One in six supply chain, logistics, distribution, and wholesale leaders say their company had an incident in the past year in which supplier or customer data was exposed, shared, or accessed incorrectly through an AI tool, according to a new InstaLILY survey.
Nearly 78% say their AI tools can access customer pricing and margins, and 67% say the same for supplier pricing and rebate data.
“Speed means very little if a faster answer costs you a relationship that took years to build,” says Adam Isenberg, head of distribution at InstaLILY. “AI working in distribution should know that one customer’s contract price never belongs on another customer’s quote. Buyers should make vendors prove that before they sign.”
Key takeaways:
· 63% of respondents say their employer has been asked how supplier or customer information is protected, and nearly one-third of all respondents (30%) say such an inquiry affected a vendor, software, or AI decision. Respondents most often expect their own company to bear the most responsibility for an exposure (51%), compared with 23% who point to the software or AI vendor.
· 63% of respondents report at least some overlap between supplier and customer data across company platforms, including AI tools, and 87% are very or somewhat confident their AI keeps that data appropriately separated. Still, incidents were reported in every segment surveyed.
· The most common barrier to keeping supplier and customer data separate is that AI tools were not built with that requirement in mind (22%), ahead of cost (21%) and lack of technical expertise (20%).
· 90% say their employers would be more likely to choose AI built for distribution and supply chain operations over a general-purpose tool if it offered better control over supplier and customer data, and 92% call data separation a high or moderate priority for the next 12 months.
