We asked 8 supply chain leaders what impressed and surprised them most about AI. Here's what they said.

Ben Massie, vice president of global supply chain, servers, and storage at Lenovo; J-Ann Tio Toles, chief strategy officer at Arrive Logistics; Bob Loycano, vice president of supply chain at FDH Aero; Saskia van Gendt, chief sustainability officer at Blue Yonder.

BI AI optimizes supply chains by automating complex tasks, saving time and improving efficiency.

Supply chain leaders are surprised by workers' openness to AI, easing its integration and use.

AI boosts sustainability by making supply chains more efficient and improving inventory management.

AI has been transforming functions across the supply chain.

Seaports are exploring AI to plan complex movements from water to land, warehouses are flying AI-powered drones to reduce backorders and boost worker satisfaction, and logistics companies are using AI's predictive capabilities to alleviate the headaches of last-mile deliveries .

We asked eight supply chain management leaders who oversee manufacturing, technology, logistics, and sustainability, and more, to share what has impressed and surprised them most about AI in their fields.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Their favorite use of AI J-Ann Tio Toles.

Courtesy of J-Ann Tio Toles J-Ann Tio Toles, chief strategy officer at Arrive Logistics: "The one that still excites me is simple in concept and was very hard to execute before AI: we take whatever a customer sends us, in whatever format and through whatever channel they prefer, and turn it into something our systems can act on." "Email tenders build straight into our platform.

A bid arrives however the customer built it, and AI reshapes it so our pricing platforms can act on it directly.

Work that took hours takes minutes; work that took minutes takes seconds.

And no customer had to change a thing." Matt Yearling.

Courtesy of Matt Yearling Matt Yearling, CEO at YMX Logistics: "For a large grocery retailer, we recently leveraged our AI-powered gate automation services to help them investigate a potential cargo theft case." "With computer vision at the gate, they had indisputable video footage of the carrier and driver, which meant they could make a claim to recover $60,000.