As AI Tests Global Energy Grids, Supply Chain Operators Follow The Power

Artificial intelligence is already testing energy grids and fundamentally reshaping global logistics. 

Seven in 10 global supply chain leaders have already implemented advanced AI into operations, with nearly a quarter making AI-driven decision-making the company standard, a new survey from Prologis and The Harris Poll found. But as they come to rely more on AI, nearly 9 in 10 companies also experienced an energy disruption in the last year. 

“Supply chains are going through the biggest reset in a generation, and it comes down to three things: energy reliability, AI and location,” Prologis CEO Hamid Moghadam said in a statement. “The new priority is resilience — building networks that can adapt and endure.”

Global operators are upbeat about market conditions, with 82% expressing optimism about their 2026 outlook. But the positivity comes as the sector implements sweeping changes to quickly adapt to the rise of AI and new trade barriers. 

Just over half of the global suppliers surveyed deployed new technology in the last year, half added new risk monitoring systems, and 48% increased safety stock in response to supply chain disruptions.

Prologis contracted The Harris Poll to conduct the survey between Aug. 10 and Aug. 15. The survey reached 1,816 senior leaders who “play pivotal roles in their organizations.” Roughly 28% of the respondents were U.S.-based, with the remaining evenly split between executives in the UK, Germany, India, China and Mexico. 

Global supply chains are shifting away from chasing the cheapest labor and are instead regionalizing supply chains to build resilience, the report found. More than three-quarters of respondents said their firms were already implementing regional networks that were fully self-sufficient. 

Energy has emerged as the key pressure point for the industry, with 89% of firms experiencing energy disruptions in the last year, including from price volatility and weather-driven outages, and 83% of executives said access to power will spur the next major supply chain crisis. 

Reliable power has become a key site selection consideration for 40% of supply chain leaders as the widespread adoption of AI models strains global grids. In the U.S., the same data center operators that are causing the power crunch are also shifting their site selection to prioritize reliable power. 

“Energy is the new fault line in global supply chains,” Susan Uthayakumar, chief energy and sustainability officer at Prologis, said in a statement. “The companies that solve for energy resilience will be the ones that stay ahead.”

While operators are making strategy decisions based on energy availability, their near-term concerns are more reflective of the ongoing rebalancing of global trade. 

Operators’ top three concerns for 2026 were economic volatility, tariff increases and geopolitical instability, which was tied with cybersecurity threats. Energy reliability and cost ranked fourth. 

The uncertainty is helping accelerate a trend toward regionalization that was spurred by the pandemic. AI is helping facilitate deglobalization and is one of the three top planned capital investments for 75% of supply chain operators in 2026, dwarfing any other investment priority.

Automation and robotics, energy efficiency and supplier investment trail, with each being a key focus of 2026 capital expenditures for between 35% and 40% of firms.