Why AI Alone Isn’t Enough (The GAINS Edge Newsletter)
The Seams Are Where Supply Chains break. And Where Resilience Begins.
Everyone’s talking about AI in supply chain. But too many teams are still chasing dashboards while the real problems happen elsewhere.
As the World Economic Forum recently pointed out, real resilience isn’t about slapping AI on top of outdated workflows. It’s about embedding intelligence at the decision points, where complexity, risk, and trade-offs converge.
At GAINS, we’ve been saying it for years: supply chains don’t break at the edges. They break at the seams. And the seams are where decisions get made.
That’s why we built GAINS DEO (Decision Engineering & Orchestration): a platform designed not just to analyze data, but to orchestrate intelligent action across forecasting, lead times, MEIO, scenario planning, and more. We don’t just show you what happened. We help you decide what to do next. With confidence, speed, and clarity.
In this issue, you’ll see how GAINS is helping organizations shift from reactive to resilient—from analysis to action.
On-Demand Webinar: Artificial Intelligence - You Keep Saying That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means
AI has become the go-to promise for supply chain transformation, but most “AI-powered” tools are just rule-based workflows with fancy labels. GAINS’ Amber Salley and co-founder Bill Benton join SupplyChainBrain ’s Robert Bowman to cut through the noise and unpack what real AI actually means for your supply chain, with a particular focus on Agentic AI.
What you’ll learn:
GAINS Summit 2025 - Early Bird ends July 31!
October 15-16, 2025 | 📍 Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center, Atlanta, GA
Join the brightest minds in supply chain for two days of real-world case studies, AI breakthroughs, and decision-centric strategy. This year’s theme: Defying Disruption: The Science & Strategy of Supply Chain Resilience.
You’ll explore nine strategies built on GAINS’ Decision Engineering & Orchestration (DEO) framework, including how to define decision-oriented aspirations, map friction points, align technology to decision maturity, and build continuous recomposition into your operating model.
Instead of waiting for the perfect conditions or a full system overhaul, this approach helps leaders start now, with smarter, more measurable decisions that scale with complexity.
Customer Spotlight: Border States saves $21M with GAINS
Border States faced a familiar challenge: a sprawling inventory network, growing complexity, and limited IT bandwidth to implement new tools. They needed a smarter way to manage lead times, without adding manual work or waiting a year for implementation. With GAINS’ composable, machine learning-powered Lead Time Prediction (LTP) tool, they found the answer.
Within just eight months, Border States reduced inventory by $21 million through better lead time accuracy and rebalancing. The LTP tool didn’t just improve forecasting. It replaced manual processes, centralized lead time data, and freed up more than 2,000 hours of planner and procurement time. Better still, the project bypassed internal IT bottlenecks and went live nearly a year ahead of schedule.
The result: a 976% ROI, a 1.3-month payback period, and a new model for what AI in supply chain delivers: fast, focused, and measurable value.
AI Meets DEO: Orchestrating the Future of Supply Chains
What if your AI could do more than analyze data? What if it could actually make decisions?
In our new whitepaper, we reveal how Agentic AI goes beyond task automation to orchestrate outcomes across your supply chain. Paired with our Decision Engineering & Orchestration (DEO) framework, these AI agents don’t just flag issues. They take action in real time.
Inside the report:
“This isn’t the future of supply chain planning and design. It’s what GAINS delivers today.”
In a World of Shocks, Supply Chains Can’t Wait
Rising tariffs. Policy shifts. Demand shocks. For many companies, these disruptions have become routine, and reaction has become the default.
But as we shared in our recent blog on thriving amid 2025 tariff uncertainty, the supply chains that succeed won’t just react faster. They’ll plan better.
That starts with treating risk as a core design factor, not an afterthought. It means modeling disruptions before they happen, building in flexibility where it matters, and embedding intelligence directly into the decision-making framework. AI alone isn’t enough. Without context, structure, and strategy, even the smartest tools fall short.
The future belongs to supply chains that can adapt without waiting. That anticipate change, and move forward faster because of it.
Predict. Pivot. Perform.
Traditional planning can’t keep up with a dynamic world. GAINS replaces static systems with a decision-oriented, composable platform so you can evolve without disruption, make smarter tradeoffs, and optimize supply chain performance at every level.
Whether you’re enhancing existing ERP tools or implementing AI for the first time, GAINS helps you move forward faster with less risk and more clarity.