AI is helping General Motors to avoid expensive supply chain interruptions like hurricanes and material shortages (www.businessinsider.com)

General Motors has deployed an AI-driven supply-chain system that predicted Hurricane Helene’s impact on carpet supplier Auria Solutions and helped avert a production stoppage by coordinating emergency fixes. Built after pandemic-era semiconductor shortages forced repeated factory cuts, the platform now monitors a tenfold larger supplier network, scraping tier‑1 through tier‑N relationships and combining predictive modeling with real‑time data to surface risks. GM says the tools have prevented at least 75 factory stoppages this year by detecting everything from local weather threats to global events such as China’s rare‑earth magnet restrictions or missed material deadlines. Technically, GM’s four‑pronged architecture comprises a digitized supply map with ML that continuously maps supplier relationships; a centralized communication hub manned by risk analysts that triggers investigations; “Risk Intelligence,” an AI article scanner that classifies thousands of news items daily for supply impact; and a dashboard tracking shipment delays, overdue parts, and site signals. The system scales human oversight—finding “needles in a haystack”—and proactively alerts both GM and its suppliers so they can remediate issues before lines stop. While not replacing workers, the stack boosts operational resilience, informs strategic sourcing (useful amid looming tariff exposures), and serves as a competitive talent and efficiency lever for modern supply‑chain management.