Blog #25. Just What is Your AI Amplifying?
Amongst many other things, AI can be a great amplifier in your supply chain. If you already have structure and focus, organised around your constraints, AI can amplify your results. But if you have chaos, there’s a risk that it will amplify your chaos."
That's it. That's the whole thing.
Seraphim Larsen wrote that on LinkedIn recently, and it stopped me cold. We're so busy debating whether to use AI, worrying about data security, arguing about which tools to approve - we're missing an equally important question: What exactly are we about to point this thing at?
AI is a Magnifying Glass
Point a magnifying glass at a diamond, you see brilliance. Point it at a mess, you see a bigger, more detailed mess.
Or think of it this way: a microphone amplifies whatever you put into it. If you can sing, you sound fantastic. If you can't - and trust me, I'm an expert at this - you're just bad karaoke, louder.
If your IBP/S&OP process is theatre - smooth meetings that change nothing - advanced tools like AI will help you produce faster, slicker theatre. Better slides. Quicker analysis. Same lack of decisions.
If your assumptions are buried in spreadsheets and nobody's tracking them, AI will build beautiful forecasts on foundations nobody examined. At scale. At speed.
If you're only planning three months ahead because "there's no point forecasting further out," AI will help you be just as myopic, only faster.
This Isn't New
Remember when master data accuracy was the hot topic and "garbage in, garbage out" was everywhere? (It's still just as true, just not the latest talking point.)
Remember when ERP systems were going to transform everything? Companies spent millions implementing SAP or Oracle, only to discover they'd automated their existing dysfunction. The technology worked perfectly. The processes it was pointed at didn't.
AI is the same trap, just shinier.
The Question Before the Question
Before you ask "where should we use AI?" - ask this:
If we amplified exactly how we work today, would we like what we got?
Is your demand and supply planning genuinely integrated, or do you throw forecasts over the wall and hope for the best? Are your IBP meetings decision forums or reporting sessions? Do your leaders actually engage, or are they checking phones and waiting for it to end?
AI won't fix any of that. It'll just do it faster.
Amplify a Clean Signal, Not Noise
The companies that will get the most from AI aren't the ones rushing to adopt it first. They're the ones whose foundations are actually worth amplifying.
Structure. Focus. Clear assumptions. Genuine executive engagement. Processes that drive decisions rather than just technically occurring.
What does that look like in practice? It's the company where assumptions are documented and owned, not buried. Where risks and opportunities have names against them. Where the CFO closes their laptop and actually engages. Where someone can cancel next month's IBP meeting and people would notice decisions getting delayed.
Get those foundations right, and AI becomes genuinely powerful.
Get those wrong, and you've just bought a very expensive chaos accelerator.
The Bottom Line
AI adoption is accelerating whether you're ready or not. The question isn't whether to use it - your people already are.
The question is: what are you about to amplify?
Want to discuss whether your IBP process is ready for AI - or whether AI will just make your problems faster? Find me at www.planninglab.co.nz
#IBP #S&OP #BusinessPlanning #ArtificialIntelligence #SupplyChain #DemandPlanning