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Copilot, which can also be applied to other Microsoft business applications, aims to help busy supply chain managers quickly make sense of massive amounts of data, Smith told Supply Chain Dive.

When you’ve got large volumes of data and busy supply chain managers, AI is needed to help elicit problems and risks, and propose mitigation plans, he added.

“A lot of people in the supply chain would say they don’t have time … to look at dashboards if there’s potential data there, let alone engage the suppliers in something that potentially may happen,” Smith said. “The generative AI — the email, communications and business contexts — allows us to really expedite that mitigation and the engagement with the suppliers.”

First, the AI algorithm scans news articles and takes other steps to identify any potential risk that may impact suppliers or partners across a network, such as geopolitical or financial risk.From there, an AI-powered message can be sent to suppliers asking if they expect disruptions and confirming if orders are affected.

“The supplier can then close the loop by reacting and collaborating,” Smith said.

Microsoft in November introduced the Supply Chain Center as a command center that unifies data between ERP systems and third-party management solutions to help solve existing supply chain challenges.

Other players in the technology sector have also attempted to collect and use data to improve supply chain transparency. This includes Amazon Web Services, which launched a cloud-based application in November.