As discussed in a new whitepaper, , this perspective is grounded in interviews with supply chain leaders across six industries: automotive electronics and software, agricultural equipment, chemicals, global technology, automotive supply, and home appliances.

Their experiences reveal where companies are investing, where adoption challenges remain, and where the next wave of value is likely to emerge.

Supply chains are entering an era of permanent disruption

Four structural forces are reshaping global supply chains simultaneously: geopolitical instability, economic pressure, demographic shifts, and accelerated digital transformation.

Since 2017, relative to trade among closer partners, signaling growing fragmentation in global commerce. , while labor shortages and digital skill gaps continue to constrain operations.

Europe alone could face by 2028, and 63% of companies cite .

Together, these pressures are pushing supply chains beyond the limits of the traditional “plan-source-make-deliver” model.

Companies are shifting from optimization to AI-enabled orchestration

Supply chains are increasingly viewed as strategic levers for resilience, service differentiation, and competitive advantage.

Across all six companies interviewed, each is investing in at least three forward-looking AI use cases in planning alone.

• A leading agricultural equipment company has deployed more than 1,000 AI agents to support orchestration, scenario planning, and value chain visibility. A global chemicals company is embedding AI across planning and scenario management while emphasizing explainability and trust.
• A home appliance company is applying AI selectively to improve forecasting, transport optimization, warehouse safety, and logistics costs.

The common theme: organizations are redesigning how the enterprise senses, decides, and acts.

Resilience is now defined by decision velocity

In today’s fragmented environment, resilience is no longer about static buffers. It is about how quickly companies can convert disruption signals into coordinated action across sourcing, production, planning, and logistics.

• An automotive electronics and software company centralized electronics ordering across roughly 30 plants and redesigned crisis-management processes, reducing disruption response times by approximately 95%.
• A global technology company adopted a regional “two-leg” supply chain model, using inventory strategically to respond faster to disruptions.

The emerging differentiator is not forecast accuracy alone, but the speed from disruption detection to execution. Visibility remains important, but visibility without coordinated action is no longer enough.

Trust and governance are the biggest barriers to scaling AI

Despite rapid interest, . The challenge is not model accuracy alone; it is trust, explainability, fragmented systems, and manual overrides.

• One global chemicals company found that scaling AI depended less on technical performance and more on whether users could understand and trust the outputs. This led to stronger human-in-the-loop governance and progressive autonomy thresholds.
• A major automotive electronics company requires transparent, traceable AI reasoning before planners rely on AI-generated recommendations.

The path to autonomy will be incremental: companies will first augment human decision-making, then automate routine and semi-structured decisions as governance, trust, and data maturity improve.

The next frontier is the Autonomous Enterprise

The Autonomous Enterprise is an operating model where AI workflows, contextual business data, and embedded governance work together to anticipate disruption, coordinate action, and continuously improve performance.

The shift is moving from isolated copilots to coordinated agent-to-agent workflows spanning the supply chain.

In autonomous production environments, supplier reliability agents can monitor vendor risk while workforce orchestration agents align labor capacity with demand. Procurement agents execute sourcing decisions, and production planning agents dynamically rebalance schedules in response to changing conditions.

A similar pattern is emerging in asset management, where alert-processing, maintenance, warehouse replenishment, and goods-movement agents collaborate to resolve operational issues with minimal human intervention.

The business impact is significant. Agentic AI has by 20 to 30%, , and helped .

Collectively, these improvements mark the transition from reactive supply chains to systems that can increasingly anticipate, decide, and execute autonomously.

Building the autonomous supply chain

Capturing this opportunity requires three capabilities that remain fragmented in many organizations today:

• Organizational intelligence: The ability to detect patterns, anticipate risks, and reason across constraints
• Contextual data: Trusted operational data, business rules, workflows, and policies that ground AI decisions in enterprise reality
• Embedded execution: Integrating intelligence directly into workflows so actions can move from recommendation to execution without manual intervention

This creates a virtuous cycle: better data improves decisions, better decisions improve processes, and improved processes generate richer operational data over time.

Importantly, companies do not need to rebuild the enterprise from scratch. Deterministic systems of record remain essential for control, compliance, and auditability. The real transformation lies in rewiring how decisions are made and governed.

Organizations moving fastest are focusing first on high-value, high-frequency decisions such as forecasting, inventory optimization, disruption sensing, transport planning, procurement workflows, maintenance, and customer-service resolution.

The bottom line

The future of supply chain management will not be defined by more digital tools alone. It will be defined by the ability to operate the supply chain as a connected, adaptive, and increasingly autonomous system.

For leaders who move first, supply chain will evolve from a cost-management function into a competitive differentiator, enabling faster time to market, stronger service levels, and greater resilience. The organizations that lead will not be those running the most AI pilots. They will be the ones using AI to redesign how the enterprise senses, decides, and acts across the end-to-end supply chain.

For more information about Autonomous Supply Chain Management, download the white paper, .

Hagen Heubach is chief marketing officer for Supply Chain Management at SAP.

Imagine streets populated with electric vehicles (EV) and gas stations replaced by EV charging stations at shopping centers and grocery stores. Mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) dominates the transportation landscape, offering users the most affordable, sustainable, and efficient way to get around. Some cars are self-driving and interconnected, talking to each other and sharing their location and next moves. What’s more, many cars are connected with the ability to send and receive all types of users’ data.

To realize this new reality, change will happen quickly, and regulations will only accelerate this transition. In Europe, a package of legislative proposals, “,” aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. It includes a policy that requires a 55% reduction of average emissions in new cars by 2030 and a 100% reduction by 2035. In the United States, President Biden set a bold goal that EVs make up at least 50% of all vehicles sold by 2030. Since he took office, automakers announced investments of more than in EV manufacturing and $48 billion in battery production in the U.S. alone.

Add consumer sentiment to the equation – of global car buyers are looking for an EV – and it’s no surprise that carmakers, suppliers, and dealerships recognize the need for dynamic and continuous innovation to be profitable and sustainable.

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube

In a world of disrupted supply chains, new market participants, digitized factories, and a growing demand from regulators and consumers for sustainable vehicles, automotive businesses are embracing the following five trends to stay competitive.

1. Shifting Gears to Electric

A massive shift to vehicle electrification will require efficient and scalable EV charging infrastructure, ideally on one platform with seamless integration into existing business systems used by automakers, suppliers, and dealerships. It will also change supply chains and the role of parts suppliers as they shift from providing components needed for internal combustion engines to those needed for EVs. To prepare for vehicle electrification, automakers and suppliers can leverage the power of technology to manage charge point infrastructure and interact along the mobility value chain in the cloud to support collaborative, end-to-end business models and processes.

51·çÁ÷customer provided the first intelligent, multi-socket charging solution for EVs. It allows multiple electric cars to charge simultaneously. The solution helped ChargeX lower time spent on daily charge-point operations and improve customer satisfaction with intuitive user interface and straightforward, automated processes.

2. Making Cars Smarter

Cars are the next smartphones. As consumers increasingly expect more from their vehicles, automobile manufacturers must find ways to continually enhance vehicle intelligence and connectivity.

Even in the 2020s, software reshapes how drivers interact with their cars. Automation has taken over braking, climate control, cruise control, entertainment, and more. Routine software updates bring drivers continuous improvements, adding safety features, better performance, and greater efficiency.

Fully autonomous driving, currently in its infancy, continues to learn and will soon become a common feature. Like vehicle electrification, regulatory requirements and consumer behavior inspire companies to develop innovative solutions that push the boundaries of automotive capabilities.

One company, , uses flexible and scalable manufacturing solutions from 51·çÁ÷to build its fully autonomous, purpose-built vehicle fleet.

3. Considering Mobility-as-a-Service

An uptick in technology-powered smart cities – spurred by our response to the effects of climate change – will force auto manufacturers and suppliers to rethink their business models. Communities will reimagine fundamental public services, including transportation, encouraging citizens to swap their vehicles for public and shared transportation services. In fact, by 2030, the shared mobility market is expected to exceed .

Mobility-as-a-service platforms offer users an integrated package of transportation options accessible through a single payment channel. These implementations will play a fundamental role in solving urban challenges, reducing congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, and accessibility constraints. Car manufacturers and suppliers can rethink and innovate their product offerings through this modality.

Take the robotaxi by . Passengers request a ride from this driverless taxicab via their smartphones. Zoox robotaxis go up to 75 miles per hour, revolutionizing ridesharing. The application provides the backbone for the robotaxi production.

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube

4. Prioritizing Operational Resilience 

Amid the evolving automotive landscape, automakers and suppliers must ensure resilient supply chains are in place to meet changing demand, including increasing requests for EV components, while combating battery and chip shortages. The disruption caused by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine highlighted the threat external events can have on automotive industry operations. Technology will play an even more critical role in enabling businesses to respond to potential supply chain disruptions.

Real-time tracking and analysis can better forecast supply and demand, fostering a more agile and resilient supply chain. As a result, carmakers, suppliers, and dealerships can respond to the unexpected as soon as it happens, make better inventory management decisions, and reduce waste.

Electric motorcycle company and German multinational manufacturer of EVs and motorcycles BMW teamed up with 51·çÁ÷to succeed in the new world of mobility. With real-time information, detailed insights on performance, and analytics to improve decision-making across the manufacturing value chain, Zero Motorcycles and BMW can achieve operational resilience while pushing the boundaries of innovation.

5. Embracing Digital Retail

Due to consumer behavior change accelerated by the pandemic, the automobile industry recognizes the urgent need to adopt a digital-first, omnichannel sales strategy. Car buyers and sellers have started turning to contactless car buying and online dealerships. And even as the world recovers from COVID-19, vehicle retailers see automotive e-commerce searches reaching an as many customers now prefer digital retail experiences for sales, trade-ins, and services.

51·çÁ÷partner makes it easier for importers, dealerships, and service locations to adopt digital retail options, optimizing end-to-end sales and service processes. With innovative products for 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA, dealerships and service locations can continue to drive sales, deliver services, and meet shifting customer expectations.

Above All: Collaboration Is Key for Future Success

The automotive industry faces enormous challenges. Despite competition in the automotive industry, automakers and suppliers gain critical value through collaboration, particularly in such a dynamic environment for innovation. Catena-X – as front-runner for the automotive industry – aims to bring all business partners, including multi-tier suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), or recycling service providers, into one network to help ensure an open, secure, and interoperable data exchange along the value chain. The transparency of data helps participants gain visibility into the complete material flow of a product life cycle, from “cradle to grave.” Utilizing information available in shared digital twins improves decision making for end-of-life vehicles, thus useful parts can be circulated back for refurbishment or reuse and valuable raw materials can be recycled in a more effective way. With , 51·çÁ÷can provide software and network services to Catena-X and the automotive industry at large.

Learn how you can Ěý·Éłóľ±±ô±đ that are ready to meet the road ahead with industry cloud solutions from SAP.

Hagen Heubach is global vice president of Automotive Industry Business Unit at SAP.
Kelly Cannon is head of Industry Thought Leadership at SAP.

packages help enterprises gain insights into their product carbon footprint data and identify further potentials in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Scope 3 Emissions: The Biggest Challenge to Achieve Net Zero

Despite the massive disruptions that businesses are currently facing, climate change remains the most critical challenge that industries must jointly tackle. To achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5°C — which would reduce the possibility of initiating the most dangerous and irreversible disasters of climate change — net zero CO2 emissions need to be secured globally around mid-century. The European Union (EU) set an even more ambitious target to reach climate neutrality by 2050.

This means, in short term, that GHG emissions need to be reduced by more than 50% by 2030 in order to set a responsible pathway to meet the net zero target.

Although the largest companies have specifically articulated sustainability or carbon neutrality as their strategic goal, few have painted a clear and comprehensive action plan for the transition. Regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) or new rules proposed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC) on disclosing corporate carbon data leave businesses no time for empty green statements. The time to act is now!

Why is it so difficult to report on carbon emissions? emissions has already been well established in many companies throughout the world, visibility into the GHG emitted through the supply chain (scope 3), which constitute the significant share of the overall emission, is often not sufficient.

In the automotive industry for instance, . That is why it is even more crucial to identify carbon footprint reduction opportunities along the supply chain. Lack of trust, lack of access to high-quality data, inconsistent methodology or standards of data accounting, and lack of interoperable technology solutions across the highly complex automotive supply chain are the main obstacles to overcome.

Unleash the Network Power for Decarbonization

To meet sustainability and regulatory requirements, companies need to work together with partners, suppliers, and customers and establish transparent processes and common data standards — from material acquisition to manufacturing to distribution.

As the first open and collaborative data ecosystem, is targeting a more sustainable industry value chain by incorporating all participants involved and enabling the data transparency. Tracking the product carbon footprint is one of the first use cases that Catena-X is now addressing. This is the starting point for a better understanding of the scope 3 GHG emissions, which sets the foundation of enforceable decarbonization opportunities.

On one hand, a common accounting and reporting methodology on product carbon footprint data is required to support the consistency, comparability, and verifiability of the data sourced from the network partners. By partnering with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Catena-X adopts the framework of CO₂ calculation scheme and data model.

Earlier this year, 51·çÁ÷was the first organization in the world to achieve a standardized carbon footprint value in a WBCSD proof of concept. Importantly, the standardized approach also encourages network partners to move away from unspecific industry average measurements and toward using accurate primary emission data.

On the other hand, technology is key to operationalizing emission accounting and sharing. With its longstanding industry process know-how as well as solution best practices, 51·çÁ÷acts strongly as a key enabler in product carbon footprint data tracking within the automotive network.

Industry Network Solutions Empower Automotive Value Chain in Chasing Zero

With , companies can share their product carbon footprint with their business partners in an easy, efficient, and secure way.

GreenToken is a Web-based, subscription SaaS solution striving to create accountability and transparency across the material supply chain. Being compliant with the standardized data model defined with WBCSD helps ensure data consistency across the network.

The product carbon footprint data can be managed and transferred easily on material level between direct business partners.

It leverages to notarize and transfer carbon emissions via tokens from one supply chain member’s wallet to the next, without disclosing private or confidential data. As these tokens travel along the supply chain downstream, the collected information gets shared, creating a reliable, immutable, and auditable chain of custody. In addition, not only CO₂ data but also other information such as the origin of parts and certifications can be shared via this trustful and verifiable approach.

The solution provides a secured open API, accessible to other carbon emission calculation tools or back end solutions for transactions. A direct integration with 51·çÁ÷ERP Central Component 6.0 and 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA software is in place.

Transactions can also be driven by import of CSV files or manually, which means that small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) without back end enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions can also leverage GreenToken for carbon data sharing within the network.

“GreenToken’s novel approach has the potential to create an accountable and auditable network to scope 3 reporting that is lacking today,” said James Veale, co-founder of GreenToken by SAP. “What is more, we have already proved GreenToken at scale in other supply chains, and the solution is now ready for Catena-X.”

Hagen Heubach is global vice president and head of Industry Business Unit Automotive at SAP, and a Board Member of the Catena-X Automotive Network.
Heiko Flohr is senior vice president and head of Product Management for 51·çÁ÷for Discrete Industries, and a member of Guidance Board for Catena-X Automotive Network.
Leyi Liu is part of Solution Management for 51·çÁ÷Industry Network for Automotive and Catena-X Automotive Network.

The industry generates about five percent of industrial waste in the entire world,* and with increasing demand for electric vehicles (EVs), battery material consumption grows significantly.

Circularity is the key in order to tackle the environmental challenges by maximizing the value retention throughout the entire life cycle of products and materials. At the same time, the use of secondary materials avoids excessive use of finite natural resources and minimizes waste at a vehicle’s end of life while also reducing emissions from their manufacturing process.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the implementation of circular business practices could save to 45% of carbon emissions and 90% of wasted materials. More than that, by implementing a data-driven “R-strategy” (reuse, remanufacturing, recycling), a circular economy does not only help enterprises meet their sustainability goals but also generate new business opportunities for the industry.

How Can Industry Network Enable the Circular Economy?

As 51·çÁ÷Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer Julia White shared in Reimagining an Industry-Wide Paradigm Shift Toward a Circular Economy, technology offers the most effective way to achieve circularity at scale.

Enterprises that are undergoing the digital transformation leverage technology to eliminate surplus in their own operation. However, a shift toward the circular economy cannot be achieved within one’s own business boundaries, but through a collaborative approach across the entire ecosystem.

To realize this vision, Catena-X — as frontrunner for the automotive industry in Europe — aims to bring all business partners, including multi-tier suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and recycling service providers, into one network to help ensure an open, secure, and interoperable data exchange along the value chain.

The transparency of data within the network helps to gain visibility into the complete material flow of a product life cycle, from “cradle to grave.” Utilizing information available in shared digital twins improves decision making of end-of-life vehicles, thus useful parts can be circulated back for refurbishment or reuse, and valuable raw materials can be recycled in a more effective way.

Furthermore, access to carbon footprint data based on a standardized methodology along the supply chain enables network partners to identify decarbonization potential to achieve their sustainability goals.

Industry Network Solutions Empower Circular Economy in Automotive

With packages, we are closing the loop within the automotive industry in a sustainable, data-driven, and comprehensive manner.

A digital twin of vehicles as well as their components is accessible in the network. Complemented with the traceability capabilities, manufacturers are able to track quality issues back to the root cause much more efficiently and precisely. Important product information, such as compliance certificates as well as CO2 emission data, flows through the supply chain in a secure way, which provides better insights into the sustainability performance based on real data and helps to identify carbon reduction potentials.

On the downstream side, usage data such as maintenance or state-of-health (SoH) of batteries can be aggregated and analyzed into the digital twin dashboard as well. Dismantling companies can leverage this analytical insight for purchase decision of end-of-life vehicles. Moreover, with additional information on material composition or dismantling guidance provided by suppliers and OEMs, the second-life decision for reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling are more data-driven and thus improves the circularity of materials.

This is not yet the whole story. Manufacturers in the automotive industry have a constant demand to recover their secondary materials for remanufacturing and refurbishment in order to be more flexible with regards to the supply chain disruption as well as to achieve the quota of recycled materials. At the same time, sellers such as car dismantling companies have supply to meet this demand but are struggling to sell their components and parts on a very fragmented market.

As a secondary marketplace, the Encore by 51·çÁ÷solution is enabling regenerative business processes and empowering the network members to close the loops and make circular economy a reality. The demand-driven enterprise trading platform provides a simplified way to offer and discover secondary materials and components with integration into back-end procurement or asset management solutions. The platform enables trading of aftermarket components, such as alternators or batteries, and is looking to expand into further areas, such as secondary materials — from aluminum to polyurethane — or production waste and scrap.

This is how 51·çÁ÷helps to close the loop and make circular economy a reality. Together with Catena-X, we will make a more sustainable, more resilient, and more efficient supply chain happen.

If you are curious about the amazing milestones we have achieved and our vision for the years to come, please visit us at Hannover Fair:

• Catena-X: Hall 8, Booth D24
• SAP: Hall 4, Booth D04

Hagen Heubach is global vice president and head of Industry Business Unit Automotive, and a board member of the Catena-X Automotive Network.
Heiko Flohr is senior vice president and head of Product Management 51·çÁ÷for Discrete Industries, and a member of Guidance Board for Catena-X Automotive Network.

*Simic V (2013) End-of-life vehicle recycling—a review of the state-of-the-art. Technical Gazette 20(2):371–380
**Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation; Global Resources Outlook; World Economic Forum; Circularity Gap 2021; World Wide Fund for Nature

Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular. New EV registrations globally rose by 168% during the first half of 2021 compared to 2020. In total, 2.65 million EVs were purchased and have been hitting the streets. According to EV Volume analysts, electric vehicles are trending toward 6.4 million units by the end of 2021.

Charging stations are often a challenge to more rapid EV growth as public stations total 28,000 in the U.S. and 20,000 across Europe. This is reason enough to use the standardized cloud-based 51·çÁ÷E-Mobility solution, planned for availability September 24, 2021, to address not only public but also non-public and semi-public charging points.

As a first step, 51·çÁ÷is addressing company car fleets with charging points at the site or branch as well as at a driver’s home. Since the number of public charging stations is increasing more slowly than their demand, it is particularly relevant to increase the utilization of semi-public charging points and make the best possible use of them. It is also a relief when employees charge company vehicles at the private charging station at home. Complex billing processes, which can be easily and neatly covered, play a decisive role in all scenarios.

However, the solution offers much more; it is the basis for controlling and managing all business processes pertaining to the charging point. Complex processes that were previously prevalent along the value chain — from delivery point operators to companies to electric vehicle owners — are considerably simplified.

Greater Flexibility for Fleet Managers with 51·çÁ÷E-Mobility

Fleet managers also benefit. For example, the solution provides necessary charging data — charging total, location, date, duration, vehicle — to the connected accounting and finance software in order to perform cost center allocations or to initiate a corresponding reimbursement of private electricity costs of the vehicle owner. This happens in an automated manner via standard financial processes, such as travel expense reports.

On the facility manager’s side, 51·çÁ÷E-Mobility means more than just simplified billing. Via a dashboard, the status of all charging stations can be seen at any time, and defective stations can be swiftly repaired. This means facility managers always have an up-to-date overview of the available charging columns, which is also the case on the part of the charging column operators and thus enables comprehensive user and location management.

The results are overall faster workflows and higher charging point availability, supporting a better user experience as well as a positive total cost of ownership (TCO), which helps to further increase the acceptance of electric cars.

In addition, the solution simplifies the deployment of new charging infrastructure and is hardware independent. Operators can easily integrate new charging stations into the network as well as monitor and bill them via standard communication protocols. 51·çÁ÷uses the Open Charge Point Protocol 1.6 standard for this purpose. For charging point operators and businesses, the new solution thus offers maximum flexibility with very little effort.

Extensive Partner Ecosystem Enables Complete Solution

To be able to offer companies a comprehensive solution consisting of hardware, software, services, and support, 51·çÁ÷relies on a network of certified e-mobility partners.

51·çÁ÷E-Mobility is an important part of this, offering all stakeholders — charging station operators as well as companies and drivers — significantly simpler processes than the market is currently offering. Due to such solutions, not only is the necessary infrastructure expanded more quickly and flexibly, but companies also receive standardized e-mobility processes that support them in achieving their CO2 targets, and at the same time promote the broader use of electric vehicles. One example: partners such as energy service providers implement application scenarios such as “charging from self-generated photovoltaic electricity” or “vehicle to grid” and thus support the production of sustainable energy while simultaneously using the vehicle as a storage location.

.

Hagen Heubach is global vice president and head of the Automotive industry business unit at SAP.