“There is a world where we can have a much more dynamic supply chain. Certainly, the current set of brands that are experiencing the squeeze from the tariffs would definitely benefit from being able to pivot their supply chain pretty quickly.” - Anthony Sardain, Founder and CEO of Cavela

For all of the enthusiasm about AI, global sourcing is one of the processes that has remained predominantly human. Between the complexity of specifications and the relationship-based exchanges of information, it has been too ‘messy’ for straight automation - until now.

Anthony Sardain is the founder and CEO of Cavela, a company focused on automating the end-to-end sourcing process. For three generations, his family has been heavily involved in trade. It probably comes as no surprise then that during his graduate studies at McGill University, he focused on developing machine learning and AI models to predict global trade.

In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner speaks with Anthony about the opportunities associated with (finally) automating global sourcing:

• Building a business model that delivers the value traditionally associated with a service as a product instead
• Why increasing competition from smaller players will increase all companies’ reliance on brand
• How suppliers feel about this new advancement in the manufacturing space

Links:

• Anthony Sardain on LinkedIn
• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
• Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter 
• Art of Supply on AOP
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement