A large majority of respondents to PwC’s 2025 Digital Trends in Operations Survey (82%) say they face challenges in balancing short-term needs with long-term strategic changes. Most (68%) say the challenges are manageable, and 14% say they’re significant.
And, current events are causing concerns for many operations and supply chain leaders. Roughly nine out of 10 say supplier and material costs will increase significantly in the year ahead. A similar number of respondents (91%) say U.S. trade policy changes are moving to significantly change supply chain strategies, and almost as many (87%) say geopolitical risks are driving them to more flexible operations.
“With geopolitical volatility, surging costs and other disruptions, the question isn’t whether operations and supply chains will change. It’s how fast and intentionally leaders can guide that evolution,” according to PwC’s study.
Key takeaways:
· More than half (53%) of survey respondents say AI is being used in either a few areas or widely to anticipate and mitigate supply chain disruptions. Another 31% say they’re testing and piloting AI for those purposes. Responses are similar for scenario planning and operational transparency, with 55% using it in at least a few areas and 29% testing and piloting AI.
· Among technologies used by companies, AI (59%) and cloud (56%) are tops, and almost all of those respondents say those capabilities are somewhat or very effective in creating value (98% for AI, 96% for cloud), driving revenue, increasing productivity or managing costs. Advanced capabilities like digital twins and data ecosystems lag far behind in adoption but could be a missed opportunity. Although only 21% say their companies use digital twins, 97% of those respondents say that capability is either somewhat or very effective in creating value.
· Despite using multiple digital capabilities, 92% of operations and supply chain leaders cite at least one reason why tech investments haven’t fully delivered the expected results, and 83% cite two or more reasons. Integration complexity (selected by 47%) and data issues (44%) are the most common reasons — a shift from the previous survey and likely an indicator of the struggles of adapting to and leveraging new AI solutions. Alarmingly, one of the least selected reasons is the business case for tech investment — unclear objectives, weak rationale or difficulty understanding costs — which may suggest a blind spot for many companies.
· Only 33% are using Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled supply chain capabilities, yet 52% of those respondents say they’ve been very effective in creating value.
· Fewer than one-third of the respondents say they’re using gamification or incentives, offering certifications or acquiring a company for talent to build a digital-ready workforce. Yet among the companies doing those things, about half of survey respondents say they’ve been very effective.
· The survey found that many companies are using AI in operations and supply chains, with 57% of respondents saying they’ve already integrated AI partially or fully into their operations.
· Integration with existing systems — ranked among the Top 3 challenges by 42% of respondents — and data issues (37%), such as availability and quality, are most common.
