“AI supply chain planning across APAC is no longer a future-state ambition — it’s the operational reality that’s separating high-performing companies from those still reacting to disruptions after the damage is done. In August 2025, Anamind brought together supply chain leaders from Kenvue, Decathlon, and Mondelez in a focused conversation on exactly this: how APAC’s best planning teams are combining AI-driven forecasting with real-world tariff shock strategies to build resilience that actually holds.”
The session was moderated by Manish Shakalya, CEO of The Excellarators (Singapore) and featured rich insights from:
- Vasudha Jaiswal, Operations Director at Kenvue (Sydney)
- Arjun Deswal, Commercial Director at Decathlon (Phnom Penh)
- Harrison Cai, Director of Planning and Digitalization at Mondelez (Singapore)
Their diverse industry experience — spanning healthcare, retail, consumer goods, and digital transformation — shaped the discussion and gave us a cross-sectional view of how businesses in APAC are adapting.
The Double Storm: How AI Supply Chain Planning in APAC Is Colliding With Tariff Uncertainty”
In boardrooms across APAC, supply chain leaders are facing a double storm: the rise of AI in planning and the relentless pressure of global tariffs. One promises opportunity, the other breeds uncertainty — but together, they’re redefining how planning is done.
As APAC businesses invest in AI supply chain planning, the question is no longer whether AI can help, but how to balance algorithms with real-world shocks like sudden tariff hikes, ingredient shortages, and packaging disruptions
From Spreadsheets to Scenario Designers
COVID-19 was the breaking point for many supply chains. Planners who once spent their days cleaning data and consolidating spreadsheets now find themselves in a new role: signal curators and scenario architects.
Instead of chasing a “single number forecast,” today’s best planners design multiple scenarios — testing how AI-generated demand signals, supplier delays, and tariff swings could play out. Their value lies not in crunching numbers, but in translating uncertainty into business-ready options.
One hard truth emerged from the webinar: spreadsheet gymnastics are losing relevance. The skill that matters now is decision design — setting thresholds, trade-offs, and triggers that help cross-functional teams act with speed.
AI Supply Chain Planning in Practice: What Kenvue, Decathlon and Mondelez Actually Did”
Consumer Health – Balancing AI forecasts with compliance rules, ensuring that labeling, shelf-life, and batch release remain intact before acting.
Sporting Goods – Using demand sensing to break down demand into base + seasonal + event spikes, then shielding high-variability SKUs like colors and sizes with smarter allocations.
CPG Snacking – Combining POS data, social listening, and elasticity models to forecast flavor trends and promo lifts, while still filtering AI optimism with supply constraints and ROI thresholds.
Cross-industry takeaway: measurable improvements come when AI is paired with human overrides and structured exception management. Left alone, AI models risk overfitting history.
Tariff Shocks: Survival Tactics in Planning
Consumer Health – Pre-qualifying alternate suppliers and running “shock tables” that show the cost-to-serve hit of sudden tariff hikes.
Sporting Goods – Building scenario libraries in advance, so supplier switches and PO re-phasing can be activated at speed.
CPG Snacking – Using reformulation and packaging tweaks (like shrinkflation or film changes) to protect margin without damaging consumer trust.
Across the board, leaders face the same critical choice: absorb costs or pass them through. The decision depends on elasticity, brand position, and competitor behavior.
Building APAC Supply Chain Resilience: Network Strategies That Work Under Tariff Pressure”
Tariff volatility is no longer an afterthought. Leading companies now embed duty bands and trade-route variability into their network optimization models, and maintain swing capacity through dual-qualified plants or near-shore alternatives.
The trade-off between agility and cost efficiency is real — but in today’s climate, flexibility is worth more than penny-pinching.
The Future Planner: Skills That Matter
Planners of the future won’t just manage systems — they’ll design decisions. Key skills include:
Data literacy to challenge AI outputs.
Scenario design and decision economics.
Cross-functional orchestration across finance, sales, and operations.
Fluency with APS platforms and AI copilots.
Universities may be training analytics, but the execution skills will still come from hands-on industry experience.
Closing Thought
As we concluded in the webinar, when disruption hits — whether AI signal or tariff shock — the best organizations don’t invent their response; they activate a pre-built playbook.
The businesses that thrive in APAC’s turbulence aren’t the ones with the flashiest tools. Mature AI supply chain planning combines scenario libraries, human override logic, and pre-built response playbooks — not just algorithms running unsupervised
👉The conversation across APAC’s supply chain community on AI and tariffs is still accelerating. The clearest takeaway from our August 2025 session: organisations that invest in AI supply chain planning now — building scenario libraries, qualifying alternate suppliers, and embedding resilience into their network design — will be the ones that adapt fastest when the next disruption hits. And it will hit. If you want to explore how Anamind’s Planning-as-a-Service model can give your team a ready playbook and enterprise-grade AI planning without heavy upfront investment,
book a free 30-minute demo call below.
Until then, if you’d like to explore how Planning-as-a-Service can extend your team and give you a ready playbook without heavy investment, book a free demo call.
