The AI in Business Podcast Why Supply Chain Design Becomes the Differentiator as AI Automates Planning - with Don Hicks of Optilogic
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Mar 16, 2026 Don Hicks, CEO of Optilogic and supply chain design expert, leads an AI-native platform that automates network modeling. He discusses why brittle, efficiency-first networks need resilience. He explains planning versus design, how AI automates routine planning, and how human-led what-if design creates future competitive advantage. He outlines getting started with data, quick wins, and shorter deployments.
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Optimization Built Fragile Global Networks
- Globalization's rules-based consensus enabled decades of highly optimized, low-redundancy supply chains.
- That optimization reduced buffers and inventory, which increased systemic risk when COVID and geopolitical shifts broke the consensus.
Planning Operates Inside Today Design Imagines Tomorrow
- Planning runs the current network and optimizes within existing constraints.
- Design steps back to imagine a future network (locations, suppliers, rules) that would make planning easier and more effective.
Run Planning And Design In Parallel
- Planning and design must run as parallel, mission-critical processes so companies can keep operating while reshaping networks.
- Use the same underlying data but different contexts: one tactical, one strategic.