Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2026. Read them in this 18th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Fabrizio Brasca, SVP, Market Strategy, Kinaxis
If I could choose one word to describe logistics in 2025, it would be volatility. Tariffs shifted trade lanes overnight and new policies blindsided supply chain strategies, all while rhetoric moved our markets faster than data ever could. These past 12 months have proved that resilience alone isn’t enough. Adaptability has become the true measure of success.
In 2026, the most forward-looking companies will stop simply reacting to the disruptions, and instead, start orchestrating their business around it. Prizes won’t be awarded to the fastest opponent; rather, the winners will be those designed to embrace change.
The Adaptive Supply Chain Becomes the Competitive Advantage
AI allows organizations to predict and respond to change, but its real power lies in enabling adaptability. According to a recent study by Kinaxis and Economist Impact, 71% of global businesses have accelerated AI adoption in response to tariffs, inflation, and overall uncertainty, yet only 22% have a defined strategy for using that AI effectively. Those that do are 3x more likely to see measurable ROI – particularly in their ability to grow, scale, and adapt to an ever-changing market.
This gap reveals the next evolution: moving beyond automation toward anticipation. AI won’t replace people; it will, however, significantly redefine their roles in the modern workplace. The most innovative organizations will embrace human-plus-machine collaboration – AI handles complexity and scale, simulating outcomes and acting in real time, while humans apply judgment and focus on creativity. In this model, uncertainty becomes an advantage, and adaptability becomes the strategy.
Localization Reshapes Global Orchestration
A second wave of industrial policy and tariff shifts will make localization one of 2026’s defining themes. But the future won’t be deglobalized; it will be dynamically regionalized. In the same study, AI adoption is already highest in Asia-Pacific (81%) and Europe (78%), regions where industrial policy is evolving fastest. North America, at 57%, is currently playing catch-up. The takeaway: regional agility is quickly becoming a differentiator.
Leaders will design globally connected, locally empowered networks that can rebalance production and logistics in real time. True adaptability will come from giving regional teams autonomy to act fast, supported by shared data and orchestration that keep every decision aligned to enterprise goals.
The global supply chain will finally behave like a living system – local in execution, global in intelligence.
Ecosystems Replace Traditional Software Models
The traditional supply chain tech stack is dissolving into complex ecosystems of intelligence. Success will no longer hinge on how many systems a company owns, but on how seamlessly those systems connect.
Yet, most organizations admit their biggest barrier to scaling AI is data fragmentation and governance. In 2026, we will see leaders focus less on new tools and more on unifying the ones they already have. AI will unify planning, analytics, and execution into a single adaptive environment – one where agents become the operating system for supply, logistics, and risk.
This shift will demand an architectural maturity where shared data, trusted governance, and transparent AI is essential. And speed will mean little without structure and accountability.
Value Replaces Velocity as the Performance Metric
For decades, supply chains optimized for speed. But in 2026, value delivered will matter more than velocity achieved. Rising costs, geopolitical turbulence, and sustainability mandates will force boards to ask smarter questions.
What’s our value at risk? How quickly can we turn adaptability into opportunity? How do resilience, margin, and sustainability intersect?
In answering these questions, companies will shift the supply chain from a cost center to a catalyst for growth – measured not only by profitability and sustainability, but by the capacity to adapt in real time.
The AI Winners Will Design for Humans
As AI agents move from pilots into production, the real differentiator won’t be who has the most advanced technology, but instead who organizes best around it. Our study found a significant confidence gap inside organizations, with two-thirds of executives expecting AI to deliver returns within 12 months, and fewer than half of junior leaders agreeing with that sentiment.
This disconnect highlights a common misconception: AI transforms performance, when in fact it’s the operating model that does the heavy lifting. By rethinking roles, decision making, and accountability, organizations will finally begin to embed this technology into workflows that actually enhance human judgment, not override it. Adaptability will extend beyond the supply chain into finance, workforce, and logistics, allowing enterprises to begin moving and growing as a cohesive business unit.
2025 was about surviving disruption. 2026 will be about orchestrating through it – turning disruption into advantage, uncertainty into intelligence, and adaptability into growth.
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