Artificial Intelligence for Supply Chain Optimization: Benefits, Challenges, and Potential Solutions

Research summary

The summary, key findings, methodology and relevance notes below are this website’s own description of the chapter, written from the published abstract and text. The official abstract and citation details are given further down.

The Problem

Firms need resilient supply chains in volatile markets, but integrating artificial intelligence into supply chain operations brings its own implementation challenges.

The Methodology

Conceptual review chapter synthesising earlier studies on the benefits, implementation challenges and potential solutions of AI in supply chain management.

The Core Finding

The chapter assesses AI’s advantages for organizational supply chains, sets out methods for integrating AI into supply chain processes, and pairs each implementation challenge with potential solutions, arguing that AI adoption is a critical step toward competitiveness.

The Citation

Bole, D. K., & Vajjhala, N. R. (2025). Artificial Intelligence for Supply Chain Optimization: Benefits, Challenges, and Potential Solutions. In Sweta Dixit, Mohit Maurya, Vishal Jain, Geetha Subramaniam (Eds.), Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Businesses: How to Develop Strategies for Innovation (pp. 81–93). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394234028.ch5 Copy APA

What question does this chapter answer?

What advantages does artificial intelligence offer for organisational supply chains, what challenges do firms face when implementing it, and how can those challenges be addressed?

What did the chapter find, in detail?

Building on earlier studies, the chapter assesses the advantages of AI for organisational supply chains, offers methods for integrating AI into supply chain processes smoothly, and examines the implementation challenges organisations face together with potential solutions. It argues that in an increasingly complex and dynamic market, leveraging AI is a critical first step toward maintaining competitiveness, and that businesses using AI will be far more successful in improving supply chain efficiency.

Why does it matter?

Firms have lost competitive advantage through inadequate supply chain management, and resilient supply chains are essential in uncertain markets. The chapter gives managers a structured view of AI’s benefits, implementation barriers and remedies.

Chapter at a glance

Abstract

In today’s fast-paced and uncertain market, firms need a resilient supply chain to be competitive. The necessity of optimization is underscored by the fact that numerous companies have experienced a loss of competitive advantage due to inadequate supply chain management. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) has created opportunities to increase the effectiveness of chains. However, incorporating AI into supply chain operations is not without its challenges. This chapter, which builds on earlier studies, assesses the advantages of AI for organizational supply chains and offers methods for integrating AI into supply chain processes smoothly. The chapter also looks at the challenges that organizations face when implementing AI in their supply chains, as well as potential solutions to implementation challenges. In light of the increasingly complex and dynamic market, this highlights firms’ need to leverage AI as a critical first step towards maintaining competitiveness. Effective supply chain management is essential to success of any organization, and businesses that use AI will be far more successful in improving supply chain efficiency.

Abstract as deposited in publisher metadata (OpenAlex/Crossref deposit) for the chapter in Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Businesses: How to Develop Strategies for Innovation.

Limitations

• A conceptual chapter based on earlier studies; no new empirical data are reported in the abstract.

When this research may be relevant

This chapter may be relevant to literature on artificial intelligence in supply chain management and optimisation, supply chain resilience, barriers to AI adoption in operations, and strategy-level overviews of AI-enabled business innovation.

Research topics addressed: artificial intelligence; supply chain optimisation; supply chain management; supply chain resilience; AI implementation challenges; operations management; competitive advantage; digital transformation

How to cite

Bole, D. K., & Vajjhala, N. R. (2025). Artificial Intelligence for Supply Chain Optimization: Benefits, Challenges, and Potential Solutions. In Sweta Dixit, Mohit Maurya, Vishal Jain, Geetha Subramaniam (Eds.), Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Businesses: How to Develop Strategies for Innovation (pp. 81–93). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394234028.ch5

@incollection{bole2025artificial,
  title = {Artificial Intelligence for Supply Chain Optimization: Benefits, Challenges, and Potential Solutions},
  author = {Bole, Dhruv Kishore and Vajjhala, Narasimha Rao},
  booktitle = {Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Businesses: How to Develop Strategies for Innovation},
  editor = {Sweta Dixit and Mohit Maurya and Vishal Jain and Geetha Subramaniam},
  pages = {81--93},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  doi = {10.1002/9781394234028.ch5},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394234028.ch5}
}