Natural Language Processing (NLP) is revolutionising supply chain optimisation by enabling AI systems to interact with users in a more intuitive way.AI-powered NLP models, such as Large Language Models (LLMs), help translate complex supply chain problems into actionable insights, improving efficiency. Global Supply Chain Magazine speaks to Yahyah Pandor, Vice President and General Manager – MENAT at Blue Yonder to uncover developments.
GSC: What is the primary goal of natural language interaction in AI systems for supply chain optimisation?
Yahyah Pandor: The goal of natural language interaction in AI systems is to dramatically simplify how supply chain teams engage with technology, enabling faster and more intuitive decisions without the need for technical expertise. Blue Yonder recently launched five AI agents that enable businesses to see, analyze, decide, and act with machine speed and precision, even amid disruptions and evolving geopolitical situations. One such agent is our Shelf Ops Agent, which allows users to edit large-scale planograms using simple, conversational instructions. This means planners can swap products, generate custom reports, or analyse performance using natural phrasing – rather than deciphering complex interfaces. It reduces time spent on manual tasks and improves productivity, ultimately helping supply chain teams focus more on strategic decision-making.
GSC:What are the impacts of real-time labour reallocation on employees?
YP: Real-time labour reallocation helps warehouse teams adapt more efficiently to constantly shifting operational priorities. Blue Yonder offers solutions that address a broad spectrum of workforce, labour and resource management challenges in both the store and the warehouse, helping to optimize workforce productivity and reduce labour costs.
It ensures labour needs are forecasted and allocated appropriately so that managers and employees can manage schedules, attendance, and shift swapping with ease and in an employee-friendly way, increasing attendance and improving the employees’ flexibility and experience. This also enhances customer satisfaction and delivers a better in-store shopping experience. In the warehouse, it also ensures that people, equipment and robots are forecasted and allocated appropriately, ensuring the best resources are assigned to the most appropriate tasks, freeing up people to do more strategic tasks and to complete their tasks in less time. Gamification and incentives help strengthen employee engagement and improve performance. In addition, our recently launched Warehouse Ops Agent leverages advanced machine learning capabilities for resource task prioritization and swapping to enable intelligent reallocation of labour, equipment, and robots based on urgency, content type, and staffing levels. This allows warehouse leaders to manage workloads more effectively, optimise the resources at hand, reduce bottlenecks, and maintain consistent throughput. For employees, this can lead to better workload balance, fewer delays, and clearer task prioritization. The result is a more structured and responsive working environment. The system also helps prevent burnout by aligning human resources with real-time needs rather than static schedules.
GSC: Describe some other trends in workforce management technology.
YP: Workforce management is evolving rapidly in supply chain environments, where flexibility and real-time responsiveness are imperative. In retail, Blue Yonder’s focus has been on solutions that enable workers to take more ownership of their shifts while giving their managers the comprehensive oversight needed to ensure location-to-location requirements are met. Across warehouses and distribution centers, the focus has been more on optimization of complex, fast-moving processes, as well as work prioritization, assignment and reallocation. One key trend that has helped in both cases is the use of AI and machine learning to reallocate labour in real-time, based on order volumes, trailer arrivals, resource disruptions, or outbound risks. Additionally, our next-generation warehouse management solutions enable robotics performance tracking, where autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are monitored alongside human labour to ensure productivity and utilization. These innovations reflect a broader shift where workforce management is no longer about planning labour in advance but instead, continual optimization – at machine speed.
GSC: What is the primary function of autonomous supply chain agents?
YP: Autonomous supply chain agents are designed to sense problems, analyse them, and act with minimal human intervention – again, at machine speed. Blue Yonder’s AI agents operate across core supply chain functions, including inventory, logistics, shelf management, warehousing, and network operations. These agents proactively identify mismatches in supply and demand, highlight ways to reroute shipments to avoid disruptions, suggest adjustments to labour deployment, and even recommend changes in sourcing or production strategy. Their primary role is to drive resiliency and profitability by eliminating lag time between detection and action, which is an increasingly important need in today’s volatile and high-stakes environment.
GSC: Take us through the end-to-end planning and execution of a project handled by Blue Yonder.
YP: A typical Blue Yonder project begins by aligning the customer’s strategic goals, such as improving service levels, reducing waste, or increasing supply chain resiliency with the right technology stack. Our Supply Chain Advisory team guides customers through planning workshops to define priorities and establish transformation roadmaps, while remaining a strategic advisor throughout their entire lifecycle. Blue Yonder offers deep industry, solutions and data science expertise to guide customers through their digital transformation journeys and adoption of Blue Yonder’s solutions and AI agents. The team helps customers cut through supply chain complexity, tackle tough challenges, avoid potential missteps, and keep ahead of what’s next. Each implementation project has phased go-lives along the way to ensure proper change management and technology integration, ensuring customer success. Moreover, Blue Yonder continuously supports ongoing optimization of a customer’s supply chain activities for both present and future needs.
GSC: Describe some of the innovations released at ICON 2025.
YP: ICON 2025 marked a major leap forward for Blue Yonder’s AI-driven supply chain platform. Among the most notable innovations were five autonomous AI agents: Inventory Ops, Shelf Ops, Logistics Ops, Warehouse Ops, and Network Ops. These agents were developed to handle decision-making across the supply chain to not just identify issues but autonomously resolve them in real time. To support rapid adoption of these agents, we also launched the Agent Activation Advisory to help companies deploy them in as little as 6–12 weeks.
We also introduced our intelligent, AI-powered Cognitive Solutions that operate at machine speed, scale, and precision. These solutions allow businesses to autonomously coordinate tasks, decisions, and workflows across all parts of their supply chain from planning to execution to returns management. Underpinning these solutions is a new supply chain knowledge graph, built in collaboration with Snowflake and RelationalAI, which gives AI agents the ability to understand and reason with complex multi-enterprise data.
GSC: Businesses are adopting eco-friendly practices to reduce their environmental footprint. What are some of the processes adopted by Blue Yonder?
YP: Blue Yonder has made sustainability a core pillar of its platform strategy. Earlier this year, we acquired the business of Pledge, a provider of accredited CO₂ emissions reporting for logistics operations. This allows Blue Yonder customers to gain Scope 3 emissions visibility across their operations and those of trading partners, aligned with global frameworks such as the GLEC and ISO 14083. This data integrates directly into our Blue Yonder Platform, enabling smarter, emissions-aware decision-making and helping businesses reduce empty miles, streamline returns, and hold suppliers accountable.
We also introduced a new sustainability offering, called Sustainable Supply Chain Manager, to simplify CO2 emissions calculations and provide customers with visibility to their sustainability impact during planning. The Sustainable Supply Chain Manager integrates carbon and waste management with supply chain management, which is new and extremely valuable to the industry. This integration will help Blue Yonder customers reduce waste and pollution while cutting costs – a win-win for the business and the environment.
GSC: What are some of your company’s plans for the next five years?
YP: We remain focused on transforming the supply chain from a reactive, manual process into a proactive, autonomous system that runs at machine speed. In the next five years, we will continue expanding our AI-powered solutions, integrating them further into planning, execution, and returns. A key area of investment will be sustainability: building on our Sustainable Supply Chain Manager and the Pledge acquisition, we’ll continue looking for ways to deepen capabilities around carbon measurement, waste reduction, and ESG compliance. Through our Supply Chain Advisory, we’ll also guide businesses on AI adoption and digital transformation, all with a strong emphasis on operational value and regional collaboration across the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.
About the author
Yahyah Pandor
With over 25 years of experience in business technology, Yahyah has cultivated a distinguished career. He most recently served as the Chief Information Officer at Fine Hygienic Holding, a prominent brand in the region, where he was a key member of the leadership team. Before that, he was the Vice President at One Door, a U.S.-based merchandising software company. His extensive background also includes senior leadership roles at globally renowned companies such as Oracle and Cap Gemini Consulting, where he focused on the retail sector.
He was nominated among the Top 50 CIOs in the MENA region by the prestigious CIO awards from IDG and was consistently ranked among the Top 10 CIOs in the region from 2021 to 2023 by CIO.com.
