Halfway through their 24-episode journey, the co-hosts of “Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement” pause to assess what they've learned so far about how procurement has and is evolving, and, more importantly, what’s ahead for the future.

In this reflective episode, Philip Ideson, Rich Ham, and Kelly Barner bring together insights from their recent conversations that confirm a troubling trend in procurement: not only are the P&L-related harms of procurement's flawed incentive structures real, they're also worsening over time.

It is time for procurement to course correct.

Rich explains why by pointing out an important lesson learned from previous episodes: suppliers have figured out the game. They've learned that winning the initial deal is what matters, because procurement's incentives usually revolve around projected savings rather than actual P&L impact.

This discovery has unleashed an avalanche of post-contract margin-grabbing tactics, from billing for non-existent inventory to charging premium rates for basic services during crisis situations, that are diluting procurement value creation.

This episode reveals a fundamental paradox within procurement: while they consistently report driving value in multiple ways (sustainability, risk mitigation, social impact, strategic sourcing for M&A targets), procurement is still measured almost exclusively by narrow, often dysfunctional savings definitions.

This misalignment doesn't just harm savings outcomes; it may be crippling procurement's ability to deliver value across the business.

Finally, this episode sets up the series' pivot from problem diagnosis to solution exploration, as the co-hosts discuss their plans for future episodes to examine how organizations can move beyond “savings” toward comprehensive “value” metrics that more accurately reflect the depth and breadth of procurement's true contribution.

Links:

• Rich Ham on LinkedIn
• Learn more at FineTuneUs.com

"The way we start looking at every unit of work in a workflow flips from being something that's truly human-led to something that can be increasingly human-reviewed and driven, but not necessarily initiated as a human." Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip

The pressure for procurement to do more with less means innovation is no longer optional… It's necessary for survival and growth.

The game changer? Agentic AI: artificial intelligence capable of perceiving, analyzing, and taking action, all with minimal supervision.

In this Art of Procurement podcast episode, Philip Ideson interviews Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip, to dive deep into real-world applications and opportunities that Agentic AI holds for procurement.

Nick demystifies this powerful technology, showcasing practical ways it is already being used to automate workflows, solve procurement headaches, and address age-old data challenges.

In this episode, Nick covers:

• How to identify workflows ideally suited to AI-driven automation
• Understanding what Agentic AI is (and isn't)
• Procurement use cases where Agentic AI adds immediate value
• How to overcome traditional roadblocks like data quality concerns

Links:

• Nick Heinzmann on LinkedIn
• Unleashing the Power of Generative AI in Procurement
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.