It seems that the world is moving to a digital future and technology is conquering and playing an important role on many fields. As one of the most needed of these technologies is the AI that can be defined in simple words as the capability of machines to communicate with, and imitate the capabilities of humans. By the use of AI, problems are solved faster, easier, and with high accuracy (Toorajipour et al., 2021) Machine enabled with AI platform can learn and act intelligently, these machines are able to deal with many tasks like recognizing complex patterns, synthesizing information, drawing conclusion, and forecasting. Amazon and Netflix can be stated as best examples, since by the use of AI they personalize recommendations to all their million users. Adding to that, self-driving cars, medical devices, electronic trading and robot control of remote sensing. AI, which enables machines to exhibit human-like cognition, therefore wherever a process uses digital data, AI can be applied to use that data more effectively to improve the functioning of most digital operations, products, and services. (dash et al,2019) By the use of AI missing part of human-made gaps are filled as companies can use more sophisticated tools. Creating new sources of value for business can be achieved by the combination of human and machines. People are needed to make the flow of activities through machines be easily done by controlling, explaining and training. (Harvard Business review,2018)


The beneficial and helpful side of AI can be summarized as the following (Karl et al, 2019):

AI benefits in forecasting demand: AI plays an important role in analyzing and predicting accurate data to balance between supply and demand, which each organization needs, thus it helps in sourcing. According to Mickinsey Digital AI forecasting can reduce 30% to 50% of errors as it reduce up to 65% lost sales as warehousing is reduced up to 40% ( AppliedAI,2020) Due to the increase of AI in manufacturing and R&D department for forecasting and predicting, Otto the German online retailer cope to reduce 90% of their inventory. Building inventory anticipation of the orders was based on AI without any human intervention and that was of the accuracy of the projection.  

AI helps in production: the enhancement of assets and processes, having an improvement in quality and reliability and the prevention of downtime for maintenance made AI to play a significant role in production. Robotics, one of the advanced branches of AI, had a central role in the production cycle. Ocado, a UK supermarket, uses one of the company’s AI platform where robots are trained to act as human packers, as to fill shopping bags and deliver them to customer’s house. Thus, robots whisk the bags to delivery vans whose drivers are guided to customers’ homes by the best route based on traffic conditions and weather. 

AI have benefits in delivery: business is about making customers feel special and welcomed which is something complex and expensive but with the help of AI like computer vision and machine learning it become easy. For example, a runner or any athlete can download an application related to a specific shoe company and it will monitor his/her exercises to suggest suitable shoes. Another example, is Amazon, which built a retail outlet in Seattle, called Amazon Go. It allows shoppers to take food off the shelves and go out without passing by the checkout kiosk to pay. The store relies on computer vision to track shoppers after they swipe into the store and associate them with products taken from shelves. When shoppers leave, Amazon debits their accounts for the cost of the items in their bag and emails them a receipt.

AI and smart retailing: it helps in increasing number of customers and the average amount they spend by creating personal and convenient shopping experiences. Retailers are able to know what customers need by the forecast of AI based on social media trends, weather, seasonal shopping patterns, etc. AI helps retailers optimize their storage space and location. Retail merchandising is another important aspect of the industry, with opportunities to improve assortment efficiency. Using geospatial and statistical modeling, they predict and minimize their stock sizes and quantities. Like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix can determine what customer need by the use of AI forecast. And Otto cuts surplus stock by 20% and reduced product returns by more than two million items a year, using deep learning to analyze billions of transactions and predict what customers will buy before they place an order.

AI and smart manufacturing: the manufacturing sector have switched from virtual assistants to advanced robotics, thus more production, increase in growth and less errors. Machines are linked to human as both are working side to side. Siemen, an automation company, its employees manage and control the production of programmable logic circuits through a virtual factory. And by barcodes, product communicate with the machines that make them and machines then communicate among themselves to replenish parts. 


          On the other side, AI have drawbacks beside its bright side. First of all, it is expensive no matter what we did, the real challenge is that these systems are customized and to have an effective result all multiple and independent systems need to integrate together. And challenges continue by the need to update and replace parts of the machines from time-to-time for continuously effective result. Adding to that machines consume energy in a big amount as this result in increase in expenses. Unfortunately, the improvement and automation lead to unemployment where people are the only victims. Machines somehow are replacing people and if employees are needed they need to be well skilled to cope with the improvement. (Redwood logistics, 2018)


          The spread of covid-19 which affected supply chain negatively led to have trade credit contagion that can be defined as delay in payment. AI helped to find solution as to ask what pattern of connection are likely to delay and trade credit contagion and which are more to robust. Noting that block chain can help to use high quality data to analyze supply chain dependencies, it uses real time data and transparent verification carried out by multiple parties. (World economic forum,2022) Due to the spread of Covid-19, AI was the best that would help in facing the virus by detecting and diagnosing in early stage, and AI can build an intelligent platform for automatic monitoring and prediction of the spread of the virus. Furthermore, it helps in analyzing the level of the infection, predicting its future, calculating the number of positive cases as number of dead people too, and finally developing vaccines and treatments faster. (Vaishya et al, 2020) 


          Continuing with automation, it is the use of electronics and computer-controlled devices to assume control of processes. (Nordqvist, 2017) It is about machines substituting human in many industries, data used can be stored in a computer instead of human brain so all can rely on when making decisions. Focusing on robots, they are replacing jobs in many industries, for example, Crowne Plaza San Jose-Silicon Valley Hotel in California, to save time and let employees to focus on important tasks robots help in simple tasks. The process is robot will pick what the visitor needs from the kitchen placed in a locking bin and deliver it to the room through the elevator. As in Ghent Marriott Hotels, Mario the robot helps human hotel staff checking in guests and Wally the room service robot delivers food and drinks to rooms. Additionally, Target, in downtown San Francisco, uses robots in stock-checking where the robot moves around to scan products and labels. Not to forget the Best Buy also has a robot called Chloe that deliver to customer simple items like CDs or headphones after being ordered by touchscreen. (Martina Große Bley, 2018) Automation in SCM can be beneficial in many ways as these benefits can be summarized as improve accuracy, products produced will be similar in all aspects like shape, size, color or even quantity. Adding to that it helps in having rapid delivery system and designating a fast route for delivery, adaptive to different markets, meeting customer’s expectation or satisfying customers, and improves effeciency. Another benefit, automation can help in increasing production due to the increase of customer’s demands day after day and in order to compete these machines can increase amount produced meanwhile saving time and reducing waste since it uses only required materials to produce the specific product. Despites these benefits, there are many disadvantages of automation that should be taken into consideration. As AI is expensive automation is expensive too. Beside this, programs need to be controlled by human so they can’t take a single step without being programmed by human any simple mistake can make a disaster and turn profits to losses. Another disadvantage is that these has no feeling they can’t interact with customers, and programmed machine or robots can lead to lack of human intelligence and decision-making activities. And the most dangerous thing these programs can be easily hacked.  As well as the company no more need the large number of employees to operate, only few ones are required to keep machines operating thus there is an increase in unemployment.


          AI helped in almost every sector, starting with education it became easier by creating systems that make teacher’s work. For example, ProProfs Quiz Maker is an online software that helps in creating personalized exams as it can correct them and give grades. It’s quite sure that not all students are the same or have the same level of understanding as teacher can’t teach each one alone depending on his weakness. Carnegie learning is a teacher assistant which personalize the student’s learning experience to see their weakness and strengths thus teachers are able to help students more in fewer period of time. As virtual learning had a huge effect during the pandemic when countries are having lockdowns and everything is locked (Dukadinovska, 2020). For Turrof in Mangal sees virtual classroom as a web-based environment that allows you to participate in live training events without the need to travel. According to Anekwe, Virtual learning is a system that allow a student listen to lectures, participate in lab exercises, ask questions, and receive feedback just as you would do in a conventional classroom – except you do it from the convenience of your desktop or anywhere you have an internet and phone connection. It saves expenses and travel time to a training site. (Ogunode et al, 2021) Virtual learning was like a lifesaver to learners during the past two years in order not to waste that time doing nothing. Not only in education but also in food processing industry AI had positive impact. In sorting and packaging, which are complex tasks, AI developed the system TOMRA, by adopting this system tasks are developed more efficiently as the production improved with the accuracy of 90% and studies showed with such system detaching and ordering problems can be improved 5-10%. A Japanese company faced such problem as with the help of Tensor Flow ML-based system benefits are accomplished.  In personal health sanitation, Kankan and Shanghai municipal health agency worked together to develop an AI-based system to monitor individuals who are not following the guidelines. Also, cleaning and maintenance of processing tools are essential too. For this reason, sensors and cameras are deployed to perform the task. And what about customer satisfaction? Satisfying customers is a difficult task thus by ML-based approach we can identify exactly what customers are looking for. Previously by the use of case study and surveys firms detect what product to manufacture, however, all this have changed by the use of AI and ML. And Coca-Cola is an example, they made that customer have the option to make thousands of drinks by adding minor variations in flavors. This process is recorded by machine as the rest is performed by ML. And finally new products are launched like Cherry sprite. Simply AI help to reduce human errors, lesser extent leftover copious product, lower costs, have rapid service as personalized orders too. (Kumar et al., 2021)


          By days, customer’s expectations are becoming higher as their needs are changing rapidly. Sustainability SCM is about understanding environmental, social, and economic impact as well as implementing the required changes to mitigate. (prologis,2021) The aim is always to make effort in planning and executing processes, materials and technologies across all logistic systems toward having positive impact environmentally, economically, socially. (Lopienski, 2021) Benefits of SSCM are numerous as they are the following, it first reduces environmental impact. For example, Nike, the leader in shoe manufacturer, changed the way shoes are produced and reduced labor cost by 50% and material use to 20% which resulted in having increase in margin by 0.25%. Next, it improves continuity of supply and this is achieved by having more the one supplier to deal with. As it helps in having a strong reputation in the market. Furthermore, it opens new opportunities by having new partners, for example, the partnership of Sainsbury helped in producing additional 140L of milk more than average. (Nutburn, 2019)


         To sum up, from cutting costs before the pandemic to minimizing delays and trade credit risks is how the SCM is shifted according to the world economic forum. AI will lead to make forward-looking strategic decisions as solving problems faster. We will witness a movement from tradition model, slow and inflexible, to a new dynamic model, having multiple supply chain to meet customers need. (Harvard business review,2018) The implementation of AI for sustainability has the potential to up to $5.2 trillion to the global economy in 2030 as 4.4% increase relative to business as usual. Both trends are complementary to each other as they should be managed equally. And organizations that think of economic, social and environmental goal are able to succeed more. Innovations are helpful and make things easier, but it’s important to have a healthy life. So what will happen later as the pandemic is almost over? When and how will factories stores and warehouses re-open? What about customers need? However now the great risk facing the SCM especially the GSCM is not the pandemic anymore but what is happening between Russia and Ukraine. As we can see how fuel and oil had sharp increase in prices due to that issue so what is next? How trade will continue? Together, Ukraine and Russia control about one-third of the world wheat market, 19% of the world’s corn supply and 80% of the global traded sunflower oil. Then new trends will be developed to overcome these obstacles.