According to www.freightwaves.com, Genpact’s global supply chain lead Tanguy Caillet reports that tariff instability and geopolitical disruption are accelerating a structural shift toward regional supply chain realignment and deeper supplier diversification in 2026 — a trend initiated during the pandemic but now solidifying as long-term strategy.
Preparedness Over Panic
Caillet noted that multinational shippers are more operationally resilient than widely assumed, thanks to pandemic-era investments in supply chain visibility, risk monitoring, and scenario planning tools. These capabilities enabled rapid internal response to tariff fluctuations — so much so that Genpact sold zero advisory projects on tariffs with clients in the current cycle, despite proactive outreach.
“I was very surprised. We actually sold not one advisory project on tariffs with clients, though we tried.” — Tanguy Caillet, Global Supply Chain Lead, Genpact
This outcome reflects meaningful progress since 2020: control towers, supplier-risk dashboards, and integrated planning systems now allow firms to model duty impacts, reroute shipments, or activate alternate suppliers without external intervention.
From Cost Optimization to Resilience-by-Design
The era of hyper-concentrated, single-country sourcing is giving way to deliberate redundancy. Caillet emphasized moving beyond cost-driven supplier rationalization — a decades-old practice that consolidated spend with fewer vendors for lower per-unit pricing — toward portfolios built for continuity.
- Dual- and triple-sourcing across geographies to eliminate single-source dependencies
- Redesigning logistics networks — not necessarily relocating factories, but optimizing routes, leveraging bonded warehouses, and using tariff-friendly trade corridors
- Accepting higher transportation costs when they reduce duty exposure or increase optionality
- Treating supplier networks like financial portfolios — with built-in hedges, alternative pathways, and dynamic rebalancing
Genpact Limited (NYSE: G), headquartered in New York with 125,000 employees serving 800 clients across over 35 countries, has deep operational experience supporting such transitions — particularly through its presence in India and global delivery centers.
Technology as Orchestration Infrastructure
Caillet stressed that AI alone cannot manage volatility — it must sit atop modernized foundational systems. Success requires clean, integrated data from procurement, supplier relationship management (SRM), and demand/supply planning platforms first.
Only then can AI connect external signals — such as new tariff schedules, port congestion alerts, or supplier financial distress indicators — with internal production and inventory data to run near real-time impact simulations. This enables rapid decisions on which customers, contracts, or production lines face exposure.
“It’s all about this orchestration layer at the top.” — Tanguy Caillet, Global Supply Chain Lead, Genpact
He cautioned against siloed AI adoption: “There is no artificial intelligence without process intelligence.” Digital transformation demands parallel redesign of decision rights, escalation protocols, and cross-functional workflows — otherwise, AI initiatives risk joining the large share that fail to deliver measurable ROI.
2026: Volatility as Operating Assumption
Caillet forecasts continued geopolitical turbulence, evolving trade alliances (e.g., expanded Indo-Pacific frameworks, deepening EU-India negotiations), and persistent reconfiguration of global trade lanes throughout 2026. Rather than waiting for stability, forward-looking organizations are designing supply chains that assume constant change — embedding flexibility, redundancy, and rapid-response capability into core architecture.
“The volatility is here to stay. The question is not if it will happen again, but when and how severe.” — Tanguy Caillet, Global Supply Chain Lead, Genpact
This represents a paradigm shift: resilience is no longer a contingency plan but the central objective of supply chain strategy — with cost optimization now subordinate to risk mitigation and speed of adaptation.
This article is AI-assisted and has been reviewed and verified by the SCI.AI editorial team.
Source: FreightWaves
