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 Schweiz stimmt an diesem Wochenende über eine der umstrittensten Initiativen der vergangenen Jahre ab: „Keine 10-Millionen-Schweiz!“. Der Vorstoß der nationalkonservativen Schweizerischen Volkspartei (SVP), auch bekannt als Schweizerische Volkspartei oder Swiss People's Party, sieht vor, die ständige Wohnbevölkerung des Landes bis 2050 auf maximal zehn Millionen Menschen zu begrenzen. Nach ersten Hochrechnungen tendieren die Stimmbürgerinnen und Stimmbürger dazu, die Initiative abzulehnen – ein Ergebnis, das im Vorfeld keineswegs sicher schien.

Die Initiative, die in der Verfassung verankert werden soll, würde den Bund verpflichten, Gegenmaßnahmen zu ergreifen, sobald die Bevölkerung 9,5 Millionen erreicht. Die Schweiz zählte Ende 2025 bereits gut 9,1 Millionen Einwohner – rund 1,7 Millionen mehr als 2002. Haupttreiber des Wachstums ist die Zuwanderung. Rund 28% der im Land lebenden Menschen besitzen keinen Schweizer Pass. Viele stammen aus EU-Staaten wie Italien, Deutschland und Portugal, hinzu kommen Personen aus Drittstaaten, darunter Asylsuchende.

Unterstützer der Initiative argumentieren, das Land stoße an seine Belastungsgrenzen. Sie verweisen auf steigende Mieten, überlastete Verkehrswege, Staus sowie eine als problematisch wahrgenommene Entwicklung bei Gewalt und Kriminalität, die sie mit einer höheren Zuwanderung verknüpfen. Ziel sei es laut Kampagnenmotto, „zu bewahren, was wir lieben“. Die SVP wirbt mit auffälligen Aufklebern, Fahnen und Plakaten in Nationalfarben, um eine Begrenzung des Bevölkerungswachstums als Schutz der Lebensqualität zu präsentieren.

Gegen die Initiative stellen sich der Bundesrat, das Parlament, die Kantone sowie die meisten übrigen großen Parteien, gestützt von Wirtschaftsverbänden und Gewerkschaften. Sie warnen, ein starres Bevölkerungs- und damit faktisches Zuwanderungslimit könne den bereits bestehenden Arbeitskräftemangel verschärfen. Laut Bundesamt für Statistik waren im ersten Quartal 2026 rund 1,87 Millionen ausländische Erwerbstätige in der Schweiz beschäftigt. Etwa vier von fünf kamen aus EU- oder EFTA-Staaten oder dem Vereinigten Königreich, der Rest aus Drittstaaten. Viele arbeiten in Bereichen wie Gesundheitswesen, Bau und Gastgewerbe – Sektoren, die stark auf Personal aus dem Ausland angewiesen sind.

Ein weiterer Konfliktpunkt ist das Verhältnis zur Europäischen Union. Die Initiative sieht vor, dass die Schweiz in letzter Konsequenz das Abkommen über die Personenfreizügigkeit mit der EU kündigen müsste, sollte die Obergrenze sonst nicht zu halten sein. Gegner befürchten, dies könnte die bilateralen Beziehungen und den Zugang zum europäischen Arbeitsmarkt belasten. Befürworter halten dem entgegen, nur mit klaren quantitativen Vorgaben lasse sich der Druck auf Wohnungsmarkt, Infrastruktur und öffentliche Dienste nachhaltig begrenzen.

Parallel zur Abstimmung über die 10-Millionen-Grenze entscheiden die Stimmberechtigten auch über eine Verschärfung des Zivildienstgesetzes. Im Fokus der innenpolitischen Debatte steht jedoch vor allem die Frage, wie die Schweiz Wachstum, Wohlstand und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt künftig austarieren will. Das Ergebnis der Volksabstimmung dürfte zwar die Initiative selbst klären, die Grundsatzdiskussion über Zuwanderung, Arbeitskräftebedarf und Lebensqualität in der Alpenrepublik jedoch kaum beenden.