AI Agents to the Rescue: Strengthening New Zealand's Supply Chain Resilience

New Zealand businesses are highly exposed to supply chain shocks, as seen in recent years when events like the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the Ever Given's blockage of the Suez Canal caused disruptions. With exports totaling around $80 billion annually, the country's economy relies heavily on its supply chains.

Procurement plays a crucial role in managing this exposure, but it often remains under-resourced, manually operated, and untouched by AI technology. However, new agentic AI systems can carry out multi-step tasks, such as discovering and vetting suppliers, preparing tenders, analyzing contracts, and tracking supplier performance.

International organizations are already piloting or deploying these agents in procurement, and research has shown that they can help firms absorb shocks by compressing detection time and providing smaller teams with capabilities previously available mainly to large companies.

The main barriers to adopting agentic AI in New Zealand businesses lie within their own data, software, and governance. Building expertise in AI is essential for giving agents more responsibility safely and transforming the procurement function.