Gartner: Why CSCO Must Shift to Autonomous Business Mindset

At the opening keynote at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium in Barcelona, Alan O’Keeffe, VP Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, opened the show by talking about why chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) must prepare for a new era of business in which decision-making and execution increasingly shift from siloed automation to outcome-driven autonomy.

Gartner, a business and technology insights company, welcomed attendees to its show with its opening presentation at the International Barcelona Convention Center, by giving them the knowledge of how autonomous business capabilities are beginning to reshape supply chain strategy and execution, and the distinct implications for supply chains.

The Gartner Supply Chain Practice provides actionable, objective insights for supply chain leaders and their teams, so they can respond to disruption and innovate for the future through leading-edge supply chain management practices.

Redefining supply chain intelligence

Autonomous business is defined by Gartner as a strategy that uses self-improving, adaptable technology to make decisions, take action and create new types of value by increasing both people autonomy and machine autonomy.

In supply chains, this represents a significant change because digital intelligence must be coordinated with physical execution across complex networks of factories, warehouses and transportation assets.

Alan says: “As autonomous business becomes the dominant model for how organisations run, CSCOs must rethink not just how work gets done, but who is making the decisions. They must decide if it’s people, machines or both.

“This is a shift from optimising tasks to orchestrating outcomes, with clear guardrails that balance machine autonomy with human leadership.”

The timeline to 2030 dominance

A Gartner survey of 469 global CEOs and senior business leaders from March to November 2025 found that eight in 10 executives expect autonomous business to become the dominant form of business by 2030.

For supply chain organisations, this shift is quickly moving from experimentation to competitive expectation, as customers increasingly evaluate partners based on their ability to build autonomous capabilities.

Autonomy in the supply chain is fundamentally different from other business functions, due to the complexity of moving physical goods where constraints are real, execution is variable and disruptions can ripple quickly across the system. This complexity is what makes the shift significant.

Three priorities for CSCO readiness

To prepare, Gartner emphasised three readiness priorities for CSCOs:

• Move operations from task automation focused on optimising for speed to outcome-based decision flows.
• Strengthen intelligence with governance, guardrails and context that allow autonomy to scale safely.
• Evolve the workforce so teams can oversee, improve and collaborate with AI-enabled systems across the network.

“This is not a ‘set it and forget it’ technology story,” adds Alan.

“The winners will be the supply chains that design for autonomy in the real world, where physical operations, risk tolerance and accountability matter as much as algorithms.”

Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo is the world’s most important gathering of CSCOs and supply chain executives.

Across the three day event, people will explore how CSCOs predict disruptions, achieve visibility and lead with AI and innovation. Those attending will gain insights from Gartner experts and peers on rethinking models, integrating technology and designing resilient, future-ready supply chains.