Join us live on LinkedIn on September 10 for the Leaders in Supply Chain Awards 2025.
What if machines, not people, were making your company’s most critical supply chain decisions? In this episode, I interviewed Frederic Laluyaux, President and CEO of Aera Technology, to unpack how decision intelligence is reshaping enterprise operations. Frederic shares why he left SAP and Anaplan to pioneer agentic AI long before ChatGPT, and how Aera now powers everything from inventory optimization to life-saving clinical supply chain moves. We explored real-world ROI from $60M in inventory savings to accelerated tariff-response automations, and dived into the architecture of self-driving enterprises. It’s a bold, forward-thinking conversation about system design, AI limitations, and a vision of work transformed.
Connect with the Guest:
Frederic Laluyaux is the Co-founder, President, and CEO of Aera Technology. A veteran entrepreneur and technologist. Frederic previously led Anaplan and held leadership roles at SAP. For over three decades, he has focused on helping large organizations improve their performance through data, analytics, and technology. Raised in France and now based in San Francisco, Frederic has been a thought leader in enterprise automation and is a pioneer in the emerging field of decision intelligence.
Highlights & Show Notes:
- [01:13] Frederic’s career journey from SAP to Anaplan and ultimately founding Aera Technology.
- [02:34] How the acceleration of complexity, volume, and speed drove Aera’s creation.
- [04:52] The paradigm shift from tools that support human decisions to systems where machines make decisions guided by people.
- [08:38] How Aera integrated LLMs into its platform and what capabilities it unlocked in decision workflows.
- [13:44] Where agentic AI excels (reasoning, unstructured data, communication) vs. where it struggles (math-heavy logic and optimization).
- [17:21] Aera’s orchestration model: data, intelligence, automation, engagement, and the need for human guidance in decision loops.
- [20:25] How Aera helps optimize structured and situational decisions across the enterprise.
- [24:24] Practical high-volume, mid-complexity supply chain use cases, sales order allocation, ATP, procurement optimization.
- [27:30] AstraZeneca’s clinical trial supply chain use case, shared at AeraHUB London, showed how timely decision automation led to improved patient outcomes.
- [29:27] How removing human bias and inefficiency from forecasting leads to more accurate results and less waste.
- [32:30] The rise of “digital-born” decisions in media buying and OSA (on-shelf availability).
- [35:00] Reflecting on the long-term implications of decision intelligence, beyond agentic hype, it’s a paradigm shift in how work is done.
- [36:06] The human and societal impact of DI: redistributing work, driving sustainability, and reshaping value creation.
Quotes from the Episode:
About the Host:
What an insightful conversation with Frederic Laluyaux! I am your host, Andrei Palamariu, Founder of Supplify and Head of Innovation at Alcott Global. At Supplify, we connect the supply chain tech ecosystem via a digital platform. We match corporations with top tech companies to solve their supply chain and logistics challenges. If there is anything tech in the supply chain, contact me.
Alcott Global provides executive search solutions for key positions at all pillars of end-to-end value chains from general management to overall supply chain operations, including executive and non-executive board roles, globally.
Join us live on LinkedIn on September 10, 2025, at the Leaders in Supply Chain Awards, where we celebrate and award the Top 30 Leaders in Supply Chain who push for excellence and inspire the future of the industry through exceptional leadership and operational excellence.
At Makers & Movers, we bring together C-level executives from multinational companies to connect, collaborate, and innovate on a forum focused on business value creation.
Related Episodes:
#90: AI and Supply Chain Risk Management with Brandon Daniels of Exiger
#91: The Power of Process Intelligence in Supply Chain with Manuel Haug of Celonis
92: Leveraging Cloud-Enabled Collaboration for Smarter Traceability with Jim Bureau of Loftware
