The Convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for Humanitarian Supply Chain Resilience

Abstract

The humanitarian sector has been implementing technology-centric practices since 2015, with the term "humanitarian digitisation" emerging. To ensure resilience in humanitarian supply chain management, adopting technologies that support the industry 4.0 transition is crucial. 8 enabling technologies for enhancing resiliency include artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality, digital twin, cloud computing, and industrial internet of things. These technologies can transform four aspects: players, organisations, contextual elements, results, and functionality. This paper presents a summary of 10 case studies employing primarily 2 of these digital technologies (artificial intelligence, and big data) in the humanitarian supply chain. Then, it concentrates on discussing the role and convergence of these 2 technologies in enhancing the resiliency of the humanitarian supply chain. The potentials of AI and big data towards achieving human supply chain resilience, and areas for future works to support the convergence in facilitating the resiliency of the humanitarian supply chain are suggested.