganizations.png "Gartner survey supply chain AI strategies 2025")
Source: Gartner (June 2025)
Additional survey data revealed that supply chain leaders overwhelmingly use bottom-line metrics—such as efficiency, decision-making speed, and cost—to gauge the success of their AI investments, ranking these factors far ahead of measures such as increasing revenue and innovation. This suggests that CSCOs currently see AI primarily as an efficiency and cost-savings tool, rather than a truly transformative technology that can drive innovation and new business models.
Balance Supply Chain AI Investments
To effectively balance AI investments among short-term wins and long-term transformational benefits, Gartner recommends the following strategies for CSCOs:
1. Develop a Formal Supply Chain AI Strategy: Establish a defined and documented AI strategy that outlines both short- and long-term objectives, what success looks like, and what needs to be done (and by when) to achieve that success.
2. Adopt the Run-Grow-Transform Framework: Build an AI investment portfolio that includes “run,” “grow,” and “transform” projects to strategically allocate resources and deliver immediate operational efficiencies, as well as mid- to long-term benefits.
- Run Phase: Focus on enhancing operational efficiency and cost optimization through AI-driven automation and predictive maintenance.
- Grow Phase: Foster cross-functional alignment and enhance decision-making capabilities by integrating AI into key processes, such as sales and operations planning.
- Transform Phase: Make principled bets on AI initiatives that position the supply chain as a strategic partner in business growth, leveraging AI for consumer insights and proactive demand shaping.
3. Invest in AI-ready Infrastructure: Ensure scalability and adaptability to meet evolving business demands, in collaboration with the CIO and other executive leaders.
