Organisations across Australia and New Zealand are rapidly shifting their supply chain strategies away from lean, cost-focused models and toward systems with greater resilience and agility, according to a new IDC InfoBrief sponsored by Blue Yonder.
The study, ‘Integrated execution: From sight to orchestration’, highlights how supply chains across the Asia-Pacific region are evolving from simple visibility tools toward intelligent orchestration powered by artificial intelligence and multi-enterprise collaboration.
For Australian and NZ organisations, IDC says the study reveals a “clear turning point” in supply chain priorities.
According to the IDC research, 43% of surveyed organisations in Australia and NZ say cost efficiency has historically outweighed resilience, leaving supply chains vulnerable to disruption. At the same time, 48% now see improving agility as the most important strategy for mitigating supply chain risk, while 45% prioritise improved integration between systems and partners to enable faster response to disruption.
Rising supplier costs, transport pressures and geopolitical uncertainty are also driving change across the region. The IDC study finds that 51% of surveyed ANZ organisations are facing rising supplier and transportation costs, while 43% are concerned about the impact of protectionism and tariffs on supply chain stability.
Stephanie Krishnan, Associate Vice President at IDC Asia-Pacific and author of the study, says the next phase of supply chain transformation will depend on the ability to act on insights, not just see them.
“Supply chains across Asia-Pacific have largely solved the visibility problem, but many organisations still struggle to translate that visibility into action,” she says. “The competitive advantage now lies in orchestrating decisions across multiple partners and systems in real time.”
Utilising AI
The research suggests that organisations are increasingly turning to AI to accelerate that transition. Across Asia-Pacific, 32% of surveyed supply chain leaders say AI and machine learning represent the most critical capability gap they must address to improve resilience.
Agentic AI systems capable of coordinating decisions and triggering actions across supply chain networks are expected to become a central capability in the coming years.
IDC predicts that the importance of agentic AI in supply chain operations will grow by nearly 60% across Asia-Pacific over the next three years.
Final thoughts
The study concludes that organisations will need to focus on building a unified operational backbone that integrates data, partners, and execution systems to respond faster to disruption and volatility.
“Modern supply chains must evolve from monitoring events to orchestrating responses,” says Ms Krishnan. “The organisations that succeed will be those that can translate insights into coordinated action across their entire supply ecosystem.”
