Business leaders are under mounting pressure to protect margins in their supply chains, driving them to lean more heavily on price increases, supplier consolidation, and AI productivity gains, according to findings from West Monroe’s Quarterly Supply Chain Poll.
“The data tells a story we see across the market: AI is delivering tangible productivity every day—yet proving ROI is still quite difficult,” says Jeremy Tancredi, partner in West Monroe’s supply chain practice and co-author of the poll.
Key takeaways:
• Despite sales growth of 40%, 85% of leaders say they face pressure to protect margins.
• 68% say a Supreme Court reversal of tariffs would benefit their supply chains, with leaders citing stronger potential sales and greater stability.
• 99% report productivity gains from AI, yet ROI is still cited as the top challenge.
· Very few supply chains are experiencing declining sales—the majority are flat or growing—yet 85% are being asked to apply a protectionist mindset to their margins, either through immediate action or influence on their ongoing initiatives. Like in Q2, companies are still optimizing for the near term—tightening operations, adjusting sourcing and transportation, though they are increasingly passing costs on to customers—while monitoring the policy backdrop and Supreme Court developments that could reset planning assumptions overnight.
