Skip to main content
EDIT

2025 Global Supply Chain Summits Tackles Global Trade Uncertainty and AI Transformation

2025 Global Supply Chain Summits Tackles Global Trade Uncertainty and AI Transformation

Industry leaders, students, and USC Marshall faculty gathered for a two-day conference on the resilience of supply chains in the midst of a shifting international landscape.

by: Alexander Bernard
09.17.25
Randall Kendrick and Nick Vyas in a fireside chat.

Randall Kendrick and Nick Vyas in their fireside chat, “The Road to Smart Cities with Xebec.”

[USC Photo / Tom Queally]

Featured

  • Nick Vyas

    Nick Vyas
    • Founding Director Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute
    • Academic Director MS Global Supply Chain Management
    • Professor of Clinical Data Sciences and Operations
  • Randy Kendrick

    Randy Kendrick

Stay Informed + Stay Connected

MARSHALL MONTHLY BRINGS YOU ESSENTIAL NEWS AND EVENTS FROM FACULTY, STUDENTS, AND ALUMNI.
SIGN UP

On August 14 and 15, the 13th annual Global Supply Chain Excellence Summit convened in Long Beach for discussions, panels, and talks on dynamic shifts in global trade. Hosted by the USC Marshall School of Business Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute, the conference gathered more than 600 professionals, faculty, and students to focus on the theme “Smart City, Smart People, Smart Planet,” spotlighting the importance of adaptability, sustainability, and technological innovation in the world’s markets. Virtually every discussion returned to two central topics: tariffs and artificial intelligence (AI).

Nick Vyas, founding director of the Kendrick Institute, opened the summit by addressing how sweeping U.S. tariffs are sparking major changes in international trade. These changes, Vyas noted to the summit’s attendees, place the supply chain on the frontlines of new economic realities, which will continue to shift under the feet of professionals and executives.

“The last four decades of practice will no longer be the practice of the next decade and future decades to come,” Vyas said. “Persistent volatility driven by tariffs, geopolitical tensions, market fluctuations, and supply disruption is part of the practice that we’re going to have to adopt and be agile about. The next decades will be shaped by regionalization, digitization, and — make no mistake — sustainability is going to be the fabric of the future.”

In fireside chat with Randall Kendrick, CEO of Xebec and the founder and namesake of the Kendrick Institute, Vyas and Kendrick explored the tariff’s implications in domestic manufacturing in the United States. Kendrick struck a note of optimism throughout the discussion.

“I think we’re on the precipice of a manufacturing renaissance,” Kendrick said. “The tariffs are part of creating that moat around our country that allows manufacturing to exist or to be nurtured along and to grow and to become something that is the primary driver of our economy, not consumerism.”

U.S. imports have spiked to compensate for looming price hikes, placing strain on international shipping ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles and elsewhere. In his talk, Noel Hacegaba, chief operating officer of the Port of Long Beach, provided his perspective on the balance of imports and exports in the wake of new policies.

“In 2024 in Q3, we started noticing a lot of shippers frontloading their products,” Hacegaba said. “There were a lot of shippers who were anticipating that there would be shifts in tariffs, that there would be new trade policies … In fact, between April 2024 and June 2025, we had 11 consecutive months of year-over-year increases. People ask me, ‘How are the tariffs affecting the ports as of now?’ They’re actually driving growth.”

Hacegaba has experience with global uncertainty, having served as the port’s deputy executive director during the Covid-10 supply chain crisis. Through that ordeal, he learned that resilience and innovation are essential in times of unprecedented logistical strain.

“[AI] is as real as it gets. This is the future of how we do things.”

— Nick Vyas

Founding Director, Kendrick Institute

“When it comes to the global supply chain, we’ve learned that in order for us to not just survive but thrive, we’ve got to look at the opportunities behind those challenges,” Hacegaba observed. “We learned that throughout the supply chain crisis, we all came together. We developed what I call ‘muscle memory,’ where we improved those handoffs between different modes in the supply chain, and we kept the American economy going.”

Like Hacegaba, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, reflected on the somewhat surprising surge in shipping numbers through the port, in large part due to the foresight of companies.

“When hard policy goes into place, cargo volume plummets as we saw in the month of May,” Seroka said. “When policy is eased and timelines and deadlines are moved or extended, the cargo picks up like we’ve never seen it before.”

As Seroka addressed coming tariffs and their inevitable effects on the American consumer, he struck a note of pragmatic confidence.

“These tariffs, which are simply just taxes on products that we buy, are now the highest they’ve been in nearly 100 years. The impact to the U.S. economy will be real,” Seroka said. “We’re nimble enough, we’re resilient enough, and we’ll make sure we get the job done. But this certainly is not for the faint of heart yet.”

Tariffs may be the present, but the future lies with artificial intelligence (AI) and the digital transformation that Vyas contended would inevitably pervade all aspects of industry. He assured attendees the technology isn’t a mere fad but a total game-changer, and it’s here to stay.

“[AI] is as real as it gets,” Vyas said. “This is the future of how we do things. Forty percent waste exists today in our food supply chain. Thirty-six percent waste exists in our traditional supply chain, waste caused by policy, bureaucracy, paper, fragmented data silos. I can deploy an agentic AI framework and even if I [cut] only 10% of that, that’s $1.3 trillion in bottom line saving. Why would I not make that investment?”

Kendrick expressed positivity when asked about AI, highlighting why adaptability was essential to supply chains and business as a whole.

“To be successful, you have to be a person that is okay with change,” Kendrick said. “One of my favorite sayings is ‘The only constant is change.’ That’s the people who can adapt constantly to new opportunities.”

Seroka also asserted that technology will play a pivotal role in tackling modern obstacles, reshaping the global network’s future, and upending the workforce. Yet, the port director believes the advancement may not be the “job-killer” many envision it to be. He cited an increase in the seaport’s employment numbers, most notably at APM Pier 400, an automated container terminal within the port.

At Pier 400, Seroka says supply chain professionals are being “upskilled and re-skilled” with new duties to help them adapt and flourish in the new technological environment.

“Technology will continue to move faster than ever, but we will not leave the workforce behind and we’re proving it along with the Port of Long Beach and the California Workforce Development Board.”

RELATED