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Professor Yossi Sheffi, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics Director, thinks the relentless diffusion of new technologies – including automation and artificial intelligence (AI) – in retailing need not render human workers redundant. Automation and AI will soon take over Walmart's stores and warehouses, performing servicing and fulfillment duties, but that may not be bad news for its workers.

Supply chains have long been somewhat mysterious networks — even mysterious to some of the largest companies relying on them. Now, there is an increasing push —driven by both business necessity and government pressure — to open up these essential networks.

Today artificial intelligence literally moving the world. 

Supply chain and logistic companies recently discovered the value of AI. From loading trucks to predicting the future, machine learning is posed to revolutionize the industry. But how is this happening? How does AI help move real-world objects from point A to point B?

Supply chain challenges predated COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, of course, but both these macro events have turned up the pressure significantly. And while experts note that AI’s value is limited when it comes to dealing with unprecedented events on this scale, they agree that these solutions bring real value.

Professor Yossi Sheffi weighs in, as the US government begins to dispense tens of billions of dollars to get microchip makers to relocate manufacturing to the US, hurdles remain, including an increasingly diversified global supply chain that no one country can dominate.

The World Bank argued differing standards are creating “additional costs and complexity in sourcing decisions”, which may lead companies to keep more of the production process within one country. Professor Yossi Sheffi gives commentary on this “Herculean task”.

If you want to be innovative, you have to be open to the next big idea coming from the unlikeliest of places, says the founder and former CEO of FedEx.

The term ‘supply chain’ is just a name that we give to a nexus of logistics, inputs, processes, transportation, packaging, distribution, marketing, customer relations, vendor relations, and human capital, which together support the supply and demand of every physical, digital, intellectual, or artistic artefact on the planet and in space. The supply chain is everywhere.

Supply chain bottlenecks that are disrupting deliveries to shoppers and businesses – while driving inflation to 40-year highs – mostly have been traced to pandemic-driven worker shortages at factories, ports and warehouses. But some top analysts say there’s a bigger culprit: You.

Professor Yossi Sheffi is featured in the number one spot of this list due to his research, academic success, and foremost expertise in the supply chain industry.