This contributed story by Dr. Michael Feindt, strategic advisor with Blue Yonder, originally appeared in Forbes on May 20, 2020. Excerpts from the story below. To see the full story Forbes.com.

For artificial intelligence to truly impact retail, companies need to stop perceiving themselves as individual siloes in their supply chains. For true efficiency and long-term sustainability, it’s time to come together and strive for end-to-end optimization.

As retailers begin to adopt AI and machine learning, they’re realizing they can turn suboptimal guesswork into informed, data-driven decision-making off the back of their bespoke data.

However, there’s an addendum to this proposition. If a store is to make optimum decisions regarding stock levels and subsequent ordering trends, then those decisions must be deliverable. In order for them to be not just deliverable but efficient, that retailer’s supply chain must also be making those same data-driven, optimal decisions.