The Answer to AI Integration, as Seen by MIT Technology Review, Is Simplicity

For global manufacturing company Jabil, the answer is simplicity. The company puts technology simplification and integration first when building AI-powered systems. Harish Manohar, Jabil's SAP IT director, explained the approach.

As a company grows, the technology that supports its operations can become both an asset and a burden. Disconnected systems, site-specific tools, spreadsheets, and manual work create data silos. Those silos make it difficult to catch problems early, coordinate responses, and make decisions with confidence.

Jabil operates more than 100 facilities across over 30 countries, each running with varying levels of process maturity, legacy systems, and region-specific ways of working.

Manohar emphasized a mindset of “simplify first, then innovate.” “Innovation without simplification only adds complexity,” he noted. The company aims to standardize processes, consolidate what can be integrated, and establish a consistent data foundation across the organization.

Data must flow for AI to work. “Every modernization and transformation effort must add measurable business value,” Manohar said. Describing data as “the backbone of the modern organization,” he explained that applying optimization, automation, and AI requires data to flow unimpeded between systems. Jabil is focused on connecting its entire supply chain end to end.

Jabil's case illustrates the principle that simplification and integration on a solid data foundation must come before AI deployment. The story was featured in an article published by MIT Technology Review Insights in partnership with SAP on September 2, 2026.