AI Supply Chain Observatory

Project Leads: Amanda Schochet & Edmund Zagorin
Contact: partners@theaisco.org

The introduction of artificial intelligence into modern supply chains carries both great promise and serious risks, dramatically accelerating supply chain delivery and disruptions. 

The AI Supply Chain Observatory (AISCO) works to improve our shared ability to respond to supply chain disruptions by identifying early warning indicators and root causes of harmful and catastrophic disruption. Additionally, AISCO offers a platform for practitioners to share and publish practices that strengthen supply chains and improve resiliency. The Observatory’s focus includes systemic risks associated with panic-buying, bullwhips, event-driven supply shocks, accelerated market volatility, AI-facilitated price arbitrage and Black Swan events.

AISCO Research Areas

AI Supply Chain Hackathon & Stakeholder Engagement on Risk Areas

The AI Supply Chain Hackathon will take place online and at Plug & Play Tech Center Room EL303 launching at 10am PST December 7th and judging and awards at 10am on December 8th. The AISCO Hackathon focuses on the current shortage of life-saving cancer drugs, and the ways that global events contribute to amplifying this harm.

As of July 2023, 90% of hospitals in the US have experienced shortages of the 15 chemotherapy drugs most commonly used in treatments, according to research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This shortage leads survivors and their families to make impossible decisions around delaying or seeking less effective treatments, according to the Center for American Progress. Thus, we believe it is urgently necessary to leverage AI to follow the data around this disruption and ideate resiliency approaches for today’s practitioners.

In partnership with academic institutions, venture funds and professional associations for supply chain managers, the AI Supply Chain Observatory Hackathon offers an engaging problem-solving and educational collaboration experience designed to cross-pollinate insights and tools between practitioners in the AI/ML/Data Science and supply chain, finance and operations professionals.

  • Anyone who thinks that cancer sucks and wants to help solve the shortage. We invite procurement, supply chain, operations professionals curious about disruption events, as well as AI/ML practitioners, policymakers, academics, and corporate and government leaders curious about the impact of AI on their industry or governance area.

  • The Hackathon is entirely virtual but we will have a physical room in Sunnyvale courtesy of Plug and Play Tech Center for folks in the Bay Area.

  • No! The AI Supply Chain Hackathon offers both policy and tech tracks specifically designed to cross-pollinate individuals from both non-technical business functions and policy communities with technical AI/ML practitioners and software engineers.

  • Contact partners@theaisco.org with the subject line "TEAM LEAD" and we will evaluate putting you in a leadership position to direct a team during the AISCO Hackathon.

Commerce Data Monitoring & Early Warning System

Using publicly available data sources to provide market indicators of sudden disruptions that could be triggered by faster-than-human market decisions in critical areas, such as inputs for medicine, fuel and food to avoid critical disruptions and overcome backlogs.

Open Source Supply Chain Resiliency & Scenario Planning

Our partners can use the Observatory to provide an open source platform for identifying “single points of failure”, the fragility in complex supply chains and resiliency scenario planning.

Our open platform includes tooling for people to create supply disruption scenarios and publish recommendations for organizations to respond with care and intention during crises.