Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic and AI’s Role in Building Resilient Businesses

Supply chains are all fundamentally designed to handle disruptions, routinely adapting to changing conditions. However, not every supply chain is resilient and agile enough to respond to major disruptions like those arising from the coronavirus pandemic. The impacts of COVID-19 caused many companies to initiate layoffs, liquidate assets and even file for bankruptcy protection. Others were able to use technology to quickly see and understand how their businesses were affected, take corrective actions and even grow — not just surviving but thriving.

The study outlined in this paper serves as a blueprint for how to prepare for future disruptions, whether they come from competition, technology, climate, pandemics, economic turmoil, trade wars or any other challenge. The data-driven insights and best practices included here can help organizations better respond to disruptive events of any size, mitigate business risks and capture unexpected growth opportunities along the way.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is key to gaining the necessary resiliency and agility to confidently address the unexpected. In fact, the data confirms that e2open®’s AI performed consistently and effectively at all stages of the pandemic encompassed by the study. Learning how AI and the use of real-time data mitigate extreme situations will better position leaders to reduce risks so their companies can avoid becoming a casualty of the next disruption — and emerge even stronger.