Over the past few years, suppliers have been introducing artificial intelligence and automation into their supply chains at a leisurely pace.

But the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing shortfalls in the global supply chain, and that could speed up the use of AI technologies, Jonathan Wright, global head of cognitive process re-engineering at IBM, said.

With the global industry in lockdown mode, suppliers are being forced to reevaluate their organizations. Wright believes computer intelligence will become more attractive as the industry grid comes back to life.

“The crisis was worsened by cracks in the global supply chain — cracks that we’ve been working around,” said Wright, who recently published an IBM Institute for Business Value report on COVID-19 and shattered supply chains.

The shutdown will lead to more supply base consolidation, with some suppliers gaining more market share, Wright predicts. An accelerated shift to cloud-based technologies will help suppliers manage and recover from the current downturn.

“This wasn’t about a downturn — this was about how efficiently and effectively businesses could react to an external event,” Wright said of the business interruption. And because the crisis is so wide-reaching, it will require a much larger recovery — aided by new technologies — to get beyond it, he added.

Supply chain disruptions more typically occur in isolated markets: A volcanic eruption in Europe caused temporary suspensions of production for some automakers in 2010; supply chain losses from floods in Thailand led to production cutbacks there in 2011; and a major earthquake in Japan idled factories in 2018.

AI tools could help predict disruptions and identify pinch points in the supply of raw materials. It could help optimize inventory with real-time insights and provide greater visibility into smaller suppliers that could be facing production problems.

“The fallout from COVID from a supply chain perspective could actually be very positive,” Wright said. “We will not go back to the past. We will go back to a new way of working.”