Top 10: AI Tools for Procurement

AI in all its forms is transforming the way procurement works.

With this technology lying at the heart of data analytics, automation and risk assessment, it seems all leading platforms are leveraging AI to innovate and change how procurement is managed on a day-to-day basis.

From tools that analyse large amounts of data to those finding cost-saving opportunities or automating repetitive tasks, AI is now vital for anyone looking to modernise their procurement operations.

Here, Procurement Magazine takes a look at the top 10 tools that leaders should utilise to make AI work for them.

10. Globality

• Revenue: US$66.7m
• Employees: 245
• CEO: Joel Hyatt
• Founded: 2015

With its AI agent, GLO, Globality has created a tool powered by proprietary AI and enhanced with generative AI (Gen AI) that can manage billions of pounds of company spend.

It assists employees in making informed decisions when purchasing products and services, addressing the need to reduce costs and improve productivity.

Globality says the bot can streamline various processes, including by replacing time-consuming RFPs, identifying suitable and diverse suppliers, enforcing company sourcing policies and guiding users along a buying path to consider different sourcing options.

9. IBM watsonx

• Revenue: US$61.86bn
• Employees: 282,200
• CEO: Arvind Krishna
• Founded: 1924

In 2007, IBM Research set about building a computer system that could compete with champions of the game show, Jeopardy!. Just four years later, the open-domain question-answering system dubbed Watson beat the two highest-ranked players in a nationally-televised, two-game contest. 

Now, watsonx is an enterprise-ready platform and allows people to train, tune and distribute models with Gen AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities. 

IBM watsonx Orchestrate is a generative AI and automation solution that empowers your business by automating tasks, simplifying complex processes and ultimately saving you and your team time and effort.

8. Basware

• Revenue: US$750M
• Employees: 1,400
• CEO: Jason Kurtz
• Founded: 1985

Basware is looking to empower procurement through its use of AI and invoice automation, procurement analytics and supplier collaboration.

The programme is particularly suited to empowering finance teams through its tools designed to assist with invoicing.

It offers predictive analytics that use an intelligent algorithm to identify invoices at risk of being paid late, enabling organisations to prevent late payments, capture early payment discounts and optimise cash flow.

7. Zycus

• Revenue: US$350.4m
• Employees: 1,726
• CEO: Aatish Dedhia
• Founded: 1998

Zycus, known as a world leader in Gen AI-powered source-to-pay (S2P) solutions, pioneered a game-changing platform alongside Microsoft that helps procurement teams achieve ten times the level of speed and efficiency.

Through the use of its Merlin GenAI Suite, it can empower professionals by automating tactical tasks, allowing people to focus on strategic initiatives. 

Additionally, it offers a one-of-its-kind conversational AI, Merlin Assist, for business users, which, through its integration with Microsoft Teams, can streamline intake management with a user-friendly experience.

6. SynerTrade

• Revenue: US$25m
• Employees: 200
• CEO: Olivier Berrouiguet
• Founded: 1999

AI is harnessed by SynerTrade to optimise procurement processes, including spend management and supplier relationship management (SRM). It is particularly used for automating tasks that could be time-consuming for a procurement team, such as automating approval processes. 

It offers a strong range of analytics capabilities and flexible modules to adapt to business needs. 

SynerTrade’s focus on enhancing procurement efficiency and supplier relationships makes it a valuable solution for organisations looking to streamline their procurement operations.

5. GEP SMART

• Revenue: US$1.3bn
• Employees: 6,000
• CEO: Subhash Makhija
• Founded: 1999

GEP SMART is an AI-driven procurement platform that streamlines sourcing, procurement and supplier management through advanced analytics and automation. 

A globally-renowned leader in AI-driven procurement and supply chain solutions, GEP was behind the industry's inaugural AI-powered total orchestration solution.

By leveraging its Gen AI and low-code platform, GEP QUANTUM, GEP's orchestration approach adeptly understands and guides users' buying decisions, streamlines all processes and improves collaboration, decision-making, control and visibility over enterprise spend to uncover and deliver superior value.

4. Ivalua

• Revenue: US$180m
• Employees: 1,000
• CEO: David Khuat-Duy
• Founded: 2000

Ivalua features AI capabilities for supplier management, contract management and procurement analytics.

Known as a global leader in spend management, the company has been described as a pioneer in deploying Gen AI and has already released nine use-case capabilities in strategic sourcing. 

Ivalua customers can use the AI tools as designed or build upon them with their own configurations. The platform’s highly-configurable nature allows organisations to tailor procurement processes to their specific needs, while also boasting strong integration capabilities and a user-friendly interface.

3. Jaggaer

• Revenue: US$105.4m
• Employees: 1,000
• CEO: Andy Hovancik
• Founded: 1995

Jaggaer offers AI-powered procurement solutions focusing on spend analytics, supplier management and e-procurement. 

The platform’s automation capabilities and strategic sourcing tools help organisations streamline their procurement operations and achieve cost savings. 

Jaggaer’s robust analytics and SRM features enable businesses to gain valuable insights into spending patterns and enhance their procurement efficiency.

2. SAP Ariba

• Revenue: US$33.3bn
• Employees: 103,000
• CEO: Christian Klein
• Founded: 1996

SAP Ariba provides cutting-edge AI enhancements to users. It is constantly working on ways to help businesses reduce the time spent on mundane tasks so attention can be shifted to executing strategy, unlocking spend potential and unleashing efficiency.

AI capabilities are continuously being added by SAP. The latest additions include category management incorporating Gen AI-enabled features that can assist category managers by generating recommendations in the solution’s category segmentation, market dynamics and cost structure tools. Gen AI helps provide intelligent cost estimates for trip planning. 

Additionally, Gen AI search allows SAP Concur customers to type questions in natural language and get quick answers using the emerging tech – without submitting a support ticket.

SAP’s Gen AI copilot, Joule, which can quickly sort and contextualise data from multiple systems to help advance automation and improve decision-making, is expanding throughout the portfolio and will be embedded in SAP Ariba solutions to help improve procurement processes and supply chain planning.

1. Coupa

• Revenue: US$1bn
• Employees: 3,076
• CEO: Leagh Turner
• Founded: 2006

Coupa is at the forefront of AI innovation within procurement and supply chain. It constantly offers new and exciting enhancements to its AI offerings that assist customers and help multiply their margins.

Over the past 12 months, Coupa announced Navi, an AI agent that provides real-time support and guidance. Contract Intelligence helps teams prevent revenue loss and make faster and more informed decisions. It uses AI to analyse and extract key data, enabling users to load third-party contracts and create records automatically. Contract amendments can be tracked comprehensively and more effectively, reducing risk. What used to take hours of manual work now takes seconds.

Purchase Order (PO) Collaboration Intelligence keeps businesses running and increases supply chain resiliency by reducing lead times, expediting troubleshooting and improving delivery performance. For instance, it uses AI to automate order change requests by processing emails to generate PO confirmations.

Coupa's AI is determined to help businesses find success and make their margins multiple.

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