crisis judgment, and commercial instinct can’ t simply be assumed to develop on their own if the work that built them has been automated away.
“ AI is a powerful and exciting development, but it shouldn’ t come at the expense of the human skills that have always underpinned effective procurement.”
Reskilling and the new procurement professional When it comes to reskilling employees and what a procurement professional looks like in an automation era, professionals are becoming both relationship managers and data strategists. AI is effective at reducing repetitive administrative work, but long-term value in procurement still comes from judgment, negotiation, supplier trust, governance and commercial strategy.
Procurement teams are moving away from transactional processing, towards higher-value decision-making, including deeper supplier engagement, stronger collaboration across legal and compliance functions, and greater focus on resilience, ESG accountability and third-party risk management.
As such, Sam stresses that procurement professionals need to increase their confidence in using AI, but equally challenging the output instead of simply accepting them.
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