Modern procurement is an ever-shifting landscape of diverse challenges. From international conflicts to punitive tariffs, there’s seemingly no end to the factors capable of disrupting supply chains and redefining pricing structures. Which means procurement teams must prioritize agility and resilience to succeed.
This is the industry’s most challenging time period in recent memory. But in many ways, those challenges couldn’t have come at a better time, thanks to advances in tech. Today, an abundance of procurement technology solutions are available to help procurement professionals better identify risk, pursue strategic deals, streamline workflows, and improve operational efficiency.
In this blog, we look at just four of them — and what they could mean for you.
1. How is AI transforming procurement?
It will surprise absolutely no one to see AI on this list, as there are presumably few departments that haven’t been at least partially transformed by its rapid step-change in capability and rise in popularity over the last couple of years.
For procurement professionals, there are lots of ways that AI can improve, accelerate, and streamline processes, quite simply because in certain areas it will always outperform the capabilities of people. For instance, AI can analyze huge volumes of procurement data much faster than a human being can, and can therefore provide vital, timely insights to validate or steer decision making.
Algorithms can rapidly parse data related to past sales, market trends, weather or economic factors to help predict surges in demand, impending risk, or ways to reduce costs. And most recently, with the emergence of agentic AI, use cases can go beyond simply analyzing historical and current data, instead providing proactive recommendations and even automating decision-making under certain parameters.
However, it’s important to remember that this technology won’t replace human procurement expertise. Human intelligence is still required to verify the results of AI and turn insight into strategy. What procurement AI tools can do is remove a lot of the tedious, time-consuming work from daily activities and help experts arrive at answers more quickly.
Overall, it can make it much easier to identify new opportunities, capture knowledge, find new suppliers, negotiate contracts, reduce costs, and optimize supplier relationships. The use cases are near endless, which is why research from Art of Procurement shows that 94 percent of procurement executives are using generative AI every week, and 80 percent of CPOs are prioritizing AI investments.
2. Which procurement tasks and operations can be automated?
There are lots of steps that make up procure-to-pay workflows, from invoice and document generation to payment processing. Individually, each of these tasks may seem small, but cumulatively, they take up a huge amount of time.
When so much effort is dedicated to repeating the same workflows and producing near-identical documents, there are surely better ways for your skilled professionals to spend their time. So why not start automating those routine tasks?
By automating processes like PO generation or invoicing, you can accelerate order fulfilment, reduce manual workloads, and save time and money. Your people will be happier in their roles, too, with less repetitive work to manage. Procurement automation tools also help remove human error and simplify governance with standardized documentation for every purchase.
Additional benefits include huge operational cost savings and much faster procurement cycles. Which is presumably why a report from Economist Impact saw 57 percent of survey respondents list digitizing procurement as a top priority.
3. How can technology help you improve spend visibility?
Decisions about which suppliers to use and how best to negotiate deals can’t be left to gut feeling. As markets change dynamically, you need insight into what’s happing in the moment. And that’s where supplier intelligence dashboards come in as a key procurement technology solution.
With accurate, real-time data at your fingertips, you can make sure you’re always working with the best suppliers and sourcing the things you need at the optimal cost. You can also detect emerging risks, which enables you to mitigate their impacts and ensure the stable supply of essential goods and materials.
Supplier intelligence encompasses all the critical insights into a supplier’s capabilities and potential risks that you need to make the best decisions. A good supplier intelligence dashboard will cover a wide range of factors, from ESG metrics, financial health, quality standards, regulatory compliance, growth, and overall performance.
Why is this so important? Research from Amazon shows that 1 in 5 decision-makers lack the systems required to monitor and manage risk. And 64% have identified improving data and insights as a top priority. This, right here, is the answer to those problems.
4. How much time and money could digital catalogues save you?
Not every solution you implement to improve procurement requires a huge investment. One of the biggest time-savers for your department might also be one of the easiest things to implement.
There are lots of small purchases that take place within an organization that can take up valuable time for your teams. Approved supplier catalogues are the perfect antidote to this. Curated by the procurement team, these digital catalogues can help people across the organization quickly and easily order things they need without introducing risk and excess costs. And, vitally, without having to go to procurement to complete a purchase.
By producing a digital catalogue of approved suppliers, procurement teams can free up a huge amount of time for more value-adding activities. And, as people can only make purchases from suppliers you’ve green-flagged, you can still ensure you optimize the pricing of those purchases and avoid falling foul of things like ESG targets by using the wrong providers. It’s a simple and proven way of elevating efficiency across your department.
These are just a few of the procurement technology solutions that can help streamline workflows, and getting the right balance between technology and people is always paramount to success. WNS Procurement has expertise and capabilities spanning the end-to-end procurement process and beyond. If you’ve got questions about your current practices and want some help determining the best ways to drive change and create value, speak to us.