AI is already changing procurement, but, for many, the bigger and more difficult question is what will happen to people in the process.
Procurement has long been constrained by capacity: too much data, too many transactions, and not enough time to step back and think strategically. Now, with AI accelerating analysis, automating tasks, and reshaping workflows, that constraint is starting to loosen.
But more capacity doesn’t automatically create more value.
In this episode of Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement, Friddy Hoegener, co-founder of Scope Recruiting and a former procurement practitioner, joins co-hosts Philip Ideson and Rich Ham to explore what AI really means for procurement talent, hiring, and the future of the function.
Friddy sits at a unique intersection. He has lived procurement from the inside and now evaluates it from the outside, helping companies hire the people who will define its future. What he sees is both promising… and unsettling.
On the one hand, AI is making work more efficient. Recruiters no longer spend hours taking notes or writing candidate summaries, and procurement can analyze data faster and make decisions more quickly. Entry-level roles that once focused on repetitive tasks are beginning to evolve into something more strategic.
However, AI is also distorting how talent is evaluated, and not always to the benefit of the candidate or the employer. It has never been easier for candidates to look polished, tailored, and highly qualified on paper. Resumes, outreach messages, and even interview preparation can be AI-assisted, making it harder than ever to distinguish between genuine capability and well-generated output. As a result, the traditional filters procurement relies on are breaking down, forcing hiring teams back to something more fundamental: actual human conversation.
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“Procurement now gets to decide where to play, who does the work, and how much of that work is done by humans versus agents.” - Viji Doraiswamy, VP Product Marketing, Coupa
Senior procurement leaders are under pressure to deliver much more than just savings. The next advantage lies in the intelligent orchestration of processes, where agentic AI not only automates intake, but enables teams to truly focus on value and strategy.
In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Viji Doraiswamy, VP of Product Marketing at Coupa. Drawing on hands-on experience with large-scale clients, Viji explains what’s actually working with agentic AI, how companies are overcoming trust barriers, and why orchestration (not just digitization) holds the key to operating model transformation. She also shares specific use cases where teams are already realizing ROI and freeing up time for strategic work.
In addition to sharing proven tactics for building adoption, assessing risk, and unlocking the next level of procurement impact, Viji discusses:
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In a world defined by volatility, procurement leaders need more than gut instinct to navigate supply chain risks. From regulatory pressure to sudden trade disruptions, organizations can’t afford blind spots. This is why risk intelligence and AI-powered efficiency are climbing the CPO agenda.
This week, Harald Nitschinger, co-founder and CEO of Prewave, joins the ProcureTech Insider podcast to discuss how their platform helps organizations move beyond basic supplier visibility to real-time, actionable risk insights. Built with both ESG compliance and resilience in mind, Prewave’s approach helps procurement teams anticipate – not just react to – new threats and opportunities.
Harald shares how deep supply chain mapping, scenario planning, and seamless integration with procurement tools have set Prewave apart with over 250 global brands.
Listen to the full episode to hear Harald’s insights on:
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“In the AI regime, things are going to be disrupted. So be ready to be disrupted.” - Dr. Swapnil Dubey
In a market as complex and fast-changing as India, procurement’s role has transformed from tactical to strategic… and fast. As global manufacturers shift operations and Indian firms chase world-class performance, the need for advanced procurement leadership has never been greater.
In this Art of Procurement podcast episode, Philip Ideson speaks with veteran procurement leader Dr. Swapnil Dubey, whose four-decade career spans India’s procurement evolution, from the early days of shared service centers to today’s digital and AI-driven frontier.
They discuss how Indian procurement teams are matching their global peers, why AI could upend white-collar work, and where new career opportunities are emerging for the next generation. Swapnil also explains how local strengths, regulatory shifts, and new tech are shaping India’s overall procurement landscape.
Listen to the full episode to hear Swapnil’s perspective on:
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“What you think of as the data isn't the right data.”
This observation from FineTune COO Brian Gamble shines an (uncomfortable) spotlight on one of procurement's biggest challenges: AI has the potential to completely transform the function (in a good way) and drive a significant amount of value for the business, but only if organizations first acknowledge how inadequate their current data actually is.
In the twenty-ninth episode of "Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement," Philip Ideson, Rich Ham, and Kelly Barner reflect on recent conversations with procurement tech pioneer Jason Busch and category expert Brian Gamble. They explore the troubling reality that procurement's future with AI depends almost completely on having the right data, while most organizations don't even know what the right data looks like.
This conversation exposes the gap between what practitioners call “the data” and what actually constitutes useful information for decision-making. Invoice details, contracts housed in various systems, and perhaps some quarterly business review reports make up most of what the average procurement professional considers their data foundation.
Suppliers have systematically reduced invoice transparency over the years, removing fields that enabled auditing, all under the guise of creating “easier to read” formats, and procurement is left to deal with the fallout.
The episode also connects back to Buylaws 5 and 6, prioritizing comprehensive high-quality data and developing expense-specific systems of measurement, while simultaneously setting up the next conversation about how compensation models and hiring practices must evolve for procurement's uncertain future.
“Change is the only constant today. Disruption is happening more frequently, and procurement has to be ready for the unknown.” - Jon Jensen, Partner & Managing Director, AlixPartners
Procurement leaders are facing more disruption, pressure, and technology change than ever before. Resilience, agility, and the smart use of AI are now table stakes, but only a handful of teams are turning these shifts into real business advantage.
How are the best-in-class CPOs getting ahead?
In this episode, Amit Mahajan and Jon Jensen, Partners at AlixPartners, reveal insights from the 2026 CPO Executive Insights Report. They share how top teams are shifting from a cost focus to value creation, why indirect procurement is becoming a growth engine, and what’s really holding back AI adoption in procurement.
You’ll also hear practical guidance on balancing quick AI wins with long-term ROI, and how leaders make disruption work for them instead of against them.
In this episode, Amit and Jon cover:
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“The world as we know it in procurement and tech will change beyond recognition over the next couple of years.” - Adam Brown
Procurement teams are grappling with a wave of new digital solutions and AI-powered tools, making it harder than ever to stay ahead. The role of the CPO is shifting, as leaders must balance business risk, speed-to-value, and a tech landscape that doesn’t wait for anyone.
In this ProcureTech Insider episode, Adam Brown joins host Jyothi Hartley to demystify how procurement organizations can innovate faster while remaining practical. Adam, a founding voice in the ProcureTech100 and veteran of large-scale digital pilots, shares hard-earned lessons on running a “digital garage,” partnering with startups, and testing next-gen tech without getting burned.
If you’re looking to compress your innovation cycle and get smarter about where to place your bets, Adam’s candid stories and actionable tips offer a blueprint you can use. Listen in for the mindset, models, and steps to get your team “garage ready.”
In this episode, Adam covers:
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“The goal isn’t to create a room where people consume content, it’s to create a room where they come ready to work on their organization.” - Philip Ideson, Founder and Managing Director, Art of Procurement
The pace of business change has made traditional procurement conferences feel outdated. Senior procurement leaders can’t afford passive learning; they need real conversations with peers who face the same challenges they do.
That’s what the Art of Procurement Catalyst event series was built to deliver.
This week, AOP Founder and Managing Director Philip Ideson and Jim Cahalan, Art of Procurement’s new Director of Events, discuss what makes AOP Catalyst events different from other professional gatherings.
Jim explains how thoughtful event design, unique venues, and practitioner-led discussions are the keys to outcomes that matter at the CPO level. From building trust among decision-makers to focusing sessions on what you’ll do first thing Monday, this episode will help you see event participation as a true ‘catalyst’ for change.
Listen to this episode to hear Philip and Jim discuss:
Why Catalyst is built for action, not just ideas
How unique venues and small group formats drive real conversation
The value of practitioner-led facilitation and outside perspectives
How CPOs can future-proof their teams beyond AI implementation
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Learn more about AOP’s Catalyst Event Series for senior procurement leaders
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Procurement talks about “the data” as if it’s neutral.
It rarely is.
For years, we have talked about “the data” as if it were a single, uniform thing… a stack of invoices, a dashboard of KPIs, a quarterly business review deck handed over by a supplier.
Here’s the problem: invoices are curated. Reports are crafted. And, most of the time, suppliers decide what you see… unless you know what to ask for.
In this episode of Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement, Brian Gamble, COO at FineTune and a 30-year veteran of indirect services, joins podcast co-hosts Philip Ideson and Rich Ham to unpack BuyLaw #6: “develop expense-specific systems.”
The directive is fairly simple on its surface, but it’s also disruptive: no single data set or measurement system works across diverse categories. Uniforms are not utilities. Security is not pest control. Waste is not janitorial supplies. And trying to manage them all with the same playbook guarantees procurement will create blind spots.
Brian has seen those blind spots from both sides up close, first as a regional VP for a national uniform provider, now as an advisor helping clients defend their P&L against quiet leakage. He doesn’t mince words: if your definition of “the data” is whatever appears on an invoice PDF, you are operating inside a commercial narrative written by your supplier.
The episode walks through examples that sound almost unbelievable until you realize how common they are. Security “dark hours” where posts go unfilled but still get billed. Pest control programs charging for weekly service where there’s been no activity in months. Uniform inventory definitions that vary between suppliers, creating a scenario where 17 cents can be far more expensive than 21 cents, depending on what number you’re multiplying.
None of that shows up cleanly on a summary invoice. Which brings us to AI…
As procurement leans more heavily on AI for benchmarking and research, the technology can generate polished, authoritative answers, even when the underlying data is thin or incomplete. But, the quality of the output rises or falls with the quality of the inputs. For example, Brian shares a live demonstration his team conducted internally: a generalist asking AI for “a good price” in a complex service category gets laughable, contradictory answers. Garbage in, garbage out, so to speak. A more informed user does slightly better. When a true category expert feeds AI high-quality, relevant, structured data does the output become meaningfully useful, and even then, it still requires human judgment to separate signal from noise.
This episode also challenges another sacred cow in procurement: not all dollars are created equal. A $100 million utilities category might require minimal management. A $1 million uniform program might require 50 times the oversight. Yet procurement teams are often sized and measured purely by spend under management, not complexity, risk, or management intensity.
If procurement is going to be measured by what actually hits the P&L (as the earlier BuyLaws argue) then they must design contracts, data rights, and reporting structures that allow real validation.
The future of procurement won’t be won by those who have the most data. It will be won by those who know which data matters and, perhaps most importantly, why.
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