THE PROCUREMENT INTERVIEW
The shift from generative to agentic AI As we move into 2026, the conversation around artificial intelligence in the supply chain has shifted. The industry is moving past the“ AI washing” phase – where legacy vendors simply layer chatbots over decades-old infrastructure – and into the era of Agentic AI.
Spencer is quick to distinguish between the two. While Generative AI( Gen AI) is reactive, producing text or summaries based on a prompt, Agentic AI is proactive.“ I think the AI space has had a second step change... particularly everything related to agents and agentic workflows,” he notes.“ Gen AI gives you an output from a prompt, but with agentic workflows you input a prompt and get a set of actions or a sequence of actions.”
For a procurement team, this isn’ t just about writing a better RFP. Rather, it’ s about having what Spencer calls“ small armies of AI interns” that can execute multi-step processes. These agents can handle BOM( Bill of Materials) management, track thousands of line items as engineering revisions occur and perform real-time tariff and cost calculations.
However, Spencer warns against the“ capability overhang”, where technology outpaces the actual utility of the products being sold.“ Our responsibility at LightSource is making AI useful and application-oriented. If you tell someone to use ChatGPT to make their job easier, you’ re asking procurement people to suddenly be creative about technology use, which is a totally new skillset that is very different from the actual job itself.”
“ Generative AI gives you an output from a prompt, but with agentic workflows you input a prompt and get a set of actions or a sequence of actions”
Spencer Penn, Co-Founder & CEO, Lightsource
Navigating the‘ Year of Supply Chain Redesign’ The timing for this technological leap is critical. Spencer refers to the current era as the“ year of supply chain redesign”. While the post-pandemic years were focused on stabilisation and normalisation, today’ s challenges are more structural.
“ There is another subset of customers that have just started popping up for us, which are customers that are worried about what’ s gonna happen with Trump tariffs,” Spencer observes.“ And so they’ re thinking, now that we’ re going to have an entirely new trade regime, now we have to go back and redesign our entire supply chain.”
This redesign isn’ t just about finding the lowest price, a tactic that Spencer argues is no longer sufficient. Modern procurement involves managing complex trade-offs between cost, reliability, sustainability and regional risk.
procurementmag. com
29