The Intelligent Chain: 10 Questions in 10 Minutes with Maria Ali

✨ Meet Maria Ali, Oii.ai’s new Head of Marketing & Investor Relations Maria joins Oii.ai with over 15 years of experience across creative advertising, marketing, and digital content. She began her career as an Art Director working on global campaigns and has since built experience across fashion, food, wellness, and beauty. She brings a strong mix of creativity, storytelling, and digital brand thinking, with a passion for creating content that is clear, engaging, and meaningful. Maria is supporting our marketing efforts across content, brand development, and digital communications, helping us tell a stronger story about the future of supply chain decision-making. We are delighted to welcome Maria to the team and excited for the energy, creativity, and perspective she brings as we continue to grow.

Fast ROI comes from the first decisions

Most value is created, or lost, in the first few decisions after change.

One launch plan is rarely enough

A single product launch plan assumes a single future. But adoption curves vary, market access shifts, and early signals are often misleading.

Spring Reality Check

Spring stock is landing, and not everything is moving as planned. March is when early laggards become visible, but not every slow mover is a problem.

Launch Confidence Starts Before Day 1

Most product launches don’t fail on day one. They fail because early inventory decisions are made with too much confidence, and too little testing.

Supplier & Lead-time Risk

Not all suppliers carry the same risk. Most plans treat them as if they do. February commitments assume lead times will hold. When they don’t, both cash and availability suffer.

The Real Value of a Digital Twin: Faster, Safer Decisions

Digital twins are often positioned as digital replicas which are useful for visibility and analysis. Our platform Goldiilocks is different. It uses the digital twin as a decision engine, so teams can test actions before they happen, and understand consequences in minutes, not weeks.

Volume Commitments Shape The Year

February volume commitments don’t just affect this quarter, they shape inventory positions, influence working capital, and define flexibility for the rest of the year.

Scenario-Based Buying

Early buying isn’t the problem, untested assumptions are. Too many retail commitments are locked in based on a single forecast before demand has truly revealed itself.

The Decision Radar: Turning variability into visibility

Forecasts will always move, supply will always shift, but planning risk does not come from variability, it comes from not knowing how your decisions will behave under that variability.

Service-Level Promises Under Uncertainty

Service levels feel fixed in tenders, but reality rarely is.

Cost-To-Serve Is Where Margins Disappear

Tender margins do not disappear overnight, they erode quietly through service promises, buffers, logistics assumptions, and safety stock no one revisits.

Early Buy Risk

Clarity comes from understanding ranges, not averages. De-risk your buys before you sign the POs.

What CFOs Want From Supply Chain AI

In supply chain, technology only matters if the business can feel the impact. For CFOs, that impact shows up in three places: working capital, cost-to-serve, and service protection.

The Risk Behind Tender Confidence

February is when confidence gets tested, prices are set, volumes are committed, and service expectations are locked in. But tenders do not fail because prices are wrong, they fail because risk sits quietly behind the numbers.

No One Size Fits All Logic

Goldiilocks adapts to category-specific behaviour, helping teams separate real overstock from noise and act accordingly. No one-size-fits-all logic. Just category-aware decisions.

Your Supply Chain co-pilot

Goldiilocks acts as your decision co-pilot, helping CSCOs and CFOs navigate volatility with clarity and control.

The Oii 30-Second Explanation

At Oii.ai, we help organisations stay in control of their supply chains, even as disruption becomes the norm. Our platform, Goldiilocks, was built to solve a long-standing supply chain challenge: balancing service, cost, and cash in an uncertain world. Instead of relying on static forecasts and historical averages, we use probabilistic AI and a digital twin of the end-to-end supply chain to model uncertainty itself.

Make Decisions With Confidence, Not Guesswork

Inventory actions often improve stock metrics but damage cash, or vice versa. Strong retailers don’t just reduce inventory, they choose the right reductions.

What Broke Supply Chains And What Fixes Them

What broke supply chains and what fixes them? The last few years exposed a hard truth: legacy systems, silos, and spreadsheets can not support decision-making in a world of constant disruption.

Visibility Isn't Control

The start of the year is when biopharma leaders ask the harder questions. Clarity early in the year changes everything that follows.

What "Decision Intelligence" Actually Means

Decision Intelligence is not a buzzword.It is the ability to test every option, understand every trade-off, and know the financial impact before you commit.

Replace Instinct With Evidence Backed Decisions

January decisions are often made too early, or too emotionally. Instinct worked in peak, January requires precision.

We Are Hiring!

Oii is seeking a Client Success Manager.As a Client Success Manager, you will sit close to clients, data, and AI-powered decision-making from day one.You will work with clients across their journey with Oii — helping turn complex analytical outputs into real business outcomes — while building strong fundamentals in client delivery, communication, and analytical problem-solving.Client Success at Oii is a core leadership function, not a support role. High performers in this role can grow quickly into senior Client Success positions, owning client relationships and driving long-term value as our SaaS footprint expands.Because Client Success sits at the intersection of real client problems, real data, and AI-driven technology, it also provides exposure to how our AI models, simulations, and decision logic is built, interpreted, and used in practice. You will regularly work with outputs from these models and collaborate closely with teams responsible for evolving them.

Loaner kits tie up cash

The issue isn’t tracking loaner kits, it’s understanding how much capital they quietly absorb, and for how long. When loaner kits are managed as part of the wider supply chain, teams protect availability and release working capital.

Learnings from 2025

As we close out the year, I wanted to share some reflections as I take stock on some of my key learnings. I don’t think there is anything profound here but just a back-to-basics reminder that in this modern AI age, we can forget that ultimately it all about people!

Post Peak Recovery & Cashflow Unlock

When peak season ends, the real decisions begin. Christmas is over, but the consequences aren’t.January brings excess inventory, cash under pressure, and Q1 plans built on assumptions that no longer hold.

Goldiilocks Supply Chain Insights

This weeks hashtag#GoldiilocksInsights looks at the practical day to day questions supply chain teams can ask directly in Goldiilocks using our Generative AI Assistant.

What is probabilistic AI and why does it matter for supply chains?

What is probabilistic AI and why does it matter for supply chains? Unlike traditional AI that gives a single answer, probabilistic AI understands uncertainty.

Probabilistic AI for Retail's "Just Right" Supply Chain

Retail margins are tighter, shopper expectations are higher, and volatility is now the norm. Goldiilocks helps retailers find the “just right” balance — profitable, predictable, and precise.

The Intelligent Chain: 10 Questions in 10 Minutes with Paul Seymour

1. What first sparked your interest in sourcing and supply chain, and how did that early curiosity shape the path you’re on today? I've always been a problem solver and I've always been interested in how things are made. My two favourite subjects at school were geography and economics - they have shaped everything about the path I'm on today; from process to working capital.

FORBES : Decarbonizing The Industrial Sector

Forbes is right: Industrial decarbonisation won’t happen through policy alone - it requires intelligence.

How AI Is Transforming Supply Chain Operations in 2025 (Inbound Logistics)

Inbound Logistics highlights a clear trend for 2025: organisations using AI are gaining sharper visibility, smarter inventory decisions, and more resilient operations.

Goldiilocks Insights

This weeks Goldiilocks Insights looks at the practical day to day questions supply chain teams can ask directly in Goldiilocks using our Generative AI Assistant.

Trust Two

In this video, we look at how agentic AI is evolving from a passive tool into an active partner that understands context, learns from feedback and supports human decision making across complex supply chains.

Trust One

Every great decision starts with trusted data. In this video, we explore how Oii.ai builds that foundation through advanced data handling and intelligent automation.

The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

The pharmaceutical supply chain is one of the most complex in the world, balancing patient needs, strict regulations and global manufacturing networks. That is why we built Goldiilocks AI.

The intelligent chain 10 questions in 10 minutes with Moshe Wolfson Head of Sales

We are thrilled to welcome Moshe as Sales Head – Europe. 👏 Moshe Marvin Wolfson brings years of experience in software and digital solutions, with a strong record of driving growth, building client trust, and closing deals of all sizes. He has held senior roles at a trade finance fintech start up and Surecomp where he led global sales and implementation teams to great success. To celebrate his arrival, Moshe joined our “Intelligent Chain: 10 Questions in 10 Minutes” series where he shares his thoughts on sales, leadership, risk taking and more. Check out the interview below to get to know Moshe. Welcome to the team, we are excited to have you on board!! The Intelligent Chain: 10 Questions in 10 Minutes With Moshe Wolfson What inspired you to pursue a career in technology? "When I began university, I studied Mathematics with Computer Science as a minor. It was still a new subject, but I could see it had the potential to be a real game changer. We studied the abstract Turing machine, not realising at the time that Alan Turing was the man who broke the Enigma code. Later, when I watched the movie, The Imitation Game, I came to appreciate how revolutionary his work was. Over the past eight years, that same sense of inspiration has led me into the world of AI and digitisation."

Voices from Oii.ai: Episode Two

How do businesses stay ahead in a world of constant change? One answer is the digital twin. In this episode we explore how a digital twin is built, what it does and how it helps businesses make better strategic choices. By creating a continuous loop of optimisation, it frees up human experts to focus on decisions that matter most, guided by clear, real time insights. Stay tuned to hear how Oii.ai is helping organisations use digital twins to stay ahead.

The intelligent chain 10 questions in 10 minutes Niels van Naman our sales leader for Healthcare,Pharma & Life Sciences

10 Questions in 10 Minutes with Niels van Namen! Welcome to Oii.ai, Niels!We are excited to welcome Niels van Namen as our Sales Leader for Healthcare, Pharma and Life Sciences at Oii.ai. Niels brings extensive experience from leadership roles at IBM, UPS and DSV, with deep expertise in healthcare logistics, pharma supply chains and strategic transformation. His background spans engineering, consulting and global business development. Now he is helping our customers use AI to make smarter and faster supply chain decisions.Get to know Niels in this quick fire interview where he shares career insights, industry perspectives and thoughts on leadership and innovation.

Voices from Oii.ai: What is a Digital Twin

We are starting a new series, Voices from Oii.ai, where we share quick insights on AI, digital innovation, and the work we are doing at Oii.ai. Here is a short clip on digital twins: what they are, why they matter, and how Oii.ai is approaching them differently. Watch to get a glimpse of what digital twins can do!

You might hear the term probabilistic AI all the time... but do you actually know what it means?

In this short explainer video, our Co-Founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer Bob Rogers breaks it down in a simple and practical way. He explains how probabilistic AI helps supply chains make better decisions by accounting for uncertainty, risk, and the variability that exists in the real world.

Enterprise AI Adoption Fears: What You Need to Know

In the world of AI, things are moving fast, and organisations that effectively apply new AI solutions will race ahead of their competitors. Those who hesitate will fall behind.When I work with enterprise executives to deploy AI-enabled products, their biggest challenge is their own Enterprise AI Fears.

Navigating the Ocean Freight Crisis and How Businesses Can Respond

Oceans are vital to the way goods move around the world as they carry close to 90 percent of global trade by both volume and value. Almost everything we use in daily life travels across the ocean at some point whether it’s the phone in your hand, the clothes in your wardrobe, the medicine in your cabinet, or the car you drive it likely arrived by sea before it reached you. This system has always faced challenges, but in recent years, the pressures have intensified. Geopolitical tensions, shifting trade routes, and growing global demand have all contributed to rising freight costs and made international logistics even more unpredictable, disrupting global supply chains.

The Intelligent Chain: 10 Questions in 10 Minutes with Tariq Korejo

What inspired you to move into sustainability and ESG-focused work?"I had this notion for some time that business world activity is becoming increasingly detached with the very surrounding in which it operates. We do not consider consciously the costs, short term and long term, that we incur on the very systems that create the enabling environment for business success. The link between impact and business growth / profit is broken.

The Rise of The Strategic CFO

It is, perhaps, a contentious statement to say that all corporations are groupings of specialised silos, but it is also a fair one to make.Do silos create specialisation or does specialisation create silos?The aim here is not to criticise specialists or specialisation; we require experts in their field, qualified surgeons spring to mind, more so that specialised language and processes by default produce data that can only be interpreted and understood by the initiated.

Understanding The Uk's Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme (EPR)

In the UK, a significant shift is underway in how packaging waste is managed. Since 2023, the government’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme has made businesses more accountable for the packaging they produce and supply, including covering the full cost of recycling. The goal is to encourage more sustainable practices and reduce the environmental impact of packaging waste. Previously, the UK followed the Producer Responsibility Obligations, introduced in 1997 to boost recycling. These helped increase packaging recycling rates to around 70%, with cardboard and paper reaching about 84%, and ensured national targets were consistently met. However, with the rapid evolution of production and consumer habits, the old system is no longer enough. The new EPR rules are designed to meet today’s environmental challenges and ensure producers take greater responsibility throughout the packaging lifecycle.

Oii.ai: What are Recommendations to Apply?

At Oii.ai, we believe supply chain optimisation should never be a one-off project. It should be continuous, adaptive, and always tied to real results, especially in the volatile environment we are navigating today. That is why we developed RTA — Recommendations to Apply, a powerful feature of our platform that turns insights into real, continuous improvement.Once Optii has run its digital twin analysis and tested thousands of “what if” scenarios, RTA steps in to deliver clear, practical recommendations you can apply directly to your operations. From rebalancing stock to rerouting deliveries or adjusting lead times, RTA supports real-world action, not just analysis.

Oii Company Offsite

Last week, we brought the team together in London for our first ever company offsite. For two days, colleagues from across the world came together in person, some meeting for the very first time! As a remote-first company, opportunities to come together in person are incredibly valuable. There is nothing quite like sitting around the same table, sharing ideas, solving problems, and getting to know the people we usually see through a screen. We all know how valuable face-to-face time is. It helps build trust, spark fresh thinking, and strengthen the bonds that shape a strong team culture. At Oii.ai company culture is a priority. Bringing everyone together like this is a way for us to reconnect with the core of who we are and what we are building.

Demystifying Ai with Bob Rogers: AI Agents

The fundamental role of executives is to work out what is most important, and what is not. That means we are constantly fighting our way through a barrage of buzzwords meant to catch our attention and influence our thinking. One of the buzzwords that is hitting all of us incessantly right now is “AI Agents.” I’m here to tell you that this is a buzzword that you should pay attention to.Let me explain. There is no doubt that the amazing capabilities of online AI services (like ChatGPT, Gemini, Co-pilot and others) to understand and generate text and images, to analyse and summarise large volumes of information, and to solve complex analytical problems, are changing how we conceptualise many of the challenges we face, but these are technologies. What enterprises need are solutions, which is where AI Agents come in. Agents are the apps of the enterprise AI world: Compact, targeted applications which can be assembled into the solutions that actually enable our organisations to get more done, more efficiently.

The Intelligent Chain: 10 Questions in 10 Minutes with Miraal Malik

1. You have been building the operational foundations of how Oii.ai runs what has that looked like so far? What has been the most rewarding or challenging part?It’s been a fun experience overall – it looks like a lot of questions, from me and everyone else. A lot of theorising, strategising and philosophising which I could honestly do forever. It’s really rewarding to be able to work on problems that feel meaningful – like building what the next gen workplace looks like. Having your work be valued as well, its a great feeling. Doesn’t come without its challenges of course, because there are so many users and validators of the things I will work on so there is the pressure of being able to cater to everyones needs and to be thoughtful since it affects everyone else in the team.2. What motivated you to pursue a career in sales and business development ops?

90 Days at Oii.ai with Our CEO Uzair Bawany

As I reach the first 90 days of my new venture, I take a pause to reflect on how things have gone and share some thoughts that I hope will help inspire all those in a similar position or considering it!As many of you know, I stepped away from Traydstream exactly one year ago, having completed a Series B raise of $21 million in late 2023.Building Traydstream from the ground up in 2017 to a team of over 300 people has been one of the most rewarding chapters of my career. Watching it grow from an idea into a global business has been something I am incredibly proud of, and while I now remain on the board and a proud shareholder, I knew I was ready to take on a new challenge.That’s why, in January, I joined Bob Rogers and the team as their new CEO to help scale up a business with a unique product — a powerful tool with some seriously smart people behind it, with a clear mission to make a meaningful and serious impact in the world of supply chain optimisation.

Trump Tariffs: What They Mean for Your Supply Chain and How Optii Can Help

With Trump’s tariff changes, businesses are preparing for business shifts, sometimes acutely unaware of the potential impact to their entire supply chains. Tariffs — taxes placed on imported goods — impact manufacturers, distributors, and retailers by increasing costs and forcing companies to reconsider their sourcing strategies. Some businesses may attempt to pass these higher costs onto consumers, but in competitive markets, this isn’t always a viable option.Take U.S.-China trade, for example. In response to previous tariffs, U.S. businesses didn’t stop importing goods — instead, they shifted production to other countries such as Vietnam to avoid additional costs. As reciprocal tariffs are being implemented again, we can expect further shifts in global supply chains, requiring businesses to adapt quickly and efficiently.