Defying Disruption: Key Takeaways from GAINS Summit 2025

The GAINS Summit 2025 brought together hundreds of supply chain innovators, thought leaders, and decision-makers from across industries for two days of learning, networking, and insight-sharing under this year’s theme: Defying Disruption.

From exploring the future of AI-powered decision engineering to celebrating real-world success stories, the event reinforced a shared commitment to transforming volatility into opportunity — and helping organizations make better, faster, and more confident decisions.

Setting the Stage: “Defying Disruption”

GAINS CEO Dave Shrager opened the summit with a powerful message: today’s supply chain leaders are not just planners — they’re decision engineers. The modern supply chain is defined by interconnectivity and complexity, where each decision ripples across design, planning, and execution.

GAINS continues to push forward on that mission, with an AI-forward approach that blends Decision Engineering & Orchestration (DEO), simulation, and agent-based automation to help organizations make confident, data-backed choices at every level of the business.

A Celebration of Innovation and Excellence

The Summit also gave us the chance to look back on an incredible year of milestones for GAINS and our customers.

In 2025, GAINS earned recognition from Frost & Sullivan, Supply & Demand Chain Executive, Nucleus Research, and the SaaS Awards Group for leadership in AI/ML-powered supply chain planning, SaaS innovation, and measurable ROI. Our clients have continued to deliver tangible results—reducing lead time errors, increasing service levels, and unlocking millions in working capital.

That momentum was on full display throughout the week, as customers and partners shared their own stories of transformation and growth.

Check out our awards →

Keynote Spotlight: Dr. Rebecca Heiss

The Summit’s keynote speaker, Dr. Rebecca Heiss, is a globally recognized stress expert and two-time author, helping professionals transform anxiety into performance through her Fear(less) Stress Formula. Her message resonated deeply with a supply chain audience that understands uncertainty all too well.

In an engaging, hands-on exercise, she asked attendees to throw ping pong balls at a volunteer attendee, each white ball representing a daily stressor—an unexpected delay, a system outage, a supplier issue all while trying to catch the ‘golden’ opportunity balls. The exercise became a living metaphor for the chaos many leaders face daily while still trying to capitalize on the opportunities for improvement surrounding us. Then, she guided the audience through how to slow the reaction, refocus attention, and manage those moments with intention rather than instinct.

It was a powerful reminder that defying disruption starts within us—and that calm, conscious decision-making is just as critical as any technology or process improvement.

Stress test exercise with ping pong balls, representing a daily stressor

Expert Insights and Real-World Results

From breakout sessions to hands-on workshops, the agenda was packed with practical insights and examples of innovation in action. Speakers and panelists from companies like Continental Battery Systems, Border States, Colony Hardware, ORS Nasco, Keurig Dr Pepper, and White Cap shared how they’re using GAINS to improve forecasting, optimize inventory, and bridge the gap between strategy and execution.

Explore customer case studies →

Key Themes from GAINS Summit

1. Practical AI: Solving Real Problems, Not Chasing Shiny Objects

A recurring theme throughout the Summit was the idea of practical AI—focusing on solving real problems, not chasing trends. GAINS leaders and customers emphasized how practical applications of AI—like predicting lead times, simulating supply chain flows, or automating order approvals—create measurable value. The focus wasn’t on hype or trends, but on how GAINS is using AI to solve real challenges that impact cost, service, and complexity.

2. Decision Engineering & Orchestration (DEO)

A look at how GAINS is transforming decision-making by connecting design, planning, and execution through unified data, AI, and simulation—helping organizations make smarter decisions faster.

3. The 7 Principles of Decision Engineering

Frameworks for leading with flexibility, transparency, and ethics. Attendees explored how these principles—like Design for Flexibility and Test Before You Commit—are applied in real-world supply chain environments.

4. Lead Time & Demand Prediction

Sessions focused on how companies are using GAINS’ AI-based models to sharpen forecast accuracy and stabilize lead times. One global distributor achieved a 65% improvement in lead-time accuracy, an 18% reduction in inventory, and a 976% ROI within just over a month of implementation.

Read the blog: Almost 1000% ROI? That Can’t Be Real →

5. Architect Flow Optimizer

A deep dive into GAINS’ discrete event simulation engine that models real-world flow, capacity, and fulfillment dynamics—revealing how companies can unlock performance from their existing assets.

6. Continuous Supply Chain Design

The convergence of network design and planning continues to evolve. Attendees saw how continuous design modeling enables more agile, flexible, and sustainable operations that can adapt to constant market change.

GAINS Summit in Photos

What’s Next from GAINS

The closing sessions of GAINS Summit 2025 looked ahead at how GAINS is continuing to evolve — expanding capabilities, accelerating innovation, and empowering customers to move from insight to action faster than ever.

At the center of that evolution is GAINS X — the unified platform powering smarter, AI-driven decision-making across design, planning, and operations. Built for composability and speed, GAINS X enables customers to deploy purpose-built solutions independently or connect them seamlessly across domains for greater visibility and orchestration.

Several new and upcoming capabilities were previewed during the event, all built on the GAINS X foundation:

Multi-Constraint Order Optimization: Automating complex order-building decisions by balancing freight, vendor minimums, and capacity constraints.
Supply PO Decision Automation: Using AI to learn from your best buyers and automate routine approvals with confidence.
Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization: Combining simulation and optimization to improve total network inventory performance by up to 25%.

These advancements are part of GAINS’ composable, decision-centric architecture—built to accelerate time-to-value and drive continuous performance improvement.

The ideas from GAINS Summit 2025 are just the beginning. Explore more on the themes that defined this year’s event.