How agent-based AI with real-time data transmission helps businesses tackle this global reality head-on

Tom Fairbairn, Distinguished Engineer at Solace, explains how agent-based AI, combined with real-time data transmission, helps businesses manage the enterprise-wide impact of supply chain crises and make informed decisions during supply chain disruptions, which are increasingly becoming the new normal.

The long-threatened closure of the Strait of Hormuz – one of the world’s busiest oil transport routes – is described by Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, as “the biggest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”. However, as bottlenecks on land, at sea and in the air are increasing worldwide, it is difficult to estimate how long this will remain the case.

The tense situation in the Strait of Hormuz involves more than just oil supplies: according to the United Nations, around a third of the world’s fertiliser is transported via the Strait of Hormuz. For agriculture, the blockade could not have come at a worse time. This is because spring is sowing season across much of the Northern hemisphere. If farmers use less fertiliser now, it will have a negative impact on this year’s harvests.

Helium is also affected, an important but often overlooked raw material. According to estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey, around a third of the world’s helium reserves are extracted in Qatar and transported via the Strait of Hormuz. As a by-product of natural gas, helium plays a crucial role in semiconductor manufacturing. A prolonged shortage would result in a decline in microchip production, which in turn would affect computers, smartphones, vehicles and, crucially, MRI machines.

The new reality of supply chain disruptions

Do you remember the crises involving the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal a few years ago, which brought global trade to a standstill? The harsh reality is that supply chain disruptions on land, at sea and in the air are now the order of the day, and that businesses large and small must cope with them.

For, of course, it is not just shipping that is affected. Bottlenecks exist everywhere. These include air corridors such as the ‘Gulf Skies’ over the Persian Gulf and the narrow corridor between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As a large proportion of traffic between Europe, Asia and the Gulf passes through these routes, they can become bottlenecks at any time. On land, it is the major hub airports such as Hong Kong and Dubai that can lead to disruptions in supply chains if their capacity is suddenly restricted by weather conditions or logistical problems – not to mention geopolitical disruptions.

If we also take into account the massive impact of the trade wars that have been ongoing since April 2025, it is safe to assume that such bottlenecks will continue to occur repeatedly in the future.

Intelligent ‘what-if’ analyses can help to circumvent disruptions to trade routes

These supply chain bottlenecks make it clear that inaction poses the greatest risk to businesses. And yet inaction is their only option as long as they lack the necessary delivery data to take effective action.

Businesses that fail to adapt are structurally more vulnerable to the next shock, even before they have fully recovered from the previous one.

Overnight batch processing and planning simply isn’t enough. It doesn’t provide companies with the insights needed to understand how a single container on a ship affects their delivery dates, sales forecasts and cash flow – or how these changes ripple through the supply chain.

Companies need fully integrated and digitised supply chains that provide relevant information in real time. Only then can they reallocate resources and manage costs as soon as the data situation changes. All areas – from resource planning through transport management, warehousing and logistics to finance – must be empowered to act promptly, react and analyse ‘what-if’ scenarios. This requires access to business-critical data sources.

The current crises clearly demonstrate that we live in an event-driven world. That is why only an event-driven platform is capable of overcoming such challenges and interpreting the flood of data in a meaningful way.

This is where real-time data transfer comes into play: it is based on an event-driven platform that eliminates data silos and ensures that up-to-date data is consistently available across all of a company’s systems. This allows decision-makers to access the data they need directly, anytime and anywhere.

How companies can adapt flexibly

Let’s consider the example of a container ship loaded with thousands of products. With an isolated approach to data streaming, companies cannot gain a holistic view of the knock-on effects across their entire supply chain. Modern event broker technology plays a crucial role here in preventing problems caused by unexpected changes in supply or demand.

AI agents go one step further. Thanks to real-time data transmission combined with agent-based AI, an AI agent can not only view every container on the ship but also oversee the entire supply chain, including the availability of stock in other regions. With minimal human intervention, the AI agent then models alternative scenarios to fulfil orders via other feasible routes or delivery mechanisms.

The key ingredient: flexible decision-making!

The ability to automatically and flexibly adjust transport routes and schedules as needed is a key factor in determining how well companies can meet customer expectations for existing orders and how they manage to absorb supply chain disruptions in the long term.

With real-time data transmission and agent-based AI, they can use up-to-date data at any time to make informed business decisions and react much more quickly to dynamic market conditions.

The use of modern event-driven technologies holds enormous potential for avoiding bottlenecks in business processes and managing disruptions in the flow of goods and data. A powerful agent mesh dynamically distributes events to AI agents, regardless of the type of application or the capacity of the site. This enables decisions to be made ‘in the blink of an eye’, ensuring optimal order fulfilment and avoiding negative impacts on customer relationships.

By using agent-based AI in conjunction with real-time data transmission, companies can mitigate the impact of global supply chain disruptions. Actionable real-time insights give them a head start over their competitors.

Prepare today to be ready for future supply chain disruptions!

Author: Tom Fairbairn, Distinguished Engineer at Solace