The debut of artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT in late 2022 ignited viral media firestorms around the world. AI is no longer science fiction. It is here. It has arrived. It is on our fingertips, demonstrating its power and ready for our use.
With AI apps like ChatGPT, we can use our devices (i.e., smartphones, desktop computers, tablets) to draft our emails, chat online fluently in multiple languages, and write programming code. Sooner or later, if not already, AI could help us write books, compose songs, experiment with new chemical formulae, draw up architectural plans, design new fashion attire, book our travel itineraries, drive our cars, and interview applicants for employment. The potentials for AI are endless and needless to say, it’s making us either very excited or very uneasy about the future of our careers and our cultures.
For those of us who are operations professionals, the opportunity for AI is not far-fetched but huge. We will soon, if not already, be able to use AI to drive our supply chains. AI could capably automate supply chain functions from purchasing, inventory control, production planning, to logistics.
We might in our lifetimes see AI-driven supply chains supported by automated facilities & autonomous vehicles. Merchandise would flow with minimal, if not without, human intervention through robot-equipped factories. AI software would input sales orders, generate pick lists, plan routes, and dispatch self-driving trucks & drones to deliver products to customers. AI could also supplement Enterprise Resource Planning/Materials Resource Planning (MRP) software to formulate purchasing & production plans which would automatically trigger procurement orders & manufacturing schedules.
And while AI drives the supply chains, we who may still be called supply chain managers would monitor & remotely oversee operations online from our offices & homes. Interventions would be limited to equipment maintenance, database & software updates, and once-in-a-while management overrides.
AI might at some point in the future lead to the death of supply chain management. AI could displace the purchasers, planners, and supervisors of supply chain operations and take away the need to employ supply chain staff. The chief supply chain officer (CSCO) role would be a short-lived career which an AI program could render obsolete.
What are the reasons we would embrace AI into our enterprises and supply chains?
- Would be it’s because AI is a new technology everyone is getting into and we should too?
- Are we afraid our competitors would have AI and we won’t?
- Do we fear we would lack the talent and skills in adopting AI such that we become outcasts?
In 1981, IBM introduced the desktop personal computer (PC). It wasn’t new. Apple and other companies had already introduced their personal computers. Because IBM did not fully patent the PC model, however, other manufacturers made available ‘PC compatibles,’ which came with cheaper prices and wide distribution. By the end of the 1980’s, most households & businesses had personal computers on their tables.
We were both excited and uneasy when desktop computers were rapidly coming into the market. We were asking ourselves:
- Did we need them?
- What happens if we didn’t buy one?
- How would it impact our jobs?
- Would desktop PCs be harmful to our children?
- Would we be left behind if we didn’t have one?
By the 1990’s, desktop computers were ubiquitous appliances like television sets, fax machines, microwave ovens, & refrigerators. If we didn’t have PCs and use word processors, spreadsheet programs, and dot-matrix printers, we’d not be keeping up with everyone else:
- We wouldn’t be able to provide or print word processing or spreadsheet files corporations or government entities would be requiring
- We wouldn’t be able to quickly prepare presentations in formats our bosses or customers would be expecting
The popularity of personal computers overrode any fears or anxieties. Not having a personal computer (or in the 21st century, a personal computing device like a smartphone, tablet, or laptop) is out of the question. We would hardly be able to live or work without it. Personal computing devices are no longer luxuries but are needs.
We could argue the same kind of thinking about artificial intelligence. It’s a new technology we should seriously consider adopting, at least, be updated with. If everyone is on the verge of using it, we should be ready too, at least to learn the basics of it. Because if we don’t, we risk falling into the same trap of being left behind.
That doesn’t stop us, however, from asking similar questions we had about personal computers:
- Do we need AI?
- What happens if we don’t buy the AI hardware & software?
- How would AI impact our jobs?
- Would AI be harmful to our children?
- Would we be left behind if we didn’t have AI?
There’s a chance AI will be become ubiquitous via the apps in our devices and via the transactions we make in the future. So much so that AI’s potentially universal coverage may override what fears & anxieties we may have, just as the flood of PCs did in the 1980’s.
Nevertheless, it pays to evaluate whatever new technology we are considering adopting.
We didn’t, after all, just buy any PC in the 1980’s. We determined what we would need a PC for. Then, we compared models to look for the one that would best. satisfy our needs. We checked the estimated lifetimes of different models. We studied how powerful the PC’s microprocessor should be, how much storage space we should get, and what peripherals (e.g., mouse, keyboard, stylus) will the device accommodate. We weighed what software to buy and the technical support the manufacturer will provide. And finally, we decided how much we were willing to pay versus the perceived value we’d be getting from the PC we want.
AI requires information technology (IT) hardware & software. If we are to adopt it into our enterprises and supply chains, we’d need to determine where it will be applied and what it would cover in terms of scope. In short, we’d use a similar line of questioning as we used when we bought PCs in the 1980s.
Where would we want to apply AI? What AI programs would we like to have? What hardware would we need? How compatible would the hardware be with our current devices? What are our options for software? What would be the estimated lifetimes of the hardware & software? How much would it cost?
Some of us learned the hard way when we bought personal computers just for the sake of having them on our desks. Some ended up idle, to be later disposed of or sold. Some we realised we couldn’t work with, because we didn’t have the right software or hardware—e.g., not enough hard disk memory, the wrong spreadsheet program. We ended up realising that some of the PCs we bought weren’t suitable for the tasks they were intended to support.
We could end up spending so much time and money investing in AI to also realise we didn’t get the right hardware & software suitable for our needs.
In short, we might not match the AI we get for the tasks we want it to handle. We didn’t answer critical questions. We didn’t solve the problems we wanted AI to solve.
We, therefore, should not only ask ‘how do we embrace AI into our enterprises and supply chains?’ but instead, seek answers to ‘what problems will AI solve?’
The fast-pace changes in information technology drive us to adopt new hardware & software such that we could benefit from new and modern innovations while we keep up with our rivals, if not with the times.
We may be excited or anxious about AI, given its revolutionary potential to upend (if not eliminate) how we manage our supply chains. But as much as we examine where we can apply it in our operations, we would still need to evaluate it as we do when we buy new devices or software. That means we need to know what opportunities AI can exploit and what problems it would solve.
AI is here, but we determine its destiny.
Ellery's Essays 