Max HenryFounder & Executive Director, Global Supply Chain Council (GSCC) · Founder & Executive Director at Global Supply Chain Council (GSCC)

AI Investment: Most Can't Measure ROI #shorts

12 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this concise commentary, the speaker highlights a critical gap in supply‑chain AI adoption: 55% of chief supply‑chain officers cannot reliably measure the return on AI investments, even though AI now consumes 67% of digital‑investment budgets in the function. Citing Gartner, the speaker argues that the solution is not more spending but tailored change‑management that aligns AI initiatives with the company’s strategic goals and the day‑to‑day work of teams. The speaker adds a nuance often overlooked—much of AI’s value is preventative, such as catching shortages before they cause crises, which leaves no tangible “saved disaster” to record in ROI calculations. Consequently, the lack of measurable ROI may stem from the nature of prevention rather than measurement failure. The talk concludes with an invitation to discuss these ideas further on chain.net.

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55% of chief supply chain officers cannot clearly measure the return on their AI investments. That is the majority, and AI now takes 67% of supply chain digital investment budgets. So most of the money is going into the thing most leaders cannot prove works. Gartner's answer is not more AI spend. It is change management tailored, tied to business strategy, Connecting what your teams actually do to what the company is actually trying to achieve. I would add something Gartner does not say loudly enough. A good part of that unmeasured return is prevention. When AI catches a shortage before it happens, nothing happens. There is no crisis, no expedite, no line stoppage. There is no number. You cannot put an avoided disaster in a spreadsheet. And no change program will fix that because it is not a measurement problem. It is the nature of prevention. So before you demand better ROI numbers from your AI team, ask yourself what the disasters that never happened were worth. Come join the discussion at chain.net.