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In our Supply Chain Trends and Digitalization Study 2026, we found a technological transition in the industry: the conversation has ceased to be about “digitizing operations” to focusing on prediction and autonomy.
A strong transition is taking place. While the 46.9% of the companies already have the foundations and technology of Big Data and data analysis, the vast majority are now looking to scale to applied intelligence and further streamline your operations.
This gap between current infrastructure and future ambition is redefining investment and operational priorities. Organizations are no longer just looking for management software; they need technology that further supports decision-making and helps to interpret the complexity of the market.
These are the five technological trends that will define the Supply Chain agenda in Latin America in 2026:
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El 70.07% of companies have marked advanced analytics (predictive and prescriptive) as their top priority. This absolute dominance in surveys responds to an operational reality: although almost half of companies (46.9%) have already implemented Big Data, many have realized that Having data is not the same as having answers.
Although the interest rate remains almost the same compared to the 2025 Supply Chain trends study, motivation has changed dramatically.
In 2025, predictive analytics was seen primarily as a remedy for demand forecasting errors (the headache of 58% of companies). In 2026, with 46.9% of companies already operating on the basis of Big Data, analytics has ceased to be an aspiration to become the next logical operational step.
The challenge for 2026 is not to capture more information, but to start using the data to move on from knowing”What happened” to anticipate with the prescription and infer”What should we do”. Companies that already master their current data are, in fact, the most eager to take this leap: 79% of those who already have Big Data are actively looking for this predictive capacity.
This is the biggest disruption of the year. In 2025, one of the trends was making data more accessible and useful for all levels of the organization. In 2026, that need has found its technological vehicle: the Generative Artificial Intelligence.
While traditional AI and Machine Learning have a current penetration of 27.5%, Generative Artificial Intelligence has broken out with force, ranking as the second most important priority with a 51.7% of intent to adopt.
The interesting thing about this trend is its transversality. Our data crossing shows that GenAI is not exclusive to technologically advanced ones; it is desired both by companies that already use complex algorithms and by those that operate with standard SCM software. The market has understood that GenAI is not just a calculation tool, but an interface capable of democratizing access to complex insights for any user in the chain.
There is a notable disconnect in operational efficiency. While the 36.7% of the leaders seeks to implement RPA (Robotic Process Automation), currently only the 11.7% has robotics and automation technologies installed.
This difference of more than 20 percentage points indicates that, despite digitalization, teams are still trapped in manual and repetitive tasks. By 2026, the trend will not only be to adopt RPA, but to integrate it with existing management tools (SCM) to free up human talent for strategic tasks, leaving “digital carpentry” to bots.
Cloud computing remains firmly on the agenda with a 27.9% preferably. In 2025, the cloud was the answer to system fragmentation; it sought to “connect departments”. In 2026, with integration now more advanced thanks to ERPs, the cloud (27.9%) evolves to become the support ecosystem for AI and analytics.
Companies no longer migrate to the cloud just to see their data in real time (visibility), but because the computing power needed to run prescriptive models and GenAI is not viable on local servers. The cloud has gone from being a connected warehouse to being the engine of intelligence.
Companies that operate with traditional SCM systems (42.7% of the sample) see the cloud as the logical step to modernize their architectures without having to completely replace them, allowing for scalability that local hardware can no longer provide.
Closing the top 5, the 24.5% of the organizations are betting on Digital Twins (Digital Twins). This technology represents the highest level of sophistication in planning, allowing risk scenarios to be simulated in a secure environment before executing them in physical reality.
Although it is a niche technology compared to mass analytics, its growth indicates that one in four leading companies is preparing for an environment of high volatility, where the ability to simulate “what if” becomes the definitive competitive advantage in the face of logistical uncertainty.
Beyond technology, the real challenge for Latin American supply chains lies in the structure and organizational culture. According to data from the trend study, these are the four internal frictions that are preventing the digital transformation strategy from translating into operational results:
At 52.9%, organizational silos have established themselves as the number one barrier to digital transformation. The internal disconnect is alarming: 32.2% of companies operate with Sales, Operations and Finance areas that act independently or with a purely reactive collaboration.
This lack of integration has a direct cost to responsiveness. As long as departments protect their own data instead of sharing a “single truth”, any investment in software will be underutilized. In 2026, technology will not be able to solve what the organizational structure divides; without unified information flows, agility is mathematically impossible.
Although 49.7% of leaders point to a lack of budget as their main obstacle, the data reveals a more complex underlying problem: the absence of a clear strategy.
43.9% of organizations admit that they lack a defined digital vision, making the request for a budget a losing battle beforehand. Without a solid business case that quantifies ROI, such as reduced inventories or working capital, technological investment is perceived as an expense, not as a solution.
Added to this is the bureaucracy in the process: 41.9% of companies, although they define themselves as “open to change”, suffer from such slow approval processes that end up killing innovation before it can be implemented.
There is a dangerous disconnect between the tools that companies want to use and the capabilities of those who must operate them. While almost half of the market (49.0%) is already targeting the Generative Artificial Intelligence, 44.5% of organizations report a critical lack of talent with digital skills.
The operational risk for 2026 is obvious: an attempt is being made to deploy cutting-edge technology with equipment that, in 41.9% of cases, is barely considered “moderately prepared”. Digital transformation is not supported by software licenses alone; requires a workforce capable of interpreting data, not just to process it.
The region's digital maturity remains anchored. 31.0% of companies still operate their supply chains under manual processes and an intensive use of spreadsheets, while 27.7% struggle with the rigidity of obsolete legacy systems.
This technological dependence has a devastating consequence on productivity: 52.3% of leaders report that their greatest workload is still manual information processing. Instead of spending time on strategy and decision-making, the most valuable human talent is Wasting hours cleaning data and crossing tables, trapped in an operation that modern technology solved years ago.
Despite the positioning of Artificial Intelligence on the global agenda, the analysis of 155 leaders of Supply Chain in Latin America reveals a critical gap between strategic intent and execution capacity. Currently, most organizations are in foundational stages of digitalization.
This is how the level of technological maturity is distributed in the region:
La brecha es real: el 59% del mercado sigue operando con procesos manuales o básicos, mientras solo el 10% ha logrado automatizar.
El 58.7% of companies in Latin America operate under basic schemes. This technological dependence creates an operational burden that limits growth:
El 31.0% of companies is at an intermediate level. Although they have technological infrastructure, they lack full integration that allows unified decision-making:
Access to the operational vanguard remains very limited, representing only the 9.6% from the market:
The stagnation towards higher levels of maturity is not only technical, but also one of strategic management:
The 2026 X-ray shows a supply chain under tension. When analyzing the responses of the 155 leaders, a clear pattern emerges: organizations are stuck in a reactive cycle, struggling to balance product availability with profitability, while their teams are drowning in manual tasks.
These are the four critical challenges that will define the operational agenda for the year:
The most acute challenge for 2026 is a costly contradiction. On the one hand, the 58.1% of companies experience inventory failures, losing direct sales; on the other hand, the 54.2% report oversupply problems, unnecessarily immobilizing working capital. This duality indicates that the problem is not only the quantity of stock, but its poor distribution. Companies are full of the wrong products while those that the market demands are lacking, a classic symptom of planning disconnected from the reality of consumption.
El 52.9% of leaders identify the error in determining demand as one of their biggest headaches. The data validates this disconnect: a large part of the market operates practically blindly. Adding those who have a low accuracy (less than 70%) and those who admit not measuring it or not having a formal process, we find that close to 47% of companies lack a reliable compass to navigate the market. Without a Forecast Precisely, the supply chain ceases to be strategic and becomes purely reactive.
Despite the promise of automation, the daily reality of Supply Chain teams is exhausting. El 52.3% of respondents identify “information processing workload” as a critical challenge. This confirms that human talent is still trapped in cleaning and consolidating manual data instead of dedicated to analysis. This operational saturation has a domino effect: the 36.8% admit that this leads to errors in decision-making. When the team spends the day putting out fires and filling out forms, the quality of the strategic decision plummets.
La cadena de suministro bajo tensión: un ciclo reactivo entre disponibilidad y rentabilidad.
Dualidad costosa. El problema es la mala distribución: sobran los productos equivocados y faltan los que el mercado demanda.
Sin brújula. Casi la mitad del mercado carece de un forecast confiable (precisión baja o inexistente), operando de forma reactiva.
Talento atascado. Los equipos pasan el día "limpiando excels" en lugar de analizar, lo que desploma la calidad de la decisión estratégica.
If there is one conclusion that defines the Supply Chain strategy for 2026, it is that leaders no longer seek to pursue a single isolated metric. When analyzing how respondents order their priorities, a supreme and complex objective emerges: Achieving the “Profitable Balance” between Service Level, Working Capital and Forecast Accuracy.
Resolver la tensión entre estos 3 frentes:
Prioridad: Disponibilidad.
Prioridad: Eficiencia financiera.
Prioridad: Reducir incertidumbre.
Desarrollado por datup.ai
The data reveals that the obsession with supply chain equipment is not one-sided, but rather attempts to resolve a constant tension on three fronts:
1. Service Level (The Customer) In the answers on the hierarchy of objectives, “Improving the Level of Customer Service” recurrently appears in the first positions of strategic importance. This isn't a coincidence; it's a survival response. Leaders know that in a volatile market, product availability is the primary currency. However, this desire clashes head-on with current operational reality, where the 45.8% report low service levels as a critical challenge.
2. Decrease working capital The second apex of this objective is financial. “Decrease Working Capital” and “Reduce Inventory Levels” are priorities that directly compete with the level of service. This is where the supply chain breaks down today. Companies are failing in this efficiency objective: the 54.2% admit to having problems with oversupply. The goal for 2026 is clear: to stop buying inventory “just in case” (which inflates costs and ages in the warehouse) and move to optimized inventory that rotates and generates cash.
3. Improve demand accuracy So that the previous two points (selling more with less inventory) are not a utopia, leaders have identified the missing piece: “Improving Accuracy in Demand Planning”. With a 52.9% of companies suffering from errors in determining demand and a majority operating with forecast accuracy without high precision (between 50% and 80%), the number one objective becomes Reduce uncertainty.
In short: The #1 goal of supply chain teams in Latin America is no longer just to “move boxes” at the lowest possible cost. It is to become the orchestrator that achieves maximize availability (sales) by minimizing fixed capital (inventory), through intelligent demand forecasting. Whoever dominates this equation in 2026 will dominate the market.
If technology were the only determining factor, digital transformation would be immediate. However, innovation is progressing faster than organizations' capacity to adopt. When evaluating whether your workforce is ready to operate the 2026 supply chain, the data reveals a structural fragility that you should consider.
Next, we analyze the current state of digital maturity in logistics and planning teams.
Most teams are not yet ready for high digital competition. Adding those who feel “moderately prepared” (41.9%) with those who are just in the “learning” stage (36.1%), we observed that almost 8 out of 10 teams in Latin America are going through an incomplete transition.
This creates a significant operational risk for your company: trying to implement advanced tools, such as Generative AI or Big Data, based on a talent base that is still consolidating its digital foundations.
El 44.5% of organizations identify the lack of talent with digital skills as a main barrier to their transformation.
Supply Chain leaders face a paradox: they have the budget to purchase software (ERP, TMS, WMS), but they have difficulty finding profiles capable of transforming data into business strategies. As long as analysts continue to rely exclusively on spreadsheets and lack training in data science, the ROI (return on investment) of technology will remain stagnant.
Even with the right talent, the will to change is critical. El 34.8% of companies report resistance on the part of the team or leadership as a significant brake.
This data indicates that, in a third of companies, the barrier to digitalization is internal. Operational inertia (“we've always done it this way”) sabotages the adoption of new tools, causing many projects to stop in the planning phase.
Only a 11.6% of the respondents say that their staff is “Very Prepared” to adopt new technologies. This group matches companies that have already achieved high levels of automation. The conclusion is technical and direct: you can't manage an advanced supply chain without a team with the right digital skills.
To mitigate structural risks and move toward a mature digital operation, your roadmap must prioritize these five fundamental steps:
Prioriza estos fundamentos para mitigar riesgos y alcanzar la madurez digital.
El "Paso Cero". Antes de comprar tecnología, resuelve la fragmentación. Sin una base sólida, tendrás "Garbage in, Garbage out".
El desafío #1 (58.1%). Mejorar un 1% la precisión libera capital de trabajo inmediato y valida la inversión.
Libera al 55.7% de tu equipo saturado con tareas manuales. Pasa de la "digitación" al análisis estratégico hoy mismo.
La tecnología sola falla. Dedica presupuesto a capacitar; el equipo humano determinará el éxito o fracaso de la adopción.
Métricas claras antes de iniciar:
Desarrollado por datup.ai
Before implementing complex solutions, you must ensure that your data is reliable, clean and centralized. El 63.5% of companies face critical problems with system integration. Resolving information fragmentation (data silos) is step zero; without a solid database, any advanced algorithm will produce erroneous results (Garbage in, Garbage out).
Demand forecasting is the main challenge for 58.1% of organizations. If you're looking for a quick return on investment, focus your resources here. Improve just one 1% the accuracy of your forecasts directly impacts the reduction of security inventory and frees up working capital, validating the investment before financial management.
You don't need a total transformation to start seeing results. Currently, the 55.7% of operational equipment is saturated with manual information processing. Identify repetitive, low-value-added tasks that you can automate today. This frees up man-hours for your team to move from “data typing” to strategic analysis.
Technology alone cannot sustain transformation. El 49.7% of companies face resistance to change and the 39.5% lacks internal technical knowledge. You must allocate budget and time to train your team in new tools and analytics. Remember: they are the end users who will determine the success or failure of the implementation.
Digitalization must have measurable objectives. Establish success metrics (KPIs) before starting the project to evaluate the actual performance of the new tools:
