Absorbing supply chain shocks with AI at Epicor Insights 2025

May 13, 2025

SiliconANGLE article by Jason English

There are times when current events trump the relentless progress of innovation, causing us to reassess what software could actually do to help companies and countries respond to global economic shocks.

That’s why I came to Las Vegas last week for Epicor Insights 2025. I have heard from plenty of software platform and cloud infrastructure players who are all-in on artificial intelligence, but I was curious about how AI might have an impact on global supply chains — which encompass pretty much any good the world makes, moves or sells.

Indeed, despite all the recent talk about tariffs somehow bringing manufacturing back, the real problem to solve here isn’t a lack of jobs. “In the U.S. we see about 5 million jobs unfilled in the supply chain, and 25% of plants reported they were underperforming due to a skilled labor shortage,” said Vaibhav Vohra, president of Epicor Software Corp.

On top of that, many manufacturers are facing input shortages of key raw materials, from the rare earth minerals needed to make batteries to the lumber required to address a housing shortage. Finding alternative sources at their roots won’t happen overnight. “Only 21% of companies have visibility beyond their Tier 1 suppliers,” Vohra said.

“You’re doing well adjusting to an exceedingly difficult time,” Epicor Chief Executive Steve Murphy (pictured) told the audience of 4,000 manufacturing and logistics leaders in his opening keynote. “The make, move and sell economy is more mission-critical than ever. With our adoption of AI, we believe in augmentation, not replacement, of front-line workers. It’s about giving them the tools they need to succeed.”

Here’s a few pragmatic approaches to leveraging AI I learned about at the event that might mitigate the perceived risks of working on the bleeding edge of technology:

AI-forward innovation, rather than AI-led implementation

In talking to some of the customers here, many of whom would be considered midsized manufacturers or distributors (or, in the $500 million to $2 billion range), I learned they are mostly using AI features already, and they find it very productive. Sounds useful, but not as exciting as I expected.

This is because Epicor takes a stance of “AI-forward” development. Instead of developing a big-bang solution in the office that covers universal issues and sending out service teams to make it fit the customer’s environment, the delivery teams seek out a problem area within the customer’s process, and model a very context-specific AI that solves only that problem. AI solution first, product rationalization later.

“The problems that AI can solve are real, but it’s our job to stay tied to the problems, not to technology, said Arturo Buzzalino, Epicor’s chief innovation officer. “The beauty of ERP is that we run the core of these businesses. So we get direct exposure to the challenges that a business faces in the supply chain.”