Art of Procurement

"If your business is getting bigger, then supplier management is going to be ever more important to you." - Jesse Lee, Co-founder, CEO of Brooklyn Solutions

Procurement's role in managing suppliers is transforming fast: scope is growing, expectations are higher, and the risks are real. Getting supplier management right is essential to business resilience, especially when the entire organization depends on ...

"The future of procurement isn't actually AI. It's people using AI to improve business outcomes and improve their own value add." - Vishal Patel, SVP Product & Customer Marketing at Ivalua

Many procurement teams have adopted AI in some aspect, but only a few have figured out how to turn those early experiments into sustainable, scalable business value. With market expectations rising and teams overstre...

"I measure success by the number of executives that come to us before they make decisions." - Gary Mizhir, Senior Director Head of Innovation & Excellence, FIS

The pressure to move from tactical cost savings to strategic business impact is growing, especially as AI, data, and new business needs emerge faster than ever. 

But what does it mean to drive innovation with AI and still keep ...

In this Provider of the Week episode of the ProcureTech Insider podcast, host Jyothi Hartley speaks with Darshan Deshmukh, President of ProcureAbility.

ProcureAbility is a leading procurement and supply chain services provider, offering advisory, managed services, digital solutions, and talent support to help organizations drive measurable value and build sustainable procurement capabilities.

...

"You need to get visibility into the AI tokens, what workloads they are being used for, which users are using them, and what department they're coming out of. Most organizations don't have that visibility yet. They just get the bill." - Jon Winsett, CEO, NPI

AI tokens have gone from a niche curiosity to a major line item practically overnight. 

The cost models are new, spending is climbin...

"Don't overvalue the top procurement spot, and don't undervalue the tools and the budget required. It's an ecosystem." - Stephen Rauf, Global Head of Indirect Procurement, Zoetis

Delivering more value with fewer resources is an easy thing to want, but tough to execute consistently over time… unless procurement rethinks their entire approach, from operating model and team structure to technology and ...

Procurement teams are under increasing pressure to do more with less… less time, less headcount, and often less budget. But, at the same time, the volume of data they manage continues to grow, making it harder to uncover insights and act on them quickly.

That's the challenge Suplari wants to solve.

In this ProcureTech Insider Startup of the Week episode, Jyothi Hartley speaks with Jeff ...

"Catalyst is really a unicorn. You walk in the room, check your ego at the door, and everybody is there to learn." - Christine Moore, Managing Partner, RAUS Global

Procurement is racing to harness AI, but simply "doing more" won't be enough. At Catalyst San Francisco, the most recent in-person event hosted by Art of Procurement, procurement executives came together to confront what's truly needed right now...

In the final episode of "Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement," Philip Ideson, Rich Ham, and Kelly Barner reflect on 18 months of exploration, 32 episodes, and a remarkable roster of guests who collectively proved that procurement's incentive problems are both bigger and more solvable than most realize.

The flaws we uncovered aren't just procurement's problem, and there are often far-reaching, real-lif...

"If you focus on stakeholders' needs and add value, the savings will always follow." - Brad DeHart, Senior Vice President, Customer Growth, Continuum

Procurement leaders have always been expected to deliver value under pressure, but when resources are thin, the old playbook just doesn't cut it. What does it take to truly become a trusted partner to the business and move beyond savings-only conversations?

"Procurement has to become an ecosystem builder for the enterprise, because no enterprise can do everything by itself in today's world." - Saurabh Gupta

Procurement leaders are feeling the pressure to "be AI-first," yet most struggle to get past the hype and deliver real business value. With AI reshaping buying categories and challenging process norms, now is the time to rethink procurement's role.

"Digital masters aren't just deploying technology. They're changing the way procurement runs." - Chris Riley, Partner - Supply Chain and Procurement, Deloitte

As AI-enabled tools shift the landscape from efficiency to true strategic impact, CPOs are tasked with making sense of new operating models, changing expectations, and how to redeploy talent toward higher-value work.

In this episode, Deloitt...

"Isn't it true that everybody talks about supplier management, but nobody does it?" 

This observation from Summit Procurement CEO and Founder Alan Veeck captures the delta between procurement's aspirations and the reality on the ground. It's a gap, he says, that AI might finally help close, but only if organizations resist the temptation to simply slash headcount when AI-powered efficiencies arrive.

"Right now, procurement needs to define their future role in the business. Procurement needs to drive that for themselves, because if we don't, then someone is going to drive it for us, and that could drive us out." - Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Workforce, SAP

Business models are being disrupted, and so is procurement. This year's Economist Impact report reveals a s...

It's no secret: procurement teams are under increasing pressure to deliver savings, handle more work with leaner teams, and modernize outdated processes… all at once. While software solutions have flooded the market, much of the daily reality still involves spreadsheets and emails, especially for indirect or non-strategic spend.

Stan Moskovtsev, co-founder and U.S. CEO of Zinit, wants to solve this....

"Don't speak about category savings because that's procurement lingo. We need to speak about gross margin expansion at the end-product level." - Sammeli Sammalkorpi, Co-Founder and CEO, Sievo

Spend analytics has moved well beyond spreadsheets, but most organizations are still guessing about what 'good' performance looks like. 

When Sievo analyzed $1.4 trillion of procurement spend, the fi...

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.

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