New Gen Supply Chain: Agile, AI-powered Organizations and Sustainability – Report by Capgemini Key Insights

The report, new-generation supply chain by the Capgemini Research Institute, establishes the new-generation supply chain characterized as agile, AI-powered and sustainable as one of the top three tech trends for 2025. The research, which includes a survey of 1,000 senior executives from organizations with annual revenues over $1 billion across 13 countries and four major sectors, tracks significant progress in supply chain transformation over the last three years. It also assesses organizational preparedness to mitigate ongoing global disruptions. Amid constant geopolitical unrest, economic uncertainty and climatic variations, the findings show resilience and sustainability as strategic requirements with a critical focus on the transformative potential of Agentic AI.

Key Insights:

1. 70% of executives identify the new-gen supply chain (agile, sustainable, AI-powered) as among the top three tech trends for 2025.
2. The percentage of organizations that have made significant progress on supply chain transformation increased from 54% in 2022 to 72% in 2025.
3. 68% of organizations have established a clear vision and objectives for their supply chain in 2025, up from 35% in 2022.
4. 76% of executives agree their organizations are currently focusing on risk management.
5. 61% of executives agree their organizations have effectively lowered supply chain operational cost.
6. 67% of executives agree that Agentic AI will boost productivity.
7. 58% of executives believe Agentic AI will revolutionize the existing supply chain framework and processes.
8. Nearly one in 10 organizations have already implemented multi-agent systems or are using AI agents.
9. 76% of executives agree that adoption of sustainable practices drives cost efficiencies.
10. 71% believe the business value of sustainability initiatives outweighs the associated costs.
11. 76% have a comprehensive supply chain sustainability strategy.
12. 74% of executives cite cybersecurity risks as a major challenge for supply chain management.
13. 71% cite supply chain digitalization and technology integration as a major challenge.
14. 68% cite rising costs and inflation as a major challenge.
15. 67% cite resilience and risk management as a major challenge.
16. 51% of organizations have implemented more than five use cases of Gen AI in the supply chain.
17. 29% of executives’ organizations have already partially scaled/completely adopted the new-gen supply chain.
18. Over 70% of executives from the Energy/Utilities, Retail, Telecom and Automotive sectors rank the new-gen supply chain as a top trend.
19. 80% of executives from the energy/utility, life sciences/healthcare, and retail sectors say sustainable supply chain will be the top trend in 2025.
20. Only 38% of organizations were prepared to report Scope 3 downstream emissions for their first CSRD report submission in 2025.
21. Only 56% of organizations were prepared to report Scope 3 upstream emissions.
22. Disruptions to global supply chains surged by 38% in 2024.
23. The drought in the Panama Canal area in 2023 resulted in a 36% reduction in ship crossings.
24. Freight rates (Shanghai Containerized Freight Index) almost doubled between late 2023 and mid-2024.
25. The salaries of supply chain employees increased by an average 8%, year on year, in 2024.
26. Insurance premiums for cargo surged from 0.6% to 2% of the cargo value.
27. 64% of executives cite “supplier diversification ratio” as the top metric/KPI of supply chain resilience.
28. 85% of organizations believe humans must validate decisions made by AI agents/agentic AI.
29. 81% state they cannot trust a fully autonomous AI agent/agentic AI.
30. Only 34% of organizations agree that their employees have been trained in sustainable practices and understand the environmental impact along the value chain.

Conclusion

To successfully build the new-gen supply chain, organizations must embrace a cultural shift toward continuous innovation. The future of supply chains is rooted in leveraging AI agents and Gen AI to drive automation, navigate uncertainty and innovate, all while prioritizing the sustainability aspect. The most successful organizations will be those that strike a delicate balance between cost efficiency, risk management advanced AI capabilities and agile approach. Furthermore, creating a culture of sustainability throughout the value chain is essential for long-term resilience. This is also supported by a composable IT architecture that seamlessly integrates new and legacy systems. By effectively integrating these core elements, organizations will be better positioned to deal with future challenges and deliver sustained value.

You can read the full report by Capgemini here.