With the explosion of AI technology and implementation in recent months , it opens up questions about what the future uses are in procurement practice , and the potential for further progress .

How has AI in procurement technology changed the industry ? Speaking to Procurement Magazine at SAP Spent Connect , Muhammad Alam , President and Chief Product Officer of SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network , explored how the arrival of AI infused products like its Spend Control Tower are impacting the industry . He believes it is creating an immediate improvement in visibility and insight :

“ Control Tower allows customers to take the data that cuts across from travel and expense , indirect and direct spend , and bring that together into a unified model .”

He adds : “ We apply AI on top of it and then have out of the box dashboards with critical insights that they can then take action from either within the Control Tower , or in the contextual apps that are feeding the data . It allows them to actually get a full view of what is happening , which we think is pretty phenomenal . ” One criticism of digitisation is that many manual processes have been mirrored using new technologies , meaning there is no seismic leap forward . “ Until recently , a lot of the ‘ new tech ’ in procurement has been around improving the current process with workflow automation or providing a slicker interface ,”

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