… And Expecting Gold
– AI in procurement and supply chain is the latest gold rush.
– Vendors promise predictive magic. Dashboards promise clarity.
– Budgets get approved.
👉 Then reality hits.
“AI isn’t magic – it’s a mirror. If your processes are ugly, the reflection will be brutal.”
The Hype vs. Reality
The pitch is always the same: faster insights, better decisions, bigger savings.
But here’s the truth: without disciplined data management and stable processes, AI doesn’t fix your problems – it multiplies them.
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Gartner (2024): 85% of AI projects fail, with poor data quality as the #1 reason.
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McKinsey (2023): Companies with high data maturity extract 3–5x more value from AI than those with fragmented, inconsistent data.
If your supplier master file looks like a crime scene, AI won’t cover it up. It will highlight every fingerprint.
Top 3 AI Deal Killers
💥 1. Dirty Data
💥 2. Broken Processes
💥 3. Executive Denial
Miss one, and your “AI-powered transformation” ends up as another expensive slide deck.
Garbage In, Garbage Out – At Lightspeed
Bad data + broken processes = AI hallucinations, wrong recommendations, and shattered trust.
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Supplier risk scoring fails when financial data across ERPs isn’t standardized.
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Contract analytics misfires when clauses aren’t consistently tagged.
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Spend categorization becomes spaghetti when GL codes are still stuck in 2012.
AI doesn’t fix dysfunction – it broadcasts it in 4K to every stakeholder in the room.
“AI will not save your transformation. It will speed up its failure – unless you fix the basics first.”
Reality Check From the Field
At one Swiss multinational, a brand-new AI tool promised to revolutionize invoice approvals. On day one, it flagged nearly 40% of invoices as “non-compliant.”
The problem? Three different ERPs, inconsistent cost center logic, and no single source of truth.
The tool wasn’t wrong – the data was.
Trust evaporated overnight, and the project was shelved within months.
Lesson learned: AI didn’t fail. The basics did.
The Boring Work That Saves You
Before you plug in AI, get these three right:
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Data Governance – Ownership, standards, and constant cleansing.
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Process Stability – No shadow workflows, no “this is how we really do it.”
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Integration Harmony – Single source of truth across ERP, S2P, CRM, and analytics.
In one of my own transformations, the biggest magic wasn’t a flashy AI dashboard.
It was aligning all business units to a single supplier ID structure. (Believe it or not … 🙄)
Once that foundation was in place, AI delivered insights within weeks. #Magic
Leadership’s Blind Spot
Too many CxOs see AI as a silver bullet.
The uncomfortable truth: approving AI without a data/process foundation is executive gambling with shareholder money.
Think aviation.
No pre-flight inspection, no take-off.
And you certainly don’t outsource the safety check to the autopilot.
AI doesn’t join your procurement team as a superhero. It joins as a brutally honest auditor.
Claus Triolo, The Procurement Rainmaker
The Payoff When You Get It Right
With solid foundations, AI becomes a weapon:
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90%+ accuracy in supplier risk prediction.
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30–50% shorter sourcing cycles.
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Savings opportunities spotted before competitors even blink.
When the basics are right, AI doesn’t just accelerate transformation – it safeguards it.
Closing Thought
AI is not your savior – it’s your amplifier.
If your procurement is built on chaos, AI will expose it in 4K (at least), at lightning speed.
If your house is in order, AI will turn it into a fortress.
So before you buy the next shiny AI tool, ask yourself:
“Are we ready for AI – or are we about to automate our dysfunction?”
👉 Reach out to me, if you want transformation that actually works – not just buzzwords.
“AI won’t turn trash into gold. It’ll just deliver the bullshit faster, with prettier charts.”
Claus Triolo, The Procurement Rainmaker
