The Zero100 Podcast

Every few weeks, a new AI model promises to be smarter, more articulate and more human. TypeSafe AI’s Jev promises something different: it doesn’t write or chat, it just makes fast, cheap decisions in the background – and it has kicked off a whole new class of decision models. This week, Chief Content Officer Matt Davis sits down with Senior Full-Stack Data Scientist Yassine Lahlou-Kamal and Senior Director, Intelligence & Advisory Zack Bliss to ask whether this is the next wave or just hype. They unpack the economics hidden in Jev’s name, why speed matters on the production floor and in the store’s back room, why your supply chain probably doesn’t need another chatbot, and why the AI ideas you rejected last year deserve a second look.

Everyone says judgment is the human skill that will keep us ahead of the machines. But few organizations have defined what good judgment looks like, let alone how to build or measure it. This week, Lauren Acoba (VP, Head of Intelligence & Advisory) sits down with Caroline Chumakov and Geraint John (VPs, Intelligence & Advisory) to change that. As AI takes on more of the transactional work, they explore what judgment actually is, why it’s getting harder to learn on the job, and what the best supply chain and operations leaders are doing to build it on purpose.

For years, enterprise AI has been framed as a build decision. But as agents move into full-scale operations, the real cost is running them every day – and the meter doesn’t stop running. This week, Chief Research Officer Kevin O’Marah sits down with VP, Intelligence & Advisory Kelly Coutinho to unpack the new economics of enterprise AI. They explore why a paper mill and a McDonald’s promotion need very different kinds of AI and compute, what to meter versus where to commit to dedicated capacity, and why what your business knows, not access to frontier models, is what delivers a lasting competitive edge.

What’s harder: transforming a century-old carmaker for the digital age, or building one from scratch with no safety net? In this special episode, Zero100 Executive in Residence Jim Rowan – former CEO of Volvo Cars and Dyson – reunites with his former Volvo colleague Javier Varela, now Chief Operations Officer at Rivian, to explore how a software-first foundation is paving the way for AI-defined operations. Javier shares how Rivian uses the vehicle itself as part of the factory system, why early architectural choices helped cut the R2’s bill of materials in half, and how its homegrown “Large Driving Model” and custom silicon position the company to win in autonomy.

For years, leaders have talked about how difficult it is to secure funding beyond standard operations, assuming that breaking through requires a massive balance sheet and a deep tech budget. But Zero100’s latest research reveals a surprising truth: the correlation between investment and digital maturity is virtually nonexistent. This week, Chief Research Officer Kevin O’Marah sits down with VP, Research & Advisory Jenna Fink to explore findings from her upcoming report on the future of the orchestrated factory, discussing how to open up the “black box” of production, leverage the agility of smaller footprints, navigate integration hurdles in brownfield sites, and shift toward network-level decision-making.

With AI rapidly flooding the world with text, design, and code, will the market place a premium on human-made craftsmanship and strategic thought, or will efficiency and utility entirely eclipse the human element? This week, Zero100 Chief Content Officer Matt Davis moderates as Lauren Acoba (VP, Head of Research & Advisory) and Justin Gillebo (Senior Director, Research & Advisory) debate the future value of human work. Tune in as they unpack everything from “AI slop” and the hidden costs of unthoughtful content generation to agentic workflows, accountability, and why supply chain leaders must experiment while building rigorous human judgment.

We’ve spent the last decade building better control towers and gathering more data than ever. So why is the supply chain still slowing down when a disruption hits? VP, Research & Advisory Jenna Fink and Senior Director, Research & Advisory Justin Gillebo unpack why visibility isn’t the problem anymore, the tough realities of 3PL data ownership, why physical freight automation (like driverless trucks) might actually outpace our control rooms, and how leaders can finally bridge the gap between control room insights and real-world execution.

This week, Chief Content Officer Matt Davis sits down with Arun Krishnan – SVP, Global Supply Chain & Strategy at AstraZeneca – to explore the Holy Grail of modern operations: the self-healing supply chain. Pulling back the curtain, Arun shares how AI and human judgment are combining to automate the routine, eliminate the guesswork, and protect patient safety at scale, all while bringing a genuine sense of joy back to the team by freeing them up for higher-level work.

With AI capabilities evolving quarter-on-quarter and executive leadership demanding immediate ROI, treating digital transformation as a static, once-a-year roadmap is a trap. Fresh off the floor at Zero100 Live EU – our flagship London gathering for operations and supply chain leaders – Matt Davis (Chief Content Officer), Lauren Acoba (VP, Head of Research & Advisory), and Caroline Chumakov (VP, Research & Advisory) sit down for a real-time debrief, unpicking why intelligence is no longer the bottleneck in supply chain, how agentic AI is shifting human roles toward high-stakes judgment, and why the real path forward lies in rewiring cross-functional workflows into end-to-end Power Threads.

For years, the default rule of global logistics was simple: when a shipping lane gets blocked, you reroute. But with the Strait of Hormuz functionally closed, the Red Sea facing persistent conflict, and drought constraining the Panama Canal, the “just reroute it” playbook is officially broken. This week, Geraint John (VP, Research & Advisory) sits down with Oliver Sawbridge (Senior Director, Research & Advisory) to unpack why temporary workarounds and inventory buffers are no longer enough, breaking down how compounding climate and geopolitical risks at key global chokepoints are forcing leading operations teams toward regionalized network design for true resilience.