Supply Chain Talent vs Technology ROI: Why People Matter More Than Technology
Introduction: AI in Supply Chain is About People and Technology
Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption across the supply chain comes in waves. Fits and starts depending on the size of your company, budgetary constraints, and perceived availability of tools. Ironically the most influential cog in this wheel is not what you might think: PEOPLE.
Yes, the human element will always be the determining factor in how technology influences business operations, regardless of the size of headcount or budget. Endless capital investments will not compensate for lack of vision. Similarly, vision and savvy compensates for budgetary constraints by prioritizing smart growth over comprehensive enterprise solutions.
We’ll discuss that very thing in this article and how your budget and org chart shouldn’t prevent you from keeping pace with AI advances in the marketplace of supply chain ideas.
Why Early AI Adoption Can Backfire Without the Right Leadership Team
One of our favorite sayings is that “the supply chain is people.” Regardless of how many technological advances are taking place and influencing change, it still comes down to the people.
Strategically hiring innovators who can also fit your culture of growth and operation seem to be the winning formula. You don’t need the most expensive free agents on the market. You need the people who fit within your growth scheme and are able to help your business evolve at a measured pace. Yes, of course, profitability is key to this as well. That’s a given. However, just because someone looks good on paper doesn’t mean they’re good for you. Fit is everything, especially in a highly disrupted world. You need to be able to trust that your team can adapt, evolve, and work within disruption, and not around it.
Who do you want to be in the fire with? That’s a question a lot of supply chain leaders fail to ask themselves. Consultants come and go. Their plans may linger but who will implement and deploy them?
Trusting your team to design and implement their own schemes often works out for the best. In this case, size often matters more. A larger more capital heavy business entity will certainly have the cash to throw at the latest trends in technology along with the top tier business strategists. However, these companies are bulky and often get bogged down in bureaucratic morass, making adaptation difficult. Management tranches and a multitude of input channels and feedback loops can threaten growth and innovation.
We’ve seen the big dogs outsource thinking to huge consultants who will tell them what to do with AI and fund it with the next big layoff. Enterprise solutions are expensive and can include money on consultants and technology. However, the layoffs remove an important layer of talent necessary to run said technology.
An example of this is when Salesforce laid off 4,000 people in favor of their agentic AI platform, Agentforce. In the wake of issues stemming from these layoffs, a spokesperson for the company said “While LLMs are amazing, they can’t run your business by themselves. Companies need to connect AI to accurate data, business logic, and governance to turn the raw intelligence that LLMs provide into trusted, predictable outcomes.”
And how is that done, you may ask? By hiring the right people! It stands to reason that measured tech and AI investment coupled with specialized talent recruiting investment will yield the best results.
Trying to be an early adopter of the latest and greatest tech can result in overspending on these relatively unproven IT and AI transformations, jumping in too soon and not having a fully functional platform. Companies doing this often have ill informed risk profiles and blind spots in leadership that result in fundamentally inoperable systems.
Money isn’t the only thing needed to play this game. No divine right of kings.
How Mid-Market Supply Chains Compete with Smarter AI and Talent Decisions
Small to medium sized businesses have to be more disciplined in how they make these decisions because they don’t have endless discretionary funds at their disposal. They can’t afford to make mistakes. A CBS News article from January 2026 sums this up very well: Smaller companies “are held to enterprise-level expectations without enterprise-level resources, which makes successful adoption both harder and more important.”
In stark contrast to the multi-billion dollar Fortune 100 approach, we have also seen small and mid size businesses thrive in the tech and AI boom. We recently ran across a family owned and operated business that has been super savvy at the tech game. This $150 million logistics firm run by a former CFO focused on talent. The leadership team knew where they were strong, and perhaps more importantly, where they weren’t. They contracted with the right people who could tailor tech and AI solutions to suit their very specific needs. There were very few decision making matrices to navigate. Their chief information officer encouraged speed and nimble adjustments to handle real time disruptions and adaptations. They cherry picked good people who also were able to jump right in and fit within the existing organization with a suitable and measured growth mindset.
Soft Skills in the Age of AI: The New Competitive Advantage in Supply Chain Careers
Right now, there’s a whole lot of whipsawing going around when it comes to AI adoption and implementation. It’s unclear when the dust will settle and what the norms and industry standards will be.
That being the case, your talent will be your key differentiator. Soft skills, leadership qualities, and the ability to find talent that can sort through the current mess with adequate forecasting will buy you some time.
Tech and AI can create more job opportunities for people who see it as a complement to their developed leadership skill set. Leaders will not be scrambling to find the latest enhancements because they have instilled a complementary attitude. When you have an effective leadership team around a CEO, you get efficient progress around ideas and tech advances. They don’t say “how do we get rid of people” they say “how can we better serve the customers.” Leaders who know what they don’t know and surround themselves with subject matter experts will always compensate for budget shortfalls.
A March 2026 survey of companies that conducted AI layoffs reported CEO regret 55% of the time. Unrealized profits, rehires, low morale and institutional knowledge vacuum were some of the reasons cited.
Money isn’t the only thing needed to play this game.
Leaders need to be disciplined on strategy, partnerships, and even decisions on whether to make or buy. If you can hold the line in these realms and make smart hiring decisions, you can compete and thrive in your space.
Conclusion:AI Doesn’t Replace People. It Rewards the Right Teams
In this day and age where technology and artificial intelligence have fundamentally altered the supply chain landscape, a not so intuitive priority has emerged: People.
Sounds weird, doesn’t it? But it’s true. The caliber of your talent will determine how well your business functions in these turbulent times. Yes, technology and tech savvy is absolutely essential – much more so than in even the recent past. You will be left behind if you are not operating with this in mind. But technology is not the magic bullet to your company’s success. It can actually be a detriment if it is not properly vetted, adopted, implemented, and deployed. There’s not a one size fits all solution out there. Your capital reserves are also not going to guarantee success. Being strategic about building a tailored team who see the big picture and understand how these technology and AI solutions may apply to your firm will guarantee you more success than overspending on the latest and greatest platforms and consultants.
Be informed and agile but do so with the lens of your operating realm. Remember your limits and know that there are solutions out there for every sized business that can be implemented so long as your teams have a firm grasp and understanding of how they can best be put to use.
As we have shown in this article, a large monopolistic multi billion dollar firm is AI deficient, while a smaller $100 million company is AI savvy. Why? People.
About The Author
Chris Gaffney is an Edenfield Executive-in-Residence and a Professor of the Practice in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He also serves a dual role as Managing Director of the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute (SCL) and Academic Program Director for Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE) . He was most recently VP of Global Strategic Supply Chain at The Coca-Cola Company. During his 25-year tenure with Coca-Cola, Chris held multiple leadership roles including President of Coca-Cola Supply, SVP Product Supply System Strategy, VP of System Transformation, and VP of Logistics for North America. Chris also served as President of the National Product Supply Group; a governing body responsible for 95% of volume produced in North America. Following his retirement from Coca-Cola in 2020, he assumed the role of Principal at ECG and partner at EDGE Supply Chain, providing advice and consulting in the Supply Chain space. Gaffney has extensive experience in Consumer Products Supply Chain, Supply Chain Strategy & Transformation, Footprint Design & Network Optimization, Supply Chain Operating Model and Capability Building and Logistics and Supply Chain Planning.
