Will the Power of AI Transform Supply Chain Planning?

July 19, 2023

Are you struggling to improve visibility, synchronize supply and demand, and optimize your planning processes with limited resources? If so, you are not alone. Many supply chain planners face these challenges daily, searching for new insights, automation, and ways to leverage their teams more effectively. In this blog post, we explore how Firstshift, a pioneering startup in AI-driven supply chain planning, can help you overcome these obstacles and achieve success.

Before we dive in, I invite you to read an enlightening article by Lora Cecere, who is known as The Supply Chain Shaman. In the article, “The Dance with AI,” Lora delves into the transformative power of AI in supply chain planning. You can find it here.

After reading the article myself, I wanted to share how we are tackling these challenges and driving innovation for large and midsize businesses. Let’s look at four key areas.

New Startups Driving Innovation

The challenges faced by supply chain planners require innovative solutions, and Firstshift is at the forefront of this innovation. As a startup dedicated to AI-driven supply chain planning, we are reimagining the entire “planning experience “and addressing the needs of capacity-constrained planning teams with insights and automation to drive faster decision-making. Our focus is on empowering your team, streamlining planning processes, transforming data into actionable insights, and leveraging the latest AI technology for planning recommendations and automation. Our goal is to deliver innovations that enable you to make faster, smarter decisions and stay ahead of your competition.

Harnessing data in all forms with AI

Leveraging data efficiently and reliably is crucial for success in AI-driven planning solutions. Afterall, AI is known to be “data hungry.” As such, we recognize the significance of data and have developed robust mechanisms to handle both internal (within the enterprise) and external (partner provided, third party sourced, etc.) data. By tapping into a wealth of both internal and external information, including historical sales data, customer behavior patterns, market trends, and social media insights, our AI algorithms can quickly uncover patterns and correlations that lead to more accurate forecasts and informed decision-making. We empower you to sense and respond to market changes faster, gain greater visibility, streamline operations, and improve overall supply chain performance.

To apply this to your specific use cases, consider scenarios like demand forecasting where you can let the AI pick the “best fit” algorithm instead of manually testing out different statistical techniques or let AI prioritize planning alerts that are time critical for your planners.

Semantic Layer is the Catalyst for Leveraging AI

Whether it be AI-driven supply chain diagnostics or AI-driven planning recommendations, an extensive “supply chain domain model” is needed to leverage the most powerful AI models (including foundation models in Generative AI) in supply chain use cases. That’s why we’ve brought together some of the brightest minds in supply chain planning and artificial intelligence to build the Firstshift supply chain semantic model. This sophisticated framework captures the nuances of supply chain planning and the relationships between various supply chain and broader business elements including financial metrics.

The semantic model acts as the translation layer between natural language, other easy to use interfaces, and powerful AI and optimization algorithms to provide insights and recommendations for supply chain decision-making.

Planning Democratization will Level the Field

With many supply chain planning teams still bogged down with spreadsheet-driven planning and analysis or rigid monthly processes, it’s time to rethink how planning is done. Whether your team has hundreds of planners, or you run lean with fewer than 20 planners, Firstshift can help you redefine your planning process and elevate your team from spreadsheet-jockeys to business analysts with fresh insights to drive faster decision-making. By streamlining the planning process and embracing AI-driven solutions, you can accelerate your ability to sense and respond faster, gaining tangible outcomes for your business.

Are You Ready for Transformation?

Supply chain planning transformation can be a complex puzzle. As Lora Cecere said, “Stop the stupid RFPs that are circulating in the industry. Instead, partner with a few technologists to test and learn.” You need a partner to move your business forward faster. With Firstshift as your partner, success is within reach. By harnessing the power of cloud computing and AI, you can transform your planning processes and overcome the supply chain planning challenges you face.

Ready to make the smart shift? Schedule a demo to get started.

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December 4, 2025

Firstshift Launches Demandshift: Demand Planning Reimagined

Newark, CA – December 4, 2025 — Supply chain teams are done waiting. After years of “quick time-to-value” promises that never delivered, Firstshift is challenging the status quo with Demandshift, a new AI-powered demand planning and forecasting solution with a fixed fee implementation that goes live in less than six weeks — guaranteed.

Demandshift is built for supply chain leaders who have been burned by lengthy, expensive implementations and disappointing ROI. Designed to replace outdated tools and cumbersome spreadsheets, it brings speed, accuracy, and confidence back to demand planning.

“Supply chain teams have heard the same pitch for years. Easy implementations. Rapid ROI. Then reality hits. Missed deadlines, ballooning budgets, and frustrated planners,” said Hari Menon, Firstshift CEO. “With Demandshift, we engineered a better way. Fast, fixed-fee deployments, full post-launch support, and measurable results within weeks, not years.”

Built as a cloud-native, AI-first SaaS solution, Demandshift combines the sophistication of enterprise forecasting with the usability and agility modern planners expect. The platform leverages over 20 forecasting algorithms to automatically select the best-fit model for each demand pattern, while providing intuitive, spreadsheet-like interfaces that drive fast adoption.

Customers implementing Firstshift have reported:

15–20% improvement in forecast accuracy
Improved inventory positions and working capital efficiency
Higher service levels and customer satisfaction
Measurable impact on revenue and margin

Every Demandshift engagement is delivered under a fixed fee, includes hypercare support for three months, and integrates easily with existing ERP systems which eliminate the risk and uncertainty that often derail digital initiatives.

“Speed and value are the new competitive edge,” added Menon. “We’re proving that AI-powered planning can be implemented rapidly, adopted easily, and scaled seamlessly without the pain the industry has come to expect.”

Ready to make the smart shift? Move fast. Win faster. Schedule a demo today to get started!

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News

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November 19, 2025

Firstshift and Alloy.ai Partner to Bring Retail POS Data Directly into Firstshift’s AI-powered Demand Planning Platform

Newark, CA – November 19, 2025 — Firstshift, the AI-powered supply chain planning platform, announced a strategic partnership with Alloy.ai, a leading AI and data solution for consumer brands, to give consumer brands the ability to leverage direct point-of-sale (POS) and channel inventory data in their forecasting and planning processes. The partnership enables real-time demand sensing that transforms forecasting from a static process into a living, adaptive capability that aligns supply, inventory and execution with true market demand.

The partnership allows Firstshift customers to seamlessly connect to POS, inventory and pricing data across more than 400 retailers and external data providers at SKU and store-level granularity. This continuous visibility into real-time market activity helps planners detect demand shifts early, anticipate stock risks and respond faster with greater precision. Traditional planning systems and legacy tools cannot leverage POS data at this scale or speed.

“Our mission has always been to help supply chain leaders see, decide and act faster,” said Hari Menon, CEO of Firstshift. “By integrating Alloy.ai’s retail data with Firstshift’s AI-powered forecasting engine, we are giving planners a level of visibility they have never had before, right down to what is selling, where and why.”

With access to real-time POS data, Firstshift customers can improve short-term forecast accuracy by up to 50 percent, optimize replenishment and improve service levels while reducing safety stock and carrying costs. It also enhances collaboration across sales, operations and finance by providing immediate visibility into promotion performance and market shifts.

“Most demand planning still relies on historical orders and shipments, which are often noisy and don’t reflect how quickly products are actually selling,” said Joel Beal, Cofounder and CEO of Alloy.ai. “That’s why monthly or even weekly planning cycles tend to lag behind reality. Bringing POS data directly into the planning process gives teams the real-time signal they’ve been missing, helping supply stay aligned with true consumer demand.”

“The ability to sense demand continuously instead of waiting for the next S&OP cycle gives our customers a real competitive advantage,” Menon added. “Combining Alloy.ai’s data network with Firstshift’s AI-powered insights allows supply chains to move with the market, not after it.”

The integration eliminates manual data aggregation and costly middleware while ensuring that customers retain full control of their data. Alloy.ai’s normalized data feeds are continually updated and optimized for analytics, enabling Firstshift to deliver predictive and prescriptive insights for faster and more confident planning decisions.

About Firstshift

Firstshift helps supply chain leaders plan smarter and act faster through an AI-powered supply chain planning platform that delivers speed, impact and scale. Built to eliminate spreadsheets and outdated tools, Firstshift connects data across the enterprise to provide real-time visibility, predictive and prescriptive insights and flexible collaborative workflows that improve forecast accuracy and decision-making.

About Alloy.ai

Alloy.ai is an AI platform purpose-built to help consumer goods brands sell more products, save time, and solve complex supply chain challenges. Alloy.ai ingests point-of-sale data from hundreds of retailers, ecommerce partners, distributors, and a brand’s own ERP. Users can quickly surface insights and make decisions using AI, or integrate normalized, real-time data into analytics, planning, and reporting tools. Alloy.ai is trusted by companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to digital natives, including Crayola, Bic, Valvoline, RTIC, Bosch, and Melissa & Doug. Customers routinely achieve a 35%+ reduction in out-of-stocks, a 5%+ bottom-line impact, and millions in incremental retail sales.

Insights

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September 29, 2025

Why Tribal Knowledge and Spreadsheets Stall Supply Chain Growth

Every supply chain team has its heroes: the spreadsheet “wizard” who manages dozens of tabs with precision formulas, or the planner who remembers three years of seasonal patterns without looking. These people keep the business moving, but the truth is, they’re holding more responsibility than your systems can support.

When knowledge lives in individual heads and personal files, the business becomes fragile. Decisions slow down, risk multiplies, and growth is capped. Not because of talent, but because of the tools and processes surrounding them.

The Hidden Risks of Spreadsheet Dependency

Turnover risk
When a planner leaves, years of nuanced knowledge disappear with them. The spreadsheet “wizard” leaves behind customized reports, broken formulas and circular references. Recreating their models, assumptions, and workarounds can take months. Business continuity suffers, and suddenly the supply chain is in recovery mode instead of growth mode.

Error risk
Spreadsheets are powerful but brittle. A miskeyed formula, a hidden circular reference, or a forgotten update ripples across plans. These errors don’t always show up in small variances. They surface as stockouts, lost sales, or overproduction.

Speed risk
Spreadsheets are static data and seldom integrated into systems of record, like your ERP. By the time a complex spreadsheet is updated, validated, and circulated, market conditions and demand and supply constraints have already shifted. Competitors who can see and act in real time move faster, capture more revenue, and better serve customers.

How Tribal Knowledge Creates Bottlenecks

For planners: manual reconciliation, late nights before executive meetings, endless checks for formula errors, and the pressure of being the only one who truly understands the model.

For leadership: delayed visibility, limited collaboration between functions, and critical decisions dependent on a small number of people instead of a systemized, repeatable process.

The result? Growth stalls. Expansion into new markets, new channels, or new products exposes the limits of spreadsheet-based planning. Teams can’t scale, and executives can’t make bold moves with confidence.

AI Unlocks Both Speed and Scale

AI-powered demand planning platforms reduce reliance on tribal knowledge by capturing intelligence in a system, not in a single person’s head. That means:

Fewer errors, faster updates. AI-powered demand planning and automation eliminate manual reconciliations and fragile formulas, cutting risk while freeing planners for higher-value analysis.
Real-time visibility. Integrated data across ERP, sales, and operations means every function sees the same truth. No more lag time waiting for the “master spreadsheet.”
Scalable knowledge. AI learns from historical patterns and live inputs, making forecasting more accurate and demand planning more adaptive. The system gets smarter as the business grows.
Collaboration at every level. From planner to CFO, everyone works from the same platform with intuitive workflows and scenario modeling that support quick, confident decisions.

The Bottom Line

Tribal knowledge feels like an advantage until it becomes a growth ceiling or worse: a liability. If your supply chain depends on a handful of experts and spreadsheets, you’re betting your future on tools that were never designed for today’s complexity.

By shifting to AI-powered demand planning, you turn personal expertise into organizational intelligence. You de-risk turnover, reduce errors, speed up decision cycles, and give both planners and executives the visibility they need to scale with confidence. Give your experts the tools that elevate their value and ensure your business isn’t slowed down by the limits of spreadsheets.

Ready to see how fast you can move beyond spreadsheets? Book a demo.

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