How can organisations practically bridge the‘ supplier connectivity gap’ by integrating digitally immature suppliers into an advanced AI-driven ecosystem? What real-world strategies prevent leaving critical, less techsavvy suppliers behind during digital transformation?
Bavik Pathak, Alstom: Ecosystem is key. In an ecosystem, everything cannot be ideal. For example, in our industry, we deal with thousands of suppliers. Each and every supplier has a different level of maturity. In the current scenario, we need to adopt a tiered approach. A certain percentage of suppliers, I would call it a strategic supplier point, can adopt all these digital integrations, but I cannot expect that from my tail suppliers. They are not ready for that yet.
So there should be a different tiered approach, and then slowly you can bring in improvements and support those suppliers you can work with. That is how you can change the ecosystem, not one solution for all. It won’ t work.
96 June 2026