Opportunities and Challenges for Procurement in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

There are many emerging technologies that are being used and their potentials are being tested in the real world. The paper addresses about how different areas of procurement are getting impacted with AI and big data. Change is inevitable and requires adapting to the changing environment similar to the world of procurement changing at a very rapid rate. During early stages of digitization, a clear view about the potentials of the technology was known, but procurement being so complex, it had always been that sector which did not adapt to the emerging technology. Slowly and steadily even procurement is seen as a sector that could make use of digitalization in order to leverage procurement functions. Procurement is no longer just restricted to the buying and selling and has a strategic role in order to lower the costs and ultimately resulting into more profit for the company. Globalization has taken a toll and as the industries are increasing rapidly. The entire purchase to pay and source to pay can be managed in a single module and no physical purchase orders and invoices need to be sent to the vendors. This not only saves time but also the efficiency and productivity increase triple folds.