SupplyChain Strategy was honoured to get an invite to cover Kinexions 2026, in Las Vegas. Over the course of three days in June, a lot of ground was covered, as Kinaxis played host to supply chain leaders and technology partners from the world’s largest companies, to discuss the real-world outcomes of agentic and supply chain orchestration…

Las Vegas understands complexity. Beneath the glowing neon and carefully choreographed spectacle of the Strip lies an extensive network of interconnected operations that must function with outstanding precision. Thousands of hotel rooms turn over daily. Restaurants cater for unpredictable surges in demand. Entertainment venues coordinate performers, logistics and supplies. Construction crews reshape the skyline while tourists sleep. Every element relies on the invisible movement of products, people and information. The supply chain. 

Gathered at the plush convention centre are some of the biggest names in global manufacturing, life sciences, consumer goods and high technology for three days of discussion centred on one urgent question: how do organisations turn better decisions into faster action? The agenda reflects an industry moving beyond visibility and forecasting “…towards what Kinaxis terms operational orchestration — the coordination of signals, plans, decisions, actions and learnings fast enough to drive meaningful business outcomes.” with executives from companies including Bristol Myers Squibb, Qualcomm, ExxonMobil, British American Tobacco, The Hershey Company, Veolia and ScottsMiracle-Gro sharing how they are responding to persistent disruption and rising complexity. Across keynote presentations, customer case studies and technical deep dives, the emphasis is firmly on practical outcomes rather than theoretical transformation. 

Importantly, speakers repeatedly emphasized that this shift is not about replacing planning. Instead, it is about extending planning into coordinated operational action, with supply chain planning continuing to serve as the foundation.

Artificial intelligence is the thread running throughout the programme, but the conversation is notably grounded. A recurring theme throughout the event is that orchestration is not intended to replace planning. Rather, it extends planning into coordinated action, with Maestro serving as the foundation for Kinaxis’ broader operational orchestration vision. Rather than focusing on fully autonomous supply chains, sessions explore how agentic AI can augment planners and operators by accelerating analysis, surfacing options and helping teams execute with greater confidence. Topics range from end-to-end orchestration and governance to production scheduling, scenario planning and the combination of planning with execution. Customer presentations from organisations such as Reckitt, Castrol and CSL demonstrate how companies are applying these capabilities to improve throughput, reduce waste, increase responsiveness and align local decisions with enterprise objectives. The recurring message is that resilience today is judged not by the perfection of a plan, but by the speed and quality of the response when conditions inevitably change. 

The discussion is far from theoretical. Kinaxis customers use Maestro to support decisions across hundreds of billions of dollars in inventory and millions of supply chain scenarios, illustrating the scale and complexity at which modern organizations must operate.

Change at scale

The scale of Kinexions itself underlines the growing importance of these issues. The event combines executive keynotes, dozens of breakout sessions, live product demonstrations, partner showcases and peer networking opportunities, supported by a broad ecosystem that includes Accenture, Deloitte, EY, Genpact, Google Cloud, Microsoft, PwC, Unilever and Workday. Alongside updates on the evolution of the Maestro platform from Kinaxis executives Razat Gaurav, Andrew Bell and Manik Sharma, delegates are urged to consider wider themes of leadership, adaptability and advancement. The result is an agenda that conveys the current mood of the enterprise: one in which data abundance is no longer the challenge, but coordinating people, processes and technology quickly enough to deliver conclusive action has become the defining competitive advantage. The challenge is no longer simply making better decisions faster. The challenge is coordinating those decisions across systems, teams and processes quickly enough to change outcomes. The phrase “from decisions to outcomes” appears throughout Kinexions 2026. It surfaces in keynote presentations, customer case studies and partner conversations. It reflects an understanding that supply chains are entering a new era, one in which traditional planning capabilities continue to be critical, but are no longer sufficient on their own. The challenge facing organisations today is not simply making better plans. It is acting on them to achieve better results, faster. 

Supply chain leaders are operating in an environment defined by persistent disruption. The assumption that stability will eventually return has largely disappeared. “I think the biggest challenge to emerge in the last 18 to 24 months is that there’s a lot more volatility on the demand and supply side and the rate of change is far greater than anything we’ve ever seen in our lives,” Gaurav says. 

Organisations continue to face familiar pressures around customer service, profitability and efficiency. But what has changed is the speed with which external events reshape operating conditions. Supply chain teams are expected to respond to global political tensions, tariffs, labour shortages and changing customer behaviours in real time. At the same time, boards and executive teams are demanding productivity improvements, stronger working capital performance and demonstrable returns on technology investments. “On top of that,” Gaurav notes, “they’re getting pressure from the executive teams keen to deploy AI.”  The convergence of these expectations creates unprecedented complexity. Yet it also represents opportunity…

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