Gartner Hype Cycle: Supply Chain Cybersecurity and Gen AI

Gartner has released a report examining supply chain strategy trends, examining how different versions of AI are being approached by business leaders.

As supply chains are seeing an increase in disruption, due to an ever-growing number of cybersecurity threats, supply chain leaders are debating whether AI is a help or hindrance to supply chain safety. 

With various types of AI entering the market at rate, some are being favoured more than others. 

Gartner's Hype Cycle

Gartner is a research and advisory firm, providing actionable insights and tools to corporations and firms around the world.

It has clients in more than 90 countries and territories, across every industry, function and market sector.

Gartner's Hype Cycle provides an accurate, visual representation of technologies and applications, examining their maturity and adoption rates.

It explores whether businesses are using them and whether these applications can solve real business issues.

The methodology looks at the evolution, both how it's already evolved and predictions of future evolution, of the technology in order to create meaningful insights into how it can help companies meet their business goals.

Gartner's Hype Cycle has five stages, helping businesses decide if they should adopt technology or not.

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Strategy, 2025 is aimed at helping Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) decide of the plan of action, making more informed business decisions and smarter investments by examining the supply chain technologies. 

Gartner reports that supply chain cybersecurity is in the Peak of Inflated Expectations, while Gen AI is in the Trough of Disillusionment, which is presenting a threat to supply chain security.

“The large number of multitier partners in an organisation’s supply chain has made managing third-party cyber risk a daunting task,” says Mark Atwood, Managing VP, Research, with the Gartner Supply Chain practice.

“The rapid expansion of threats continually challenges cybersecurity and supply chain teams to keep pace, while the growing use of Gen AI among trading partners increases the risk of data breaches and intellectual property leakage.”  

Cybersecurity needs

Supply chain cybersecurity is a key concern for businesses in today's market, after a series of cyberattacks on retailers and manufacturers.

More supply chain leaders have been adopting AI processes and implementing them across their operations.

This has been to add in further risk mitigation solutions but it is also causing some concern as it has so rapidly grown in recent years.

Machine learning is a field of AI which is constantly identifying patterns in order to make decisions on behalf of the company and make improvements automatically, without human involvement. 

According to Gartner, it is nearing the Slope of Enlightenment, driven by an interest in agentic and GenAI. 

It is helping businesses with their decision making at a much more rapid pace - which leaders have found necessary in today's turbulent climate. 

With ongoing threats to cybersecurity, more leaders have been keen to implement AI software as a means to protect the supply chain from ransomware threats and malware attacks. 

These attacks can cause operational outages - as seen with the attacks on Marks and Spencer or JLR - halting businesses from running.

As a result, more leaders are noticing the need to safeguard supply chain operations, with high expectations for cybersecurity software. 

Challenges to adoption

While cybersecurity protection is vital, many companies find it difficult to implement.

As a result of lack of clarity, scope of supply chain IT systems which require help and a lack of visibility of third party risk, leaders find themselves lacking the resources to apply these solutions.

“As more organisations grapple with the challenges of scaling Gen AI pilots and integrating the technology into legacy systems, it will appear as less of a ‘silver bullet’ solution,” adds Noha Tohamy, Distinguished VP analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice.

“However, the ongoing enthusiasm for Gen AI’s potential, along with the emergence of agentic AI, has rapidly accelerated the progress we have seen with ML-based AI, which has evolved from an emerging technology to a key enabler of supply chain transformation.” 

As Gen AI technologies can create new strategies at low risk and cost, some organisations remain concerned about data security.

Despite this, ML-based AI is being implemented at large across planning, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and inventory management. 

As a result of its success, CSCOs are scaling it across their supply chains to increase efficiency and resilience amid turbulence.