Adding Intelligence to Global Supply Chains to Overcome Tariff Turbulence

Analyst Insight: Tariff turbulence threatens to upend global supply chains through 2026 and beyond, driving up inefficiencies and slowing growth across export-oriented economies. Only companies that transform their static supply chains into adaptive trade ecosystems will have the flexibility necessary to mitigate the impact of the continuing uncertainty.

Unfortunately, the impact of disjointed U.S. trade policy around tariffs has introduced global uncertainty. After all, it’s impossible to plan complex supply chains years in advance if the cost of imported goods can double or triple overnight, and then return to normal a few days, weeks or months later.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better. The World Trade Organization has gone on the record to say that the biggest impact of President Trump’s tariff policies won’t be felt until 2026. And looking ahead to next year, the United Nations Global Supply Chain Forum in Saudi Arabia will be a telling event that reshapes the roles of certain countries in managing global logistics flows. 

In the meantime, many organizations are looking at artificial intelligence-powered supply chain modelling and collaboration solutions as a way to mitigate the impact of tariff turbulence. Coupa has seen a 32% increase in sourcing events globally year-over-year, with 23% more suppliers actively participating. During this same period, companies ran 43% more supply chain scenario models than previous years.

It used to be that companies could stock up in times of uncertainty, ready to throw open the warehouse doors as soon as the market stabilizes. Today, however, supply chain resilience depends on data liquidity. It now demands that companies can collect, prepare, manage and access the petabytes of data that are fed into AI models. This agility allows companies to create insights across markets, so they can make decisions quickly, in the moment, to take advantage of changing situations on the ground. In 2026, AI won’t just optimize trade; it will help govern it.

This antifragile supply chain strategy will allow organizations to go beyond just withstanding market shocks as a result of tariff turbulence. It will give them the visibility and agility they need to take advantage of the volatility so they can become stronger and more efficient in the long run. In times of uncertainty, companies will no longer need to guess whether they should either invest heavily in assets and inventory to de-risk or pay the cost for expedited manufacturing and freight when markets loosen. AI-powered supply chain modelling and collaboration solutions will allow them to game out potential outcomes and their risks in seconds. But for AI to truly work, organizations will need to train their models on a data set optimized for their business rather than on generic, publicly-available information.

Resource Link: https://www.coupa.com

Outlook: Navigating the continuing tariff turbulence won’t be enough. Organizations have an opportunity to use volatility to their advantage and thrive in the resulting uncertainty. This will require them to transform static supply chains into proactive, intelligence-driven trade ecosystems powered by AI. As policies change, companies will need to run millions of scenarios to optimize their supply chains for any unforeseen situation. Data fluidity and the resulting business agility, not a reliance on inventory buffers, will be the key to an antifragile supply chain.