A new Inverto survey revealed that 87% of companies plan to restructure their supply chains within five years, citing compounding risks from inflation, geopolitical tensions, and climate disruption. But most remain reactive, with limited use of AI and predictive tools to manage escalating complexity.
Procurement Volatility Redefine Priorities
A confluence of global shocks, from procurement cost inflation and energy volatility to climate-related disruptions and conflict, has forced a strategic rethink across global supply chains. The Inverto survey data shows that 57% of companies experienced supply shortages over the past year, 55% reported procurement cost surges, and nearly a quarter faced climate-driven interruptions such as flooding or wildfires.
Inverto’s London principal, Lina Tilley, said in an official statement that the interconnected nature of these crises has exposed weaknesses in traditional sourcing strategies. “It’s no longer about a single failure point,” she noted. “Overlapping crises are stress-testing systems that were never designed for this level of volatility.” In response, 33% of companies are prioritizing regional supplier diversification, 31% are pursuing nearshoring, and 29% are moving toward “local-for-local” supply models that align sourcing with production sites.
Risk Tools Still Underused Despite Rising Exposure
While companies are taking visible steps to reconfigure networks, many risk strategies remain underdeveloped. Only 45% of respondents are using artificial intelligence to monitor or manage supply vulnerabilities, despite the growing availability of platforms that can trace supplier dependencies, model disruptions, and flag at-risk inputs in real time.
More than a third of businesses continue to rely on traditional methods such as dual sourcing (36%), safety stockpiling (33%), and routine supplier evaluations (39%). These approaches, while foundational, often lack the responsiveness required in today’s polycrisis environment. According to global benchmarks, leading supply chain resilience strategies now emphasize end-to-end visibility, predictive modeling, and adaptive sourcing frameworks that go beyond static contingency planning.
Rethinking Resilience Before the Next Shock Hits
The risk now is that organizations invest heavily in physical reconfiguration without upgrading the intelligence layer that enables true responsiveness. As climate volatility, trade uncertainty, and geopolitical fragmentation deepen, the ability to anticipate, not just absorb, disruption may determine which firms thrive and which falter. Without deeper digital capabilities, diversification alone could become an expensive illusion of control.
