Supply chain software is moving rapidly towards agentic AI in 2026, but Manhattan Associates is arguing that the technology will only work properly if it is guided by human judgment rather than left to operate on its own.
At its Momentum conference in Las Vegas, the company set out a vision for enterprise systems that blend machine intelligence with what it described as the contextual awareness of experienced supply chain teams. Manhattan’s message was blunt: the software may...
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handle the machinery, but people must define the intent.
That distinction matters because, in logistics and warehousing, small errors can create costly disruption. Manhattan chief technology officer Sanjeev Siotia said in a conference session that a system that is “almost correct” is effectively wrong in this environment, underlining the company’s belief that AI must be constrained by clear rules, workflows and decision frameworks designed by humans.
The company’s answer is a newly unveiled Solution Design Studio, which it says can interpret business requirements written in plain language and turn them into system configurations without forcing users to translate those requirements into technical code or click through multiple screens. In Manhattan’s telling, the tool is intended to close the gap between what businesses want and what software actually does.
According to Manhattan’s Momentum 2026 conference materials, the event is being staged at the Bellagio in Las Vegas from May 18 to May 21, with the company using the gathering to showcase its push into agentic AI across supply chain commerce. The broader pitch is that AI performs best when it is connected to a unified cloud environment, with access to the data and applications needed to make informed decisions across planning, warehousing, transport and fulfilment.
That philosophy reflects a wider tension in enterprise software: businesses want automation that is faster and more adaptive, but they are also wary of handing over control in operations where precision is essential. Manhattan is trying to position itself on the conservative side of that debate, presenting AI not as a substitute for operational expertise, but as a tool that becomes useful only when governed by it.
The company’s executives have framed the model as one in which AI supplies the intelligence, while human professionals supply the business context. In practice, that means agentic systems may take on more of the repetitive design and configuration work, but the strategic decisions about how a supply chain should behave remain with the customer.
Source: Noah Wire Services
