Supply Chain 5.0: Aligning Artificial Intelligence with Human Intelligence

Dramatic advancements in information technology and the digital industry have made significant changes to our business environment. Mourtiziz and Panopoulos (2022) believe we now have a 'dry’ techno-economic vision obsessed with increasing productivity and improving efficiency along with an extreme focus on artificial intelligence and digitisation. The unprecedented growth of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) triggered significant far-reaching changes and challenges to several industries. But at what cost? It could be suggested that it has been at the cost of ignoring the role of humans in decision-making, sustainability and, above all, the dynamic capability to be resilient. The significant (and current) simultaneous disruptions, vulnerabilities and shortages have forced digital pioneers and supply chain managers to consider the need for a more resilient, sustainable and people-centric supply chain - to go beyond the boundaries of organisational digital transformation. Not every organisation has been able to realise the full potential of GenAI. Information-sharing and connectivity across the extended supply chain network seem to be major obstacles. The interplay between GenAI and Supply Chain (SC) Management is still in its infancy stage and the union is met with some apprehension. Rapid technological adoption pre-GenAI was besmeared by inefficient resource utilisation and waste management practices. This creates a concern about whether GenAI supply chains will lead to a significant reduction of human involvement in decision-making. We will look at the potential to align artificial intelligence with human intelligence to affect and steer the digital transformation towards the next iteration of SC 5.0.