New AI Agents deliver continuous, governed planning decisions — intelligence connected to a continuous plan, not isolated answers

BOSTON, June 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Board, the AI continuous planning platform, today announced the availability of its new Supply Chain Agent and Merchandiser Agent, expanding its growing portfolio of domain-specific AI agents designed to help organizations continuously plan, adapt, and make more confident decisions.

The announcement builds on Board's previously announced FP&A Agent and Controller Agent and advances the company's broader vision for Agentic Continuous Planning—a future where specialized AI agents work alongside business teams to connect strategy, planning, and execution across the enterprise. Together, these agents form an intelligent network that helps organizations make more connected decisions across finance, operations, supply chain, and merchandising.

As organizations race to adopt generative AI, many are discovering that intelligence alone is not enough. Enterprise planning requires trusted business context, governed workflows, forecasting, and coordinated decision-making across functions.

"Enterprise planning is entering its next chapter," said Jeff Casale, Chief Executive Officer at Board. "The first wave of AI made information more accessible. The next wave will make organizations more intelligent. Our vision is to create an intelligent network of agents that understands how the business operates, collaborates across functions, and helps organizations continuously adapt to change"

New Supply Chain Agent Helps Organizations Anticipate Disruption, Evaluate Trade-Offs, and Improve Responsiveness

By combining planning data, operational signals, forecasting intelligence, and scenario analysis within a governed planning environment, the Supply Chain Agent helps planners understand potential impacts before disruptions affect performance and evaluate response options with greater speed and confidence.

The agent is designed to help organizations move from reactive supply chain management toward more proactive and resilient decision-making by continuously evaluating changing business conditions and surfacing recommended actions to:

• Anticipate demand shifts and respond faster to market volatility by identifying emerging risks and opportunities, detecting demand anomalies, and highlighting external factors that could impact business performance.
  
  
  
  
• Align cross-functional decisions around service, cost, cash, and margin objectives by surfacing key assumptions, prioritizing critical decisions, and helping demand, supply chain, and finance teams evaluate trade-offs before executive review.
  
  
  
  
• Improve supply resilience and execution confidence by validating supply feasibility, assessing service and profitability impacts, and comparing sourcing, capacity, inventory, and fulfillment alternatives before decisions are made.

"The next phase of enterprise AI isn't about isolated insights; it's about orchestrating decisions across the business. Nowhere is that more critical than in supply chain and commercial operations, where organizations must continuously respond to disruption and manage complex trade-offs in real time," said Prithwijit Chaki, Global Finance Advisory Leader, Genpact. "AI that is grounded in operational context and embedded into core workflows will be essential for driving more resilient, adaptive operations and delivering measurable business outcomes at scale."

New Merchandiser Agent Connects Demand, Inventory, Pricing, Assortment, and Financial Objectives

The new Merchandiser Agent helps retailers and consumer brands connect demand, inventory, pricing, assortment, and financial objectives. Built specifically for merchandising organizations, the agent helps planners classify category performance, improve plan accuracy, identify inventory risks, understand root causes, and take action within Board's unified merchandising planning environment.

Key capabilities include:

• Improve category performance and planning accuracy by identifying growth, core, and declining categories, monitoring sales, margin, markdown, and pricing performance, and surfacing risks before they impact business results.
  
  
  
  
• Optimize inventory investments and Open-to-Buy decisions by highlighting overstock and understock exposure, prioritizing the highest-risk planning areas, and recommending actions to improve inventory productivity and financial performance.
  
  
  
  
• Maximize product availability while reducing markdown risk by proactively identifying stock-out and excess inventory risks, prioritizing replenishment opportunities, and helping teams drive higher full-price sell-through across channels and locations.

Operating within Board's integrated planning environment, the Merchandiser Agent connects merchandising decisions to supply chain, operational, and financial plans, helping organizations improve alignment and respond more quickly to changing market conditions.

"Retail organizations face constant pressure to react faster to changing consumer behavior while protecting profitability," said Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research. "Board's vision for agentic planning represents an important step toward helping merchandising teams make smarter, more connected and autonomous decisions across products, channels, and markets."

Delivering the Future of Planning

Unlike standalone AI tools, Board Agents operate within a purpose-built planning environment that combines business context, forecasting, scenario planning, governed workflows, and enterprise-scale planning models. This enables organizations to connect insights with decisions, and decisions with execution, rather than treating AI as a separate layer disconnected from the planning process.

The Supply Chain Agent and Merchandising Agent join Board's FP&A Agent and Controller Agent, further expanding Board's portfolio of domain-specific AI capabilities designed to help organizations move beyond periodic planning cycles and toward continuous, intelligent decision-making.

Explore Board Agents at board.com/ai.

About Board

Board is the enterprise planning platform that delivers Analytical AI, Generative AI, and persona-based, domain-specific AI agents into a unified planning environment, enabling organizations to continuously plan, accurately forecast, and make confident decisions. By integrating internal business data with expert-curated macroeconomic intelligence and multi-agent orchestration, Board delivers predictive insights and real-time executive visibility across financial and operational planning. Its fully integrated, agentic planning platform empowers organizations to respond with agility, capitalize on growth opportunities, make smarter trade-offs, and proactively mitigate risk in an increasingly dynamic market environment.

That's why visionary global brands including H&M, BASF, Burberry, Toyota, Coca-Cola, HSBC, and thousands more trust Board to navigate complex markets with confidence.

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Die Einigung zwischen den USA und dem Iran auf ein Rahmenabkommen zur Beendigung des Iran-Kriegs sorgt in der Handelsschifffahrt für vorsichtige Erleichterung. Besonders im Fokus steht die Straße von Hormus, eine der wichtigsten Seepassagen für den weltweiten Öl- und Flüssiggas-Handel. Seit Beginn des Konflikts Ende Februar ist die Meerenge weitgehend blockiert, zahlreiche Handelsschiffe sitzen im Persischen Golf fest. Nun soll die Passage nach der geplanten Unterzeichnung des Abkommens wieder geöffnet werden.

US-Präsident Donald Trump kündigte an, dass die Straße von Hormus nach dem Abschluss der Vereinbarung wieder für den Verkehr freigegeben werden solle. Die Unterzeichnung ist für Freitag in Genf vorgesehen. Für die deutsche Handelsschifffahrt wäre dies ein entscheidender Schritt zur Normalisierung. „Die Signale aus den Gesprächen zwischen den USA und dem Iran machen auch der Schifffahrt Hoffnung“, sagte Martin Kröger, Hauptgeschäftsführer des Verbands Deutscher Reeder (VDR). Zugleich mahnte er, es müsse sich erst zeigen, ob die Passage dauerhaft sicher befahrbar sein werde. Man sei „vorsichtig optimistisch“.

Die Branche hat allen Grund, auf rasche Entspannung zu hoffen. Nach Angaben des VDR sitzen aktuell noch 46 Schiffe deutscher Reedereien mit rund 1.000 Seeleuten im Persischen Golf fest. Die Blockade der Meerenge trifft nicht nur die Reedereien, sondern bremst den globalen Energiehandel. Die UN-Sonderorganisation für Seeschifffahrt (IMO) begrüßte die Einigung ausdrücklich. Seit Ausbruch des Konflikts wurden der IMO zufolge 46 Angriffe auf Handelsschiffe in der Region bestätigt, bei denen 14 Seeleute ums Leben kamen.

Trotz der diplomatischen Fortschritte sehen Branchenverbände die Lage in der Region weiter kritisch. Der internationale Schifffahrtsverband Bimco bewertet die Sicherheitslage in der Straße von Hormus auch nach Bekanntwerden des Rahmenabkommens als instabil. Eine Durchfahrt bleibe sehr riskant, heißt es aus dem Verband. Für Reeder und Charterer stellt sich damit die Frage, wie schnell und in welchem Umfang sie ihre Routen wieder über die Meerenge führen können – oder ob Ausweichrouten zumindest mittelfristig bestehen bleiben müssen.

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