Teleportation will revolutionise procurement forever
Ok . So this one ’ s a bit of a fantastical indulgence . For now . All science was once science-fiction . Take an iPhone back a mere century and the planet would bow at your feet in subservience . We ’ ve already achieved teleportation in the quantum world , and perhaps it will be AI that helps us bridge the gap between the micro and macro . Think Amazon ‘ Time ’, with “ Rightnow delivery ”.
Procurement ’ s role will keep gaining traction
You ’ re sick of hearing it , but perk up your ears : ‘ Pandemic ’. This single event brought about so many changes in the way the world itself is organised , let alone the procurement world ( and they are intimately connected ), that procurement went from a lowly background function to a board-room-level , I ’ m-here-to-save-your-life critical service , in the twinkling of an eye . Procurement will inevitably continue to rise in its prestige .
ESGs , DE & I & ethical standards will take hold
The rise of AI will redefine the function
At the upper echelons of digitalisation is AI . Our greatest procurement gripes are due to our shortcomings in prediction – predicting pandemics , predicting wars , economic collapses and the rest . Advanced AI will be able to make predictions that we cannot even fathom . They are unknown , unknowns . What is known is that AI will transform the very nature of procurement itself . Watch this space .
Environmental , Social , ( and Corporate ) Governance , Diversity and Inclusion , Ethics – my , my , how far we ’ ve come since the days when we just wanted ‘ to get stuff ’. Ethical value systems related to people and planet , now in their infancy , will subsume procurement entirely , and procurement itself will play a central role in ethical movements .
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