How Oracle's AI Agents Will Power Automatous Procurement

In an environment defined by fluctuating supply chains and rising demand, the ability to act quickly without compromising performance is essential for resilience.

Oracle has unveiled a new suite of AI agents designed to assist leaders in responding effectively to market changes and making confident decisions.

These tools could enable supply chains to achieve stronger business performance and unlock productivity gains.

Supply chains globally are increasingly using AI as recent volatility has made traditional systems difficult to operate.

Business leaders are working to adopt technologies that help them anticipate risk and create mitigation strategies to avoid disruption.

By adopting technologies such as AI, digital twins and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications organisations are seeing unified data points and streamlined supply chain operations.

Oracle is a cloud technology company providing organisations globally with computing infrastructure and software to help unlock operational efficiency.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure assists clients with cost savings, security and performance.

It has helped businesses and organisations globally including governments, non-profits and medical research. Its tools help streamline supply chains and connect people and data.

Improving global supply chains

Oracle’s cloud applications have embedded AI to foster consistency and unity across business functions.

These range from resource planning, supply chain management and human capital management to customer experience.

Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications can automate business processes to assist leaders in making faster and better decisions while anticipating change before it becomes too disruptive.

Oracle has introduced a new suite of AI agents within its Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications which will assist supply chain leaders in undergoing operational transformation.

The new agents are designed to improve decision-making capabilities and increase efficiency across planning, procurement, manufacturing, maintenance and logistics.

All supply chain, sustainability, Scope 3 and net zero leaders should attend:

• Procurement and Supply Chain LIVE: The Net Zero Summit - QEII Centre, London, March 4-5
• Procurement and Supply Chain LIVE: The US Summit - Navy Pier, Chicago, April 21-22

Co-located with Sustainability LIVE, these events brings together CSCOs, CSOs and senior decision-makers at a moment when sustainability, supply chains and commercial performance are increasingly interconnected.
Tickets can be booked online today for The Net Zero Summit and The US Summit. Group discounts available.

By embedding the agents within supply chain processes leaders could see new productivity gains alongside enhanced business performance.

The automation of end-to-end workflows is intended to ensure businesses are operating efficiently with faster insight delivery to encourage confident decisions.

The agents are prebuilt with integrated security features and are natively integrated within Oracle Fusion Applications to seamlessly embed into existing supply chain workflows.

“As supply chains grow more complex and disruptions become more frequent, organisations need faster, more automated ways to keep operations moving,” says Chris Leone, Executive Vice President of Applications Development, Oracle.

“With the new AI agents embedded in Oracle Fusion Applications, supply chain leaders can meet customer demands and improve operational resilience by automating critical tasks, reducing manual errors, optimising resources and proactively resolving issues.”

Targeted agents for procurement

The 13 new agents have been designed to target specific supply chain functions.

There are four agents to undertake roles in planning, product lifecycle management and procurement with the main aim to streamline upstream operations.

According to Oracle, these agents automate task coordination across planning, analyse disruption and explore alternatives for risk mitigation.

Furthermore, they translate business goals and requirements into actionable plans and assist procurement teams with autonomous negotiation.

This could ensure that supply chains are cohesive across operations and are working cost-effectively to maintain competitiveness.

Optimising manufacturing and maintenance

Four agents are dedicated to manufacturing, maintenance and inventory management with the goal to optimise operations and reduce costs.

These agents estimate future costs as well as streamline compliance and supplier shipping.

Another four explore workforce skills and operational priorities to intelligently assign warehouse tasks.

Moreover, the agents can identify slow-moving inventory to alert leaders of issues or low demand in order to reduce carrying costs.

The final five agents are in place to accelerate fulfilment and reduce delays across logistics, order management and service.

They can examine warehouse issues and performance to identify at-risk orders to see whether leaders need to intervene.

The agents can automatically convert purchase orders to sales orders, arrange products based on customer requirements and offer recommendations for solutions.

These 13 new agents are intended to streamline supply chain operations through the reduction of manual effort, automation of workflows and support in decision-making.