CSCOs must rethink AI deployment to unlock real value beyond individual efficiency gains.
Why GenAI Isn’t Delivering on Its Promise—Yet
Despite 72% of supply chain organizations deploying Generative AI (GenAI), results remain underwhelming. While individual workers are saving time, those gains aren’t translating into meaningful productivity boosts across teams. Instead, a growing sense of AI-induced anxiety is dampening overall efficiency.
The Gartner study reveals a troubling pattern: Employees using GenAI tools save over four hours weekly, yet at the team level, productivity gains shrink to just 1.5 hours per person. Worse, organizations introducing more AI tools are inadvertently fueling workplace stress, leading to a “productivity doom loop.”
“In their pursuit of efficiency and time savings, CSCOs may be inadvertently creating a productivity ‘doom loop,’ whereby they continuously pilot new GenAI tools, increasing employee anxiety, which leads to lower levels of productivity,” says Sam Berndt, Senior Director in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice. “Rather than introducing even more GenAI tools into the work environment, CSCOs need to reexamine their overall strategy.”
Flipping the GenAI Strategy: What CSCOs Must Do Next
To escape this cycle, CSCOs must stop chasing efficiency alone and focus on alignment, integration, and workforce adaptation. Here’s where AI implementation is failing—and how leaders can fix it:
Use Cases That Matter: Instead of deploying AI for isolated efficiency gains, prioritize collaborative and strategic applications that enhance innovation, scenario planning, and decision-making.
Talent Strategy Over Tool Adoption: Training should go beyond AI functionality. Employees must learn how to use freed-up time effectively and apply AI insights to complex problem-solving.
Rethinking Success Metrics: Productivity must be measured not by hours saved, but by new value creation—how AI enables better decision-making, more resilient supply chains, and strategic adaptability.
CSCOs Must Lead the Transition, Not Just Deploy Tech
The message is clear: GenAI’s success depends on how well it is embedded into broader business strategy. Executive leadership must align AI initiatives with long-term organizational goals, ensuring that automation enhances—not disrupts—collaboration, innovation, and workforce confidence.
Rather than measuring GenAI’s impact solely through efficiency gains, CSCOs should focus on how it creates new value, enhances strategic decision-making, and improves agility in supply chain operations. Those who approach AI as a transformational enabler, rather than just a cost-cutting tool, will be best positioned to turn AI from a disruption risk into a true competitive advantage.
