532: Turning Purposeful AI into Business Outcomes, with Infios

Aadil Kazmi of Infios talks about purposeful innovation; intelligent execution; tech readiness; and turning AI into measurable business outcomes. IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: [02.14] An introduction to Aadil, and an overview of Infios. "Supply chains run best when operators can execute them on a single stack." [03.20] How Aadil's experience at Amazon sparked an entrepreneurial journey that ultimately led him to Infios. "When retailers and shippers offered faster shipping to their end customers, cart values and repeat rates went through the roof. That led me deep into supply chain..." [05.17] Aadil's focus in his role as Head of AI, what excites him, and what keeps him up at night. "We're using our own tools internally to produce what our customers will eventually use." [08.32] What purposeful innovation means to Infios, and the big unlock that happened three years ago that changed the game for AI. "We partner with customers to develop only use case driven AI workflows." "Purposeful innovation is looking at what workflows within our business depend on unstructured data and reasoning, and focusing on those for AI automation... Not everything is a fit for Gen AI." [12.08] What AI agents mean in the context of supply chain, how they're being used now, and how we can understand automation through a three-level phased framework. [15.31] How AI agents compare to traditional automation, and how businesses can decide which is the right fit for each challenge or workflow. "When companies embark on their automation journey, they should start with the highest leverage ROI workflows that have the lowest risk factor." [19.15] The challenge of organizational debt, and leaning into AI readiness by connecting people's tribal knowledge to contextualize AI decision-making. [21.41] How Infios are meeting customers where they are to overcome technology debt with intelligent orchestration. [24.55] What Aadil's Executive Roundtable at Manifest uncovered about intelligent supply chain, and how to get the most from AI adoption. "You can't just throw AI at a problem… The best way to adopt AI is to actually pull the workflow and, from a first principles perspective, re-engineer it from the ground up to be AI native." [28.31] Why technology readiness is still a big constraint on connected execution, and why AI ambition is yet to meet execution reality. [29.23] How businesses can move toward intelligent connected supply chain execution to turn purposeful AI into business outcomes, and how to measure success. [33.17] What teams should do now as they plan for the year ahead.   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED: Head over to Infios' website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Infios and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn or YouTube, or you can connect with Aadil on LinkedIn. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more from Infios, check out 520: Enter the New Era of Supply Chain Management, with Infios. Check out our other podcasts HERE.