Keynote Webinar: The Great Conversation – How AI Is Reshaping Procurement (May 2026)
Today I had the privilege of speaking at the launch of The Great Conversation by CIPS – The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply which is a timely and important dialogue on how AI will impact the future of procurement and supply chains.
One of the themes I focused on was how AI will fundamentally transform procurement, not simply through automation, but through the elevation of the function itself. Procurement has traditionally been viewed through a transactional lens. That world is disappearing rapidly.
The future procurement organization becomes:
▶ A strategic nerve center
▶ An orchestrator of what matters
▶ A real-time intelligence hub connecting cost, resilience, risk, sustainability, innovation, and geopolitics
With AI adoption in Sales and Marketing currently 6x higher than in Procurement, the window for us to lead this transformation is now. We cannot afford to be the last function to modernize when we sit on the most critical data.
AI will undoubtedly automate parts of procurement including predictive risk sensing, geopolitical modeling, dynamic sourcing strategies, and autonomous recommendation engines. But the real differentiator in the future will not be access to AI. It will be judgment.
Because while AI democratizes information, it does not democratize wisdom.
As AI removes friction from work, there will be an even greater need for critical thinking, contextual reasoning, stakeholder influence, relationships, and human judgment which will become even more valuable. The danger is not that AI replaces procurement professionals. The danger is that we stop developing the deep reasoning capabilities that great procurement functions and great leadership require.
Procurement and supply chain are no longer simply about sourcing. They now sit at the intersection of every major enterprise priority including cost, resilience, sustainability, growth, risk, and AI transformation.
A huge thank you to Ben Farrell MBESheri R HinishGraham NorrisHarold Nwariaku FCIPSMaxfield WeissMatthew Rock for such a thoughtful and globally relevant discussion.