A team from Blue Yonder attended the recent Gartner® Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo 2025™ in Barcelona, Spain. The event theme—“Disruption Ready. Future-Focused. Value-Driven.”—encouraged 2,000 executive attendees to imagine a future where disruption and risk are minimized, thanks to advanced technology, connectivity and process innovation.

We were delighted to see two of our customers, PepsiCo and Knauf, take center stage to discuss their successful application of technology to improve their supply chain results.

If you missed the event, read on to learn about three key themes that emerged for the Blue Yonder team during the Symposium.

Amid geopolitical shocks, supply chains must be elastic

From shifting tariffs to political instability, there’s no doubt that global supply chains are under extreme pressure. In the last several years, the Geopolitical Risk with Trade (GPRT) index from has surged by approximately 30%, reflecting significantly increased volatility in global commerce. In the last three months, there have been eight import tariff announcements from the U.S. government, some revoked and some still standing. And another seven new tariffs are being investigated.

In attending presentations and having discussions with supply chain executives, we heard a clear call to action: Companies need to build supply chain resilience through geographic and partner diversity, while also creating real-time connectivity and collaboration across the network.An elastic supply chain network can flex as conditions shift, pivoting at the speed of change.

How can companies build a diverse, flexible network that’s connected in real time, so all partners can sense and respond to changes together? Advanced technology plays a critical role in enabling organizations to model, optimize and rebalance their supply network footprints—not just to survive disruption, but to thrive in the face of volatility.

Whether it’s scenario planning for new tariffs or re-routing production in real time, an advanced supply chain planning and execution platform empowers smarter decisions—at the network level—that protect both service levels and margins. Today’s trade-offs are ever-changing and fast-moving. Supply chains must be as well. And herein lies a huge opportunity and advantage over the competition, if you have control of that flexibility through advanced supply chain planning tools.

Blue Yonder customer PepsiCo is a great example of a company that’s created elasticity and flexibility by integrating its internal operations with trading partners. In a mainstage session at the Symposium—“PepsiCo’s Control Tower Strategy—Innovating E2E Process Flows”—Raphael Cyjon, Vice President of Strategy and Transformation, Transportation & Fleet, discussed the success PepsiCo has achieved with Blue Yonder Supply Chain Command Center.

PepsiCo’s control tower initiative, launched in 2018, has driven real-time visibility and optimal decision-making by connecting 15 countries in Latin America, managing 1 million trips and achieving $20 million in savings. The session in Barcelona emphasized the importance of collaboration, digitalization and continuous improvement in creating supply chain elasticity. 

AI is a differentiator—when it’s fit for purpose

At the Symposium, another key theme of our discussions was uncovering the real business value of AI. Blue Yonder believes that, as an industry, we need to look beyond the hype and determine how AI can deliver real strategic and financial returns. Agentic AI is the most recent development and one that will revolutionize how we operate today. It’s going to effectively multiply our current workforce so we can achieve so much more without a dramatic increase in labor requirements.

In our view, there’s a clear path to success: AI can’t be adapted randomly, but in a manner that’s fit-for-purpose, with well-defined intentions and objectives. There’s no one-size-fits-all AI application footprint; instead AI must be leveraged in a well-considered way that makes sense for each specific supply chain.

Blue Yonder customers are leveraging fit-for-purpose AI to automate decisions, respond faster and unlock hidden efficiencies across their end-to-end supply chain networks. From demand planning to logistics orchestration, AI-enabled solutions transform data into action—at scale and with confidence.

During an executive roundtable with our customer Knauf, we looked at the value of creative and purpose-driven AI applications from the perspective of chief supply chain officers.

In “Transforming Supply Chains: The CSCO Perspective on AI and Machine Learning,” Jochen Bansemir, Global Supply Chain Director, Integrated Planning, highlighted how Knauf uses AI to evolve and improve its supply chain processes—increasing efficiency, automation and strategic decision-making across the supply chain. Bansemir shared effective strategies for leveraging AI in a value-added manner to tackle challenges arising from the current geopolitical landscape and market volatility.

Cost and risk must be balanced, not traded off

Another key topic of discussion we noticed in Barcelona? Today supply chain teams are expected to do more with less, reducing costs while managing increasing risk. The answer isn’t leaner supply chains—it’s smarter ones that can intelligently balance cost and risk in myriad daily decisions. In today’s complex landscape, it’s not a matter of making trade-offs, but of making well-considered, balanced decisions that deliver optimized, predictable outcomes. Agentic AI is a vital tool in allowing companies to achieve these objectives.

Advanced technology, enabled by AI, is a critical enabler of cost-to-serve optimization, proactive risk management and agile network design that minimizes risk exposure. With unified digital planning and execution capabilities, organizations can apply data and analytics to fine-tune their operations for efficiency today, as well as for greater resilience tomorrow.

In a dynamic Q&A session, “Charting the Course: Exploring PepsiCo’s Supply Chain Planning Evolution,” Blue Yonder’s Rob Booth interviewed our customer PepsiCo EMEA on its transformation journey, including its approach to cost and risk management. PepsiCo participants included Caro Laparra, Director of Supply Chain Planning and IBP Transformation for PepsiCo EMEA, along with Bartek Rezske, Director of Supply Chain Planning for PepsiCo EMEA. 

The Q&A session covered, among other topics, the daunting challenge of managing consumer goods inventory in an environment of extreme demand volatility. PepsiCo uses advanced planning capabilities from Blue Yonder to minimize the cost of excess inventory, while also ensuring product availability and reducing the risk of stockouts. AI is a powerful enabler for managing this delicate balance, even under unpredictable demand conditions.

What can our AI-enabled solutions accomplish for you?

In session after session at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo 2025 in Barcelona, we were reminded of the powerful capability of supply chain digitalization, real-time connectivity and AI to create an important competitive differentiator for supply chain teams. No matter the level of volatility, innovative companies like PepsiCo, Knauf and other presenters are delivering more predictable, profitable outcomes thanks to AI-enabled digital solutions.

With Blue Yonder solutions, our customers can connect more effectively with trading partners, maximize internal efficiencies, and plan more intelligently, accurately and dynamically.

Why not discover the potential of our AI-enabled solutions to improve your own supply chain performance and results? Contact Blue Yonder to learn more.

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