When Supply Chains Learn to Think

Supply chain planning and retail operations have had to evolve rapidly in recent years. 

A volatile market, geopolitical disruption and a whole host of industry-specific challenges have meant linear or static ways of working no longer cut it. What has followed is nothing short of a retail revolution – one that is still ongoing, and many are struggling to keep up with. 

At the forefront of this shift is integrated business planning (IBP) and AI-powered inventory management, championed by experts like Emily Nicholls, Vice President of Supply Chain Applications at Anaplan. 

Emily’s unconventional career path from nuclear submarines to advanced analytics consultancy provides a unique perspective on practical problem-solving. She is driving the global go-to-market strategy for Anaplan's supply chain solutions, with a focus on replacing fragmented, spreadsheet-reliant processes with resilient, integrated systems.

She explains the current market volatility stems largely from a disconnect between operational reality and financial constraints. In her opinion, the traditional operational model is simply too slow.

"For firms facing market volatility, the biggest challenge is connecting operational inventory planning with financial guardrails," she says. 

By embedding financial parameters directly into operational models, supply chains can "reduce decision latency – the gap between information being received and a decision being made”. This allows for agile, pre-authorised actions, such as increasing safety stock levels to protect service levels without waiting for lengthy financial sign-offs at a critical time.

Her vision for more connected, financially-aware planning runs parallel to real-world innovators like Walmart. It has established an agentic retail ecosystem that teases a future in which machine intelligence orchestrates logistics, elevates the customer experience and embeds resilience at every stage.

Resilience through real-time insight

Walmart views AI as "the heartbeat of a highly adaptive, agentic retail ecosystem." Its agentic AI systems are designed to autonomously detect, diagnose and correct operational issues, providing a Unified Inventory Intelligence across all stores, fulfilment centres and distribution hubs.

Rather than waiting for human intervention, Walmart's AI continuously monitors data patterns across millions of products. When disruptions occur, the system automatically reroutes or rebalances inventory flow to maintain product availability, resulting in “tangible resilience: fewer stockouts, faster replenishment and more predictable delivery timelines”. 

This agentic capability is applied even to quality assurance. AI-enabled computer vision cameras inspect incoming goods, spotting imperfections or expired items before they enter circulation. 

The digital shift is already gaining traction, particularly in Northern Europe. 

Emily notes this region “is particularly well-positioned to capitalise on AI in supply chain planning, as the market benefits from mature digital foundations and a real appetite for integrated business planning”. 

The goal is to use AI to unify siloed datasets, delivering faster predictive insights and earlier risk detection.

"In turn,” she says “this will have a transformative effect on the rate in which organisations hit their ESG goals. 

"It will be easier to avoid situations like we saw last summer, when water levels in Germany’s Rhine River dropped unexpectedly low and caused increased cargo freight costs, as vessels couldn't travel fully loaded. Using AI to predict and react to these sorts of situations will only make supply chains more dynamic and consequently more resilient."

From planning to predicting

An outdated reliance on slow, monthly planning cycles is a persistent hindrance – especially in 2026. 

Emily argues: “Organisations that move towards real-time adjustments will have to contend with stale assumptions, slow reactions and frequent missed opportunities." 

"Another challenge,” she explains, “is simply that too many organisations still operate in siloes. Ensuring that these are kept to a minimum through cross-functional information flows only serves to increase resilience."

The need for real-time responsiveness has changed the perception of inventory. 

Now, inventory is “a lever for working capital,” Emily says. “We now evaluate inventory decisions based not only on operational criteria, but also their impact on cash flow, capital lock-up and cost of holding, making inventory a financially strategic asset."

She explains: "Real-time responsiveness is now non-negotiable. Continuous recalibration is replacing quarterly planning, allowing AI to flag changes earlier and surface new planning scenarios in seconds." This approach lets teams focus on decision-making without being "bogged down by data collection”. 

Walmart has leveraged this intelligence to redefine the customer interaction through agentic commerce. Its partnership with OpenAI integrates the conversational power of ChatGPT into the shopping interface. This allows customers to shop, plan meals and manage essentials through natural dialogue, transitioning retail "from a cost-efficiency play into a customer-experience strategy”. 

Former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon explains: “There is a native AI experience coming that is multimedia, personalised and contextual.”

The AI learns, plans and predicts customer needs, making shopping “feel more personal, intuitive and anticipatory”. The benefits are already apparent, with AI accelerating merchandising timelines by up to 18 weeks and cutting customer service resolution times by nearly half.

The investment extends to the workforce. Walmart’s internal AI ecosystem empowers its 2.1 million employees with intelligent tools. AI-driven task management has reduced planning time for overnight stocking from 90 minutes to 30, "freeing managers to focus on team leadership instead of logistics”. 

Crucially, a real-time AI translation tool supports 44 languages, removing communication barriers across the workforce. Additionally, conversational AI, which uses generative AI to instantly convert complex policy manuals into actionable, step-by-step guides, "reinforcing the company’s belief that accessible AI can amplify human potential rather than replace it”. 

Even in inventory management on the floor, augmented reality (AR) is being deployed. By pairing RFID-tracked products with the AR tool VizPick, associates can quickly scan racks and "instantly visualise which items need restocking”. This convergence of AI and AR bridges the digital and physical supply chain realms, ensuring that customers "not only find what they want but find it when they want it”. 

The next era of intelligence

There are so many voices speaking on the future of AI, but the common ground between them all seems to be a collaborative approach. The evolution of planning points to a system in which machine intelligence is context-aware as well as inherently collaborative with human expertise. 

Emily says: “The next wave of AI in supply chain planning will be defined by context-aware intelligence – AI that not only analyses data but understands its business context and can clearly explain its decisions." 

She anticipates a "rapid uptick in LLMs becoming embedded into planning workflows, making advanced insights conversational and accessible to non-technical users.

“Instead of relying on point forecasts, organisations should be simulating full probability distributions to help prepare for a range of outcomes - not just the most likely one.

“The opportunity and challenge will be integrating human expertise with machine intelligence in real-time to achieve smarter planning, stronger governance and more resilient supply chains." 

The success of this type of strategy is already tangible. Walmart’s recent results, including a 6% climb in Q3 2025 revenue and a 27% growth in e-commerce, are a result of its AI-driven agility.

“The mood music coming from the US’ largest retailer continues to be extremely upbeat,” says analyst Neil Saunders of GlobalData. “Its focus and discipline in execution, especially around AI, set it apart.”

Whether it’s empowering associates with real-time insights or giving customers the ability to shop conversationally, the fusion of AI, automation and empathy is reshaping how retail works behind the scenes.

The future of supply chain management and consumer experience rests on this delicate balance.