Procurement today is not just about cost savings—it is about resilience, speed, and informed decision-making involving hundreds, even thousands, of suppliers. It’s imperative that procurement teams stay updated on global developments such as supply chain disruptions, geopolitical risks, or natural disasters. In this piece, I share my views on how artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs) and automation can support the procurement team to be future ready.
AI for Operational Efficiency
Regardless of the size of the organisation, in today’s fast-paced global landscape, it is nearly impractical for a limited team of professionals in the procurement team to manually analyse all relevant data points and news articles in real time. We are witness to a global shift in procurement today with AI and advanced digital tools contributing to smarter operations and value chain efficiencies. AI-powered systems can process and categorise massive amounts of publicly available information to identify potential risks and provide real-time early warnings, moving beyond the traditional approach of bi-annual or annual assessments of counterparties.
Contextualised Early Warning with AI
Beyond flagging concerns, AI can contextualise risks by integrating publicly sourced data with proprietary information from a company’s internal systems. It can assess the severity of these risks by considering various factors and even recommend remedial steps. For example, we have built multiple AI agents and trained each of them on a specific factor to provide accurate information to stakeholders. This then helps procurement teams to act faster to counter risk proactively and reduce vulnerabilities with lesser effort and minimal manual intervention.
AI in Supply Chain and Trade Finance
I believe that the B2B ecosystem, including trade finance and supply chain, has some way to go before digital maturity. AI-powered trade finance platforms are now at the forefront of procurement transformation, acting as an additional layer to existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems within organisations. By integrating with these systems—the golden source of truth—AI-led solutions can protect sensitive data while enabling seamless collaboration between buy-side and sell-side stakeholders. Advanced platforms can help procurement teams bring in financial inclusivity to their ecosystem and process financing requests in near-real-time, reducing a T+2 timeframe to mere hours or minutes.
I believe that the role of AI and digital tools does not just stop at this. As procurement evolves, the functionalities and possibilities offered by such tools will continue to expand. From smarter decision-making to more efficient operations, AI-led advanced technologies must be leveraged for businesses to remain competitive in an interconnected world.
TASConnect’s Chief Technology Officer, Madhivanan Periannan (Madhi), is a leader with deep expertise in digital banking, payments, and supply chain finance spanning over 25 years. A three-time ‘LEGEND’ awardee at the World CIO 200 Summit, his team draws inspiration from his vast experience in strategic large-scale digital and technology transformation in multiple industry domains.
