THANANIT - stock.adobe.com
Global supply chains are at a critical crossroads, driven by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. As companies race to integrate these technologies, new research from Zero100 reveals a growing gap between ambitious digital transformation goals and the skills required to achieve them.
“The report emphasizes the rise of the ‘new-collar’ workforce, blending domain, digital, and business skills, and highlights the critical need for upskilling to close the growing skills gap,” according to Zero100.
Key takeaways:
- 88% of companies plan to integrate AI across all functions in 2024, yet only 25% report that AI is currently driving revenue growth and margins.
- Hiring for supply chain product managers is up 52% from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023, with these roles being 7 times more likely to require generative AI skills compared to traditional roles.
- The rise of the “new-collar” workforce, blending domain, digital, and business skills, emphasizes the need for continuous learning and adaptability in a tech-driven environment.
- 88% have a vision to integrate AI/machine learning (ML) into all of their functions in 2024. However, just 25% of them said AI/ML is driving revenue growth and gross margins right now.
- Skills in sales and operations planning, capacity planning, and freight handling are all in decline. Communication and analytics are stable skills. And natural language processing (NLP), systems thinking, data security, and circularity are skills on the rise.
- From Q4 2022 to Q1 2024, hiring for product managers in supply chain roles rose by 25%, with 76% of companies hiring for product managers within a supply chain. Even more, about one in 100 supply chain workers is a product manager.
- Job posts for product managers are 1.7 times more likely to require digital skills than project managers, 3 times more likely to mention analytics skills, and nearly 6 times as likely to mention AI/ML. And compared to the average supply chain role, they are far more digitally focused. They are 7 times more likely to mention GenAI and 47 times more likely to mention AI at all. Planning appears to lead the way in hiring for this new-to-supply-chain role. One in 75 forecasting roles is for product managers and one in 120 replenishment planning roles. Compare that to one in 300 sourcing roles and one in 500 manufacturing or logistics roles.
- Software engineers and supply chain analysts are seeing the most growth (at 93% and 70%, respectively), and over 7% of companies are hiring dedicated data (product) managers into supply chain.
