Freehand CEO: AI Is Here and Now in Supply Chains

AI is no longer a future consideration for pharmaceutical supply chain operators, according to Nitin Jayakrishnan, co-founder and CEO of Freehand.

Speaking with Pharmaceutical Commerce at LogiPharma USA 2026, where he joined the keynote panel "Building Resilient Supply Chains at Scale: Preparing for Disruption, Uncertainty & What's Next," Jayakrishnan says AI cuts across three areas of strategy. The first is financial, including how companies balance capital and operating expenditures. The second is operational, spanning demand, supply and network planning, along with managing a global supplier base. The third is HR and people strategy, such as whether teams sit in a centralized, offshore global business services center or are decentralized and in-market. AI, he says, plays a fundamental role weaving through all three.

Companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Cardinal Health, along with other large pharmaceutical businesses, are treating AI as a fundamental core and a lens for viewing both the market and their own operations, he notes.

Heading into 2027, Jayakrishnan is watching what he calls the people supply chain, meaning a company's global talent base. Supply chain discussions tend to center on the product supply network and how globalization, localization and tariffs affect it. Talent deserves the same attention, he says.

As immigration laws tighten, outsourcing is taxed and jobs return to the United States and Europe, Jayakrishnan expects technology to play a larger role. The work companies moved offshore has not gone away, he notes. When it comes back onshore, technology should take over what he calls "keep the lights on" work at the bottom of the pyramid. As a result, he expects HR and people strategy to have a fundamental impact on supply chain strategy going forward.

Watch Jayakrishnan’s previous interview installment:

1. Pharma Rethinks Supply Chain Planning as Disruptions Mount