“Autonomous Procurement” Is A Really Dumb Idea
Part I: The technological side of things…
An article inspired by a recent Linkedin post from the excellent Matthias Gutzmann…
TL;DR
For sure, technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and the latest advances in AI (among other ones) are transforming and will deeply transform work (for Procurement & Supply Chain professionals and beyond). Artificial intelligence (AI) is now “blind to the color of the collar,” be it white or blue. It is making its way into the knowledge worker’s workplace, and the stakes are getting high.
However, the perspective (objective?) of making Procurement and/or Supply Chain autonomous is a dumb idea, as explained by Andrew Bartels from Forrester:
1.) Where “autonomous procurement” makes sense, it is already old news
2.) It over-promises and will underdeliver
3.) It scares sourcing and procurement professionals
4.) It is hostile to employees
After years in Procurement and Supply Chain, and as a passionate advocate & evangelist for the use of technology, I can say that:
- Technology is far from being able to replace people completely. We are still years away from an AI that could be on par with humans. For now, we have AIs that are very good at ONE thing and very bad at ALL OTHER things.
- And, more important than the capabilities of technology, the real question is about what we want. Is the future of work solely a world of machines?
I believe that technology's true value and vision is all about a new type of collaboration between humans and machines. And, like in any collaboration, each bringing to the team what it does best.
Demystifying technology and defining its real value
Emerging technologies dominate discussions in the procurement space, and it has become impossible to avoid debates, articles, publications, etc. on artificial intelligence or blockchain or robotic process automation (RPA).
Therefore, it is natural to “dream” about autonomous Procurement as such technologies are constantly moving the needle with regards to the future of work and jobs.
As highlighted by Bartels, an implicit aspect of autonomous Procurement is to position people and technology as if in a zero-sum game (people vs. technology) when the actual goal is to augment, not replace, people by combining the best qualities and capabilities of both humans and machines to achieve better outcomes. It is what Cognitive Procurement is about. It is “People & Technology, not People vs. Technology”:
And, using more technology is, actually, an opportunity to make jobs more human, not the other way around:
The above relates to Digital Transformation. It is also important to look at digital from higher grounds, from an operating model point of view. It is the only approach to reap the benefits of digital. It is not just about automating decade-old processes. It is about doing things in a new way that is more efficient and effective in delivering value and growth to the rest of the organization:
What do we want?
With great power comes great responsibility.
We should not ignore the transformative impact of technology. As I already mentioned, jobs (and not work) are being transformed, and the space occupied by technology is growing. Therefore, the spectrum of activities that machines perform or take part in changes and will continue to change:
And, in fact, automating transactional activities is not a new thing in Procurement. For example, P2P automation has been around for decades.
The shift we observe raises important questions about control, trust, and accountability:
The fact that technology has a profound impact is something that cannot be negated. I am not saying that we should stop investigating new technologies because of that. What we have to do though, is to think about how we want to put them to use. That we make informed decisions based on a long-term approach and not just short term gains. We have to have a strategy for the economy and procurement (Next:Economy & Next:Procurement).
This strategy and overall approach, as highlighted by Barrels, and in an article that I wrote in 2016 (taking from a famous duo…), is not to see people as the enemy but as an asset:
So yes, Procurement People: live long and prosper!
There is more than just a technological side
All the above focuses on “autonomous” being linked to the use of machines to replace people and the dumbness of taking that approach. However, “autonomous” could also mean having Procurement working in total isolation of the ecosystem it operates in.
That is another dumbness and this is what part II is about:
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