AI Agent

Supply Chain Agent

Supply Chain Agent that automates supply chain workflows using your data and tools.

The challenge

Disruption is discovered when a delivery fails to arrive, not when the ship was delayed. Planners rebuild the picture from emails and phone calls, expedite at premium rates to recover the date, and the same supplier problems repeat because nothing is measured across the network.

The outcome

Azure Event Hubs ingests order and transport events, Azure Functions correlate them to the affected order lines, and Azure Machine Learning re-estimates arrival dates. A Microsoft Foundry agent scores the business impact; low impact reschedules automatically, anything touching a customer commitment reaches a planner.

At a glance

Type: ai agents
Category: industry

Next step

Move from solution to engagement.

Build This Solution

01 — Architecture

End-to-end architecture

Order, transport and supplier events stream in through Event Hubs and are correlated back to the order lines and customers they affect. Machine Learning re-estimates arrival dates, the Foundry agent scores the business impact and ranks the options — rescheduling inside tolerance and escalating anything that touches a customer commitment.

Figure 1 — End-to-end reference architecture for a supply chain exception agent on the Microsoft stack.

02 — Workflow

Process & decision workflow

How a disruption becomes a resolved exception — sense, correlate, predict, assess and propose, then branch. Low-impact slippage is rescheduled inside tolerance, while anything putting revenue or a customer commitment at risk goes to a planner with the options costed.

Figure 2 — Sense → correlate → predict → assess → propose → impact branch → auto-reschedule or planner.

03 — Components

Key Microsoft components

Supply chain exceptions are a correlation problem in real time — events, prediction, options and action all stay on the Microsoft stack.

Azure Event HubsHigh-throughput ingestion of order and transport events.
Azure Data FactoryScheduled supplier, carrier and ERP feed integration.
Azure FunctionsNormalisation, order correlation and impact calculation.
Azure Machine LearningLead-time, shortfall and supplier reliability models.
Microsoft Foundry Agent ServiceDetection, option ranking and resolution orchestration.
Azure OpenAI modelsImpact narrative and supplier communication drafting.
Azure AI SearchRetrieval over contracts, routes, terms and prior cases.
Azure Logic AppsRescheduling, supplier notification and escalation.
Azure API ManagementSecure gateway for carrier, supplier and ERP APIs.
Azure SQLOrders, exceptions, actions and cost records.
Azure Cosmos DBLive event and case state across the network.
Azure Key VaultPartner and carrier integration credentials.
Azure Communication ServicesSupplier and customer notification of changes.
Power BI / Microsoft FabricService level, exposure and supplier dashboards.

04 — AI

What the agent consumes

The capabilities the agent applies to every event, and the line it does not cross.

AI capabilities embedded in the agent

Event ingestion
Order correlation
Lead-time prediction
Shortfall detection
Impact scoring
Scenario ranking
Retrieval-augmented generation
Supplier performance scoring
Narrative generation
Alert deduplication
Exposure analytics
Workflow orchestration

AI responsibility boundaries

The agent reschedules only inside agreed tolerance and contracted terms. Expediting at cost, resourcing to a new supplier and anything affecting a customer commitment need a planner. It never changes contracted prices or terms, and every action records the trigger event, the options considered and the cost.

05 — Personalization

Personalization & evolving process

The same methodology applies to every agent in the catalog. Tune the network, the exception template, the tolerances and the value model — the page structure stays identical.

Network & supplier profile

Define the sites, lanes, suppliers, carriers, lead times and contracted service levels in scope. The personas are the supply planner, the buyer, the logistics coordinator and the customer service team.

06 — Impact

Key outcomes & business impact

Starting targets for the value case — validate each one against the customer baseline during discovery.

Exception detectionHours earlySlippage is visible before the delivery date is missed.
On-time deliveryImprovedMeasured against the current service-level baseline.
Expedite cost−30%Fewer late, expensive recoveries because action starts early.
Decision evidence100%Every action stores its trigger, options and cost.