The modern supply chain is facing a chronic labor shortage across roles from warehouse workers to demand planners, driven by demographic challenges and changing employee expectations. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a tool to enhance human skills and fill this workforce gap. Mohit Panwar, an AI product management expert and author of 'Decisions at Scale', states, "The narrative has changed from automation for efficiency to automation for survival," adding that AI is "crucial for operational resilience" due to insufficient people for current supply chain volume and complexity. In demand planning, AI models analyze large amounts of information, including sales, market data, weather patterns, social media sentiment, and economic data, to identify patterns and provide more accurate forecasts. Panwar notes this leads to a reduction in stockouts and overstocking, saving money and improving customer satisfaction. He cites his work developing an AI-driven forecasting tool for a large retailer, which integrated external factors such as regional events and local economic data. This resulted in "a double-digit percentage improvement in forecast accuracy for several high-volume product categories," allowing the client to optimize staffing levels in their distribution centers.