Supply chain leaders are being urged to take a measured approach to agentic AI adoption as Gartner warns that vendor hype and so-called ‘agent washing’ could lead to costly missteps and long-term technology lock-in.
Speaking at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo in Barcelona, analysts said agentic AI is rapidly becoming a dominant theme in supply chain planning (SCP), but many solutions currently being marketed as autonomous are still far from delivering true end-to-end planning capabilities.
According to Gartner, most agentic AI tools available today focus on improving user experience through conversational interfaces, query interpretation and recommendations, rather than fundamentally transforming how planning decisions are made.
Jan Snoeckx, Senior Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said supply chain planning leaders need to distinguish genuine innovation from marketing noise.
“Supply chain planning leaders should prepare for an agentic AI future, but they need to separate meaningful capability from market noise,” he said. “The priority today is not full autonomy, but building the operational discipline, architectural flexibility and decision frameworks that allow agentic AI to scale as the technology matures.”
The analyst firm defines true autonomous planning as the ability to automatically generate plans, select the optimal course of action and execute decisions without human intervention. Gartner argues that most current solutions have not yet reached this level of sophistication and cautions that vendors promising fully autonomous supply chain planning before 2027 may be overstating current capabilities.
The report highlights ‘agent washing’ as a growing concern, where traditional automation tools are rebranded as agentic AI despite offering limited autonomous functionality. Gartner warns this could result in misaligned technology investments and increased dependence on inflexible platforms.
Despite these concerns, the firm says significant opportunities already exist for supply chain organisations. Current AI agents can support high-volume, medium-complexity planning activities, while traditional automation remains effective for repetitive operational tasks.
Gartner recommends that supply chain leaders focus on low-risk, high-volume use cases such as touchless forecasting for stable products and automated replenishment parameter updates, where value can be demonstrated quickly.
The firm also advises organisations to strengthen data quality, integration and governance foundations before pursuing more advanced agentic capabilities.
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