Last week, I attended the Manhattan Associates Flagship US Conference, Momentum 2025. The event, held in sunny Las Vegas, was well attended and featured numerous speakers with innovative ideas. Manhattan Associates shared several announcements, including the appointment of their new president and CEO, Eric Clark. His keynote address highlighted the company’s recent accomplishments, such as the introduction of a new inventory planning solution, substantial investments in research and development, and advancements in artificial intelligence.
During the two-day event, I participated in various sessions covering a range of topics, including Warehouse Management Systems, Labor Management, Agentic AI, and Warehouse Automation. This article outlines my key takeaways from the sessions attended and provides an overall summary of Momentum 2025.
1st Keynote:
Eric Clark, the new president and CEO of Manhattan, emphasized the company’s commitment to innovation, community, and people. He highlighted Manhattan’s unified cloud-native platform, which allows for faster innovation and better customer solutions. Recent achievements include a new inventory planning solution launched in October and significant investments in R&D. The company has also focused on AI integration, with AI agents now available on their platform. Clark discussed the benefits of unification, such as reduced project timelines and improved operational efficiency. “Supply chain unification” was an undertone for many of the sessions during the entire event. He also mentioned the importance of employee engagement and unified distribution planning to enhance productivity and labor balance.
Clark highlighted the depth of talent and tenure within Manhattan, with many employees having over 25 years of experience. He described Manhattan’s platform as cloud-native, API-microservices built on a unified platform, which allows for faster innovation. Clark also discussed the significant forces driving disruption in the industry, including economic nationalism, changes in global trade, and rapid cycles of technological innovation. He explained how Manhattan is committed to providing technology and solutions to help organizations thrive in chaos.
Brian Kinsella, senior vice president, presented updates on supply chain execution unification, highlighting progress and innovation across Manhattan Active Applications. He emphasized the benefits of unification, such as dynamic trailer door assignment and shipment planning optimization. Kinsella shared examples of how unification helps customers respond to real-time changes and improve agility. He also discussed updates in yard management, including a new visual tool for a bird’s eye view of the yard and drag-and-drop functionality for task execution. The presentation underscored Manhattan’s commitment to helping associates do their best and maximize the effectiveness of distribution operations.
The keynote was concise and communicated great confidence despite the current economic uncertainty due to US politics. Chaos is now just a part of the plan, and Manhattan Associates has the tools for its customers to remain steadfast.
The Future of Manhattan Associates Warehouse Management Systems
Warehouse management systems are a core offering of the Manhattan Associates Product Suite. Launched in 2020, it has experienced a hyper-growth trajectory. Currently, Manhattan has 433 live sites and releases quarterly updates every 90 days. The team aims to release 40-45 new features every quarter with a sharp focus on innovation, efficiency, and productivity improvement. Some of the key features released last year include trailer weight balancing, a planning workspace for shipment orchestration, and generative AI for action assistance. Unification was an underlying theme of the entire conference, with benefits such as optimized operations, improved visibility, and enhanced collaboration. The unification of transportation management and warehouse management systems has enhanced appointment scheduling and transportation planning. Their WMS solution now has an “Action Assist” feature, which allows users to ask questions through a chat box. Users can upload their own documents, including standard operating procedures, FAQs, and system diagnostics. Allowing their AI Agent to sit on top and become an expert on all of the materials uploaded and practices learned. This feature allows for associates on the warehouse floor to access information with speed, reducing downtimes in cases of emergency. As updates roll out every quarter, it is fair to assume there will be continuous developments in AI with a focus on reducing travel on the floor and processing time.
Navigating the Future of Warehouse Robotics
Rueben Scriven from Interact Analysis presented his research on warehouse automation, beginning with the impacts of COVID-19 on the warehouse space. Before 2020, warehouse construction was seeing a 50 percent year-over-year growth rate. Post pandemic, the rates declined to 20-21 percent, and in 2022, when the interest rates increased and e-commerce volumes decreased, warehouse construction saw a significant drop. From June 2024, construction rates have increased, but with current economic uncertainty, automation and warehouse construction investments have been hindered. Forecasts show a growth trend with a decline in 2025 and a slow uptick to stronger growth in 2027.
The global market for humanoid robots is estimated to be at $2 trillion, with three scenarios for penetration: optimistic, baseline, and pessimistic. There are a few key areas of barriers to adoption, including regulatory standards, lack of comprehensive insurance, and return on investment. Reubens’ research estimates that by 2032, the baseline scenario anticipates humanoid robots shipped annually, with more than 80 percent deployed in China due to less stringent regulations and national robotic policies.
Warehouse automation software consists of four layers:
| Layer | Description |
| Subordinate Control | Manages the lower-level control of each subsystem to achieve the intended result. |
| Control | Coordinate automated subsystems’ activities to manage the flow of goods through the warehouse. |
| Execution Layer | Orchestrates the timing and location of order processing to maximize throughput. |
| Management Layer | Oversees goods receipts, inventory, and other related tasks. |
Automation in warehouses will demand changes in how Warehouse Execution Solutions are constructed and will drive demand for additional WES and WMS products.
Agentic AI Supply Chain
To set the stage, Jeff Beadle, senior director at Manhattan Associates, discussed the evolution of automation evolving into Agentic AI within the context of supply chain management. How did we get from traditional automation to AI automation, and now AI Agents work together in an Agentic AI environment? Not to be a marketing fire hose for AI, but Agentic AI could be a paradigm shifter for how supply chains are managed.
In the session, Jeff laid out the trajectory of traditional automation to AI automation, emphasizing the importance of contextual learning and adaptability. Beadle highlighted the role of agents in decision making, stressing their goal-driven, autonomous nature. He provided examples of agentic AI applications in supply chain tasks, such as shipping label agents and invoice management. Beadle noticed that 50 percent of companies have already deployed agents, and agentic AI is expected to handle variability and disruptions more effectively, enhancing supply chain efficiency. Agentic AI is not just one smart agent, it’s a coordinated network of such intelligent, goal-driven agents that creates a self-managing, self-adapting automation system. Traditional automation differs from AI automation because of the latter’s ability to learn and adapt.
Jeff also spoke about emergent behaviors, which could arise in an AI Agent in isolation, but with Agentic AI, the system adapts over time, learning from outcomes and shifting strategy across agents.
Is this AI Déjà vu? What is different this time?
- Intelligence and the ability to make decisions.
- How agents reason, control, trust, and govern.
- Ensuring agents are transparent, dependable, aligned, and safe.
- Integration and interoperability.
What is Next?
In the early days of generative AI, challenges included instability and the lack of reference ability. Since then, Large Language Models have helped develop frameworks, systems, and orchestration to support agentic AI. Technology leaders such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon must work together in advancing agentic AI. A multi-agent architecture demands comprehensive efforts and investments in improving intelligence and decision-making. Agentic AI will enhance existing systems and processes, enabling faster and more reliable operations. Agentic AI can also help manage the promised chaos that recent years have brought to supply chains and the global economy.
Final Takeaways
Since 2020, disruptions in global supply chain operations have become consistent. Solutions driven by generative AI are increasingly in demand from clients, and AI agents are emerging as the next frontier of development in this field. Manhattan Associates emphasized the advantages of unifying supply chains, highlighting the benefits of cooperation, transparency, and agility. Warehouse management systems are evolving rapidly, with Manhattan releasing new features every quarter. As automation within warehouses increases, software will need to adapt to the anticipated surge in new warehouse construction projected for 2027. Momentum 2025 successfully highlighted an extensive range of innovative advancements occurring within the supply chain and AI sectors.
