Posted on October 15, 2024
There is a lot of hype and corresponding doom related to AI in the media. Some of the use cases presented to consumers are far out there. For example, there is a company, humane AI, which produces a pin device to record and analyse all of the activities of your daily life.
The use cases for AI within business processes are more for the here and now. We can leverage current AI abilities to improve business processes, automate activities, and free up our time to focus on more value-adding areas of our work.
I envision that the procurement process will be significantly enhanced by AI. Our company is initially focused on improving the request-for-information, evaluation, and negotiation stages of the procurement process, through AI agents.
Chatbots have advanced significantly in the last number of years. These are now viable to use for supplier interactions, automating the back and forth between purchaser and supplier that would normally be conducted via email and/or spreadsheets. This allows purchasers to interact with a greater number of potential suppliers through the AI chatbot. Obtaining requests-for-information without manually reaching out and discussing with the various potential suppliers.
Suppliers enjoy interacting with a chatbot to quickly submit the best offering that they can provide and win more business. These chatbots can be trained to negotiate subtly or aggressively with potential suppliers, getting the best possible pricing.
Chatbots for automating this part of the process are useful, but the real power from AI within the purchasing process comes from analysing and recommending potential suppliers based on these interactions. The AI can assist with reviewing the best pricing and delivery terms of the supplier, helping the purchaser with making a supplier selection decision.
m2mmart.com is a tool to assist with improving the request-for-information, negotiation, and evaluation stages of the procurement process. Purchasers can create a campaign and invite suppliers. The request-for-information is then performed by our specially trained AI chatbot, and the supplier will interact with this chatbot to complete the initial stage of the process.
The purchaser can then run the supplier responses through our powerful analysis AI which will summarise the pricing and delivery information for each supplier. This provides valuable information on the offering of potential suppliers, allowing the purchasing team to follow up for further negotiations offline.