Cognitive Procurement: AI implemented in sourcing

Where and how is digital transformation impacting Procurement departments? How is the supply chain evolving and what are the latest business trends? Thanks to automation, Data Analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), Procurement teams can discover new areas of value, while keeping downstream transactional activities seamless and even more efficient than in the past.

Such technology tools ultimately enable supply chain and sourcing information to be shared more seamlessly across all the different phases of product development, for example, at the design, engineering and production levels.

Now, supported by digital tools that automate downstream procurement functions, buyers can focus on collaborating with a network of external partners to create new and innovative products and business models.

Cognitive Acquisitions: The Future is Now

An example of this is "Cognitive Procurement" or "Cognitive Procurement", as it is known in English. This is a method that consists of using self-learning technology to process data in order to optimize, boost and improve the processes of Procurement or Purchasing of goods and services in companies (industrial supply). 

Procurement, being a very data-rich area, is an ideal candidate to reap the benefits of cognitive technologies. On the one hand, there are millions of data on raw materials, goods and services, transportation and delivery, and suppliers. On the other hand, it is also a transaction-based industry. 

Therefore, these types of systems are effectively helping procurement professionals find better (and faster) information. This, in turn, is speeding up decision making and ultimately generating a better ROI for companies using these technologies. 

We are facing supply chain 3.0, where the global context is the main factor that differentiates it from its predecessors. If supply chain 1.0 focused on commodities and supply chain 2.0 focused on data, now it is necessary to "apply more modern architectures such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to make better and faster decisions," said Stanford consulting professor and expert in Digital Transformation, Marc Theeuwes, for the digital media ScoutBee.

In this blog, you will find several success stories of companies that have used the advantages of Cognitive Acquisitions through wherEXan e-procurement platform based on Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics.