After years of experimentation, 2026 is when AI shifts from potential to proof. Here’s what FourKites leaders predict will change:
SVP, Technology
We are heading toward a split where consumer AI settles in as an advanced search engine, while enterprise AI moves into automation that adapts to what the data is saying. For consumers, the technology is undeniably useful for synthesizing information — such as finding a hotel or comparing products — but the “last mile” of execution will remain human-driven, driven by behavioral hurdles and skepticism about security.
We are not yet at a place where users can confidently grant an autonomous agent unrestricted access to the open web and their credit card details, given the risk of prompt injections in browser use.
In the corporate world, however, the environment is controlled. Businesses can deploy agents within a “walled garden” of internal APIs and approved vendors, mitigating the security risks that plague the open consumer web. By 2026, the office will be the only place where AI is routinely trusted to execute decisions — routing supply chains or processing payments based on what the data is indicating — under the supervision of human managers who audit the work rather than doing it themselves.
Director, Strategic Solutions
Supply chain leaders must ask the tough questions that force organizations to reconcile what they say they want with how they’re structured to operate. The tension between growth mandates and cost-focused accountability isn’t going away until someone calls it out directly.
Most supply chain organizations claim they want agility and responsiveness, then measure their teams exclusively on cost per unit and budget variance. They want innovation in network design while maintaining organizational structures where no one has authority over more than one node in the network. They want AI to optimize inventory positioning while keeping separate P&Ls for manufacturing, distribution, and retail that each optimize their own local metrics.
In 2026, these contradictions will become harder to ignore as the eagerness to adopt and implement AI drives business transformation projects forward. The organizations that make progress will be willing to have uncomfortable conversations about whether their structure supports their strategy.
VP, Digital Transformation Solutions
Throughout 2025, supply chain organizations discovered that generic AI solutions struggled to address the complex, domain-specific challenges inherent in supply chain management. General-purpose platforms lack the contextual awareness needed for effective exception management and network optimization. A system that can write an email well doesn’t necessarily understand the difference between a detention fee and a demurrage charge, or why cross-dock timing matters for consolidation economics.
Companies will seek AI solutions that understand supply chain nuances, demanding systems that can differentiate between an exception that requires immediate escalation and one that will self-resolve within normal transit variability. Generic AI tools that treat every alert as equally urgent create noise, not intelligence.
This transition will accelerate as executives recognize that supply chain AI requires deep integration with existing systems and industry-specific knowledge that can’t be bolted on.
VP of Marketing
The era of AI as decision support ends in 2026. The question shifts from “Can we trust AI?” to “Why are humans still doing this manually?” Organizations will trust AI agents to execute, not just recommend, routine decisions.
As AI handles more routine tasks, the demand for interpersonal and organizational skills, emotional intelligence, creativity and critical thinking will skyrocket. The skills that differentiate professionals in 2026 are those that help navigate organizational politics to achieve cross-functional alignment, build relationships with suppliers that yield information before problems become crises, and think critically about whether the pattern the AI identified is a signal or noise.
These predictions share a common thread: AI stops being treated as an isolated technology decision and starts forcing organizational choices that were previously easy to avoid. What gets automated and what stays human? What’s worth the compliance risk and what isn’t? Does our structure support the goals we claim to have? The easy questions are behind us.
Ready to move AI from a concept to a core function in your supply chain? Learn how FourKites’ Agentic AI is already executing decisions, driving efficiency, and delivering the proof points 2026 demands.
