Arizona State University’s Brett Duarte on AI supply chain strategy, part 3: AI in logistics, control towers, network design, and supply chain governance. Logistics is a $10 trillion industry once you add up freight, transportation, warehousing, 3PL and 4PL. Brett Duarte puts that number on the table in the first four minutes, and it reframes every AI conversation that follows. This is how AI in logistics either earns its budget or quietly doesn't. This is part three, the final episode of our AI supply chain strategy series with Clinical Associate Professor Brett Duarte of Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business. We covered procurement in part one and operations in part two. Here we finish with logistics, then widen the lens to the infrastructure and supply chain governance that everything else sits on. Brett splits AI in logistics into tactical and strategic work. Tactical includes route optimization and ETA prediction, capacity and load optimization so containers and trailers run full, and disruption management through control towers that sense a problem and act on it. Strategic means network design: where distribution centers go, how big their footprint needs to be, where the coverage gaps are, and whether carbon emissions can come down at the same time to address sustainability. Then Casey pushes him on the part executives keep asking about. Trusted data sources. Platform choices. Agent-to-agent protocolsand model context protocol. Managing a growing population of agents and their lifecycle. And the ROI roadmap with KPIs that leadership will accept. Brett's line on supply chain governance is the one worth writing down: it's a business capability, and companies that treat it as an IT project pay for it later. What you'll learn in this episode.Why the $10 trillion logistics number changes how you size an AI business case.Where AI in logistics pays off first, and which use case to build before all the others.The four tactical AI use cases Brett teaches first, and why disruption management is the one to start with.How a control tower agent pulls outside signals on weather, earthquakes and disruption events, then decides which orders are affected.What "citizen developers" can build inside operations, and the guardrails they need.The network design questions AI answers: DC placement, footprint, service versus cost, coverage gaps, consolidation.Why sustainability documentation is turning into a competitive edge instead of a spreadsheet chore.Brett's case that supply chain governance is a business capability, not an IT project.How to build an AI ROI roadmap, pick operational and financial KPIs, and benchmark against your market.The AI-native platform versus bolt-on-to-legacy decision, with the tradeoffs on both sides. The program behind the series.Each episode in this series follows one day of ASU's AI-Enabled Supply Chain Strategy Executive Program, October 5 to 7 in Tempe. This episode is day three. Seats are limited for the fall session. Register with the link below and ID code RETAILRAZORASU for $1,500 off.Register at https://specialevents.asu.edu/878064 with ID Code retailrazorasu for $1,500 off Listen to all three parts in the series.The series is built to be heard together. Part 1 covers procurement, part 2 covers operations, part 3 covers logistics plus infrastructure and supply chain governance. Start at part one if you're arriving late.•       Part 1, Procurement (S2E13): https://go.retailrazor.com/DBs2e13•       Part 2, Operations (S2E14): https://go.retailrazor.com/DBs2e14Support Our Sponsors.There’s still time to join us at RetailClub AI Festival.From the founders of Shoptalk and Groceryshop, RetailClub AI Festival brings together 2,000 industry leaders from September 22 to 24 for three days fully outdoors in Huntington Beach focused entirely on how AI is transforming retail. Hear from 150 leaders shaping how AI is being used across the industry, explore the technologies changing how retail works, and connect with senior leaders from across retail, brands, technology and investment. Late registration is now available at retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast. We’ll see you in Huntington Beach! W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.ASU is a leading public research university and its W. P. Carey School of Business is the largest in the United States. AI-Enabled Supply Chain Strategy is a 3-day executive program running October 5-7, built by the #2-ranked Supply Chain Management department. The program is designed for senior leaders setting AI strategy across procurement, logistics, and operations.Register at https://specialevents.asu.edu/878064 with ID Code retailrazorasu for $1,500 off.Subscribe & Follow.Love this episode? Drop us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods. Don't forget to like and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Data Blades for more episodes on customer experience, retail marketing, AI in retail, and data‑driven transformation!Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utubeAbout Our Guest.Brett Duarte, Ph.D. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettduarte/Arizona State University | W. P. Carey School of BusinessNASPO Department of Supply Chain ManagementClinical Associate ProfessorSenior Faculty Co-Director – MSBAwpcarey.asu.edu | research.wpcarey.asu.eduBrett Duarte is a Clinical Associate Professor in the NASPO Department of Supply Chain Management at Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business, the largest business school in the United States with more than 25,000 students. He is senior faculty co-director of the school's Master of Science in Business Analytics program and assistant chair for graduate programs in supply chain. ASU's supply chain management program is ranked #2 in the country by U.S. News and World Report. Brett is on the faculty teaching the AI-Enabled Supply Chain Strategy Executive Program this October.Chapters(00:00) Teaser(00:35) Show Intro(03:31) The $10 Trillion Logistics Problem AI Is About to Solve(04:42) Inside Amazon & DHL's AI Playbook(05:55) How AI Agents Catch Supply Chain Disasters Before They Happen(08:20) The Network Design Mistake Costing You Millions(09:49) Why Sustainability Data Is Your Next Competitive Edge(11:27) The Governance Mistake That Could Sink Your AI Strategy(13:54) How to Actually Measure AI's ROI in Your Supply Chain(16:36) Show CloseAbout your HostsHelping you cut through the clutter in retail data insights:Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail and eCommerce, a Top 25 Thought Leader in Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AI, AGI and Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in AI Ethics, Marketing, Digital Transformation andTransformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation and the Retail Cloud Alliance. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft.Casey Golden, is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech! MusicIncludes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.