TL;DR: At Sentinel Global, we have five core beliefs shaping our vision of Interoperable Commerce: AI should amplify human decision-making, not replace it. Agent-based systems are the future, revolutionizing supply chains with real-time intelligence. While blockchain gets the hype, we prioritize practical trust through robust data governance. As costs fall, intelligent systems will become accessible to all, unlocking unparalleled efficiency. And at the heart of it all, data integrity is non-negotiable. Do you agree?
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” — Anatole France
At Sentinel Global, what sets our views apart from those you might find from an investment bank, consulting firm, or think tank? As a global VC, we are on the front lines speaking and working with founders every day, actively identifying and investing in the pioneering technologies that will shape our digital future and envisioning the world they will create. Our position gives us a unique vantage point: we place early bets on transformative innovations, but we also uncover early flaws. We see firsthand how ideas that seem brilliant in theory can falter when faced with the challenges of scaling or integrating into the “real world.”
Through our direct work, we’ve developed a set of core beliefs that guide our approach to the key technologies and methodologies in Interoperable Commerce.
Here are five of these beliefs:
The Crucial Role of AI enabled Decision-Making in Supply Chains
We believe that artificial intelligence is essential for supply chain transformation, not to replace humans, but to enhance their decision-making capabilities with real-time insights
Artificial intelligence holds tremendous potential for transforming supply chain operations. Supply chains, by nature, are labor-intensive and slow to adopt new technologies. This is why we believe AI’s role in supply chain management is essential—not for automating processes, but for enhancing decision-making capabilities.
AI can process vast amounts of real-time data and provide intelligent insights based on contextual changes. This is particularly important in environments where decisions need to be made quickly, such as in warehouse operations or distribution centers. The ability of AI to analyze data and provide actionable insights in real time makes it a critical tool for optimizing supply chain performance. This is not about replacing human workers right now but rather augmenting and enhancing their capabilities with better intelligence, allowing them to focus their time on making more strategic decisions vs. manual tasks.
Autonomous Agents: The Future of Supply Chains
We believe that agent-based systems will play a pivotal role in creating more efficient, resilient, and responsive supply chains by making real-time, intelligent decisions that surpass human limitations.
One aspect of Interoperable Commerce we are most excited about are agent-based systems in decision-making. Agents – intelligent systems designed to perform specific tasks - can significantly enhance decision-making in supply chains, particularly through analyzing and interpreting real-time data entering into the companies purview through various streams. Rather than depending solely on vast amounts of pre-processed, easy-to-query data, agents can now analyze data in real time as it is generated, make immediate decisions, and seamlessly integrate it with stored data. This approach provides a more comprehensive and holistic view for the company.
For example, in a typical warehouse environment, orders are processed and distributed by various companies. Historically, a human operator would monitor these orders and make decisions based on somewhat real-time demand and availability. With agent-based systems, the same, or better, decisions can be made more efficiently and in real time, reducing the need for constant human oversight. Agents are able to operate around the clock, processing real-time orders, adjusting to changing conditions in a way that humans simply cannot and making far less mistakes doing so.
This shift from human decision-making to agent-based decision-making is inevitable. While humans will still play a role in overseeing these systems for the time being, agents will gradually take over more tasks, leading to reduced labor costs and improved profit margins. The result is a more efficient, resilient, and responsive supply chain, with agents positioned to make better decisions based on real-time data.
The ROI and Cost Curve of Intelligent Systems
We believe that the cost and complexity of intelligent systems will decline significantly over time, making them accessible and impactful for businesses of all sizes.
A key consideration when adopting intelligent systems is the return on investment (ROI). Although the upfront costs of deploying AI and agent-based systems may be significant, we expect these costs to decline sharply as the technology evolves and becomes more widespread. For innovation to be truly impactful, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses, these systems must be affordable and simple to implement. Establishing standards for data sharing, encryption, and formatting will be crucial, as consistent data structures enable seamless integration and easier downstream application. As these technologies become more accessible and cost-effective, the enhanced decision-making, operational efficiency, and responsiveness they provide will far surpass the initial investment.
We also anticipate that intelligent systems will eventually reach a point where they can deliver consistent answers without needing to rely on large, resource-intensive models like LLMs (Large Language Models). This shift will further reduce costs and improve the scalability of intelligent decision-making in supply chains.
One benefit that supply chains hold over other industry verticals looking to adopt and deploy AI is that often the nature of the information that is needed to supply to an agent or LLM is less sensitive / full of trade secrets vs. other industries. Law firms, financial institutions and healthcare organizations, for example, have proprietary, sensitive, and personally identifiable information that they don’t want ingested and held by outside organizations. This has the potential to create a feedback loop that will allow better models and agents to be trained based on real data created every day and will eventually result in more performant, accurate systems.
The Limitations of Blockchain in Complex Supply Chains
We believe that blockchain, while useful in certain contexts, is not the solution for managing trust in complex supply chains; instead, robust data governance and encryption provide more practical and effective safeguards.
Despite enthusiasm for blockchain, we believe its role in managing complex supply chains is limited. While the academic consensus often suggests that blockchain enhances trust, this view remains debatable—particularly in supply chains, where its effectiveness has fallen short of expectations.
At Sentinel Global, we have over a decade of experience investing in blockchain, so we understand its theoretical appeal as a secure and transparent technology. However, blockchain solutions alone do not address the trust challenges inherent in large, multifaceted supply chains. Instead, we find that trust is more effectively established through robust data pipelines, data governance and advanced encryption techniques, which offer tangible safeguards. As a result, our approach prioritizes these data governance methods over blockchain to ensure the integrity and reliability of supply chain data.
The Challenge of Data Integrity
We believe that maintaining data integrity is foundational to building trustworthy and reliable systems, ensuring that decisions are always based on accurate and secure information.
Finally, we recognize that one of the most significant challenges in Interoperable Commerce is maintaining data integrity. Disinformation can spread quickly from one data point to another, and even a single corrupted source can compromise an entire decision-making process. Ensuring the integrity and safety of data at every step of the supply chain is critical to building a trusted and reliable system.
By adopting advanced security solutions and having a focus on understanding where your data lives, how it affects or exposes your company, and how it best can be utilized to make better decisions internally and externally will separate the new class of successful enterprises from those of the past. Combining this with strong data governance and policies, we can minimize the risks associated with data sharing and ensure that decisions are based on accurate and reliable information.
In Summary:
Our beliefs about Interoperable Commerce center around the transformative role that advancements in AI and agent-based systems will play in the decision making process of enterprises. We see the future of supply chains as being driven by intelligent systems that enhance, rather than replace, human decision-making. As the cost curve of these technologies continues to fall, we believe that the widespread adoption of AI and agents will lead to more efficient, responsive, and trustworthy supply chains. Our focus on data as the core driver of these advancements, intelligent decision-making, and the careful adoption of emerging technologies will guide us as we navigate the future.
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