AI for procurement: less chasing, more control over suppliers

For procurement, AI can check order confirmations against the purchase order and flag deviations in price, quantity and lead time, track delivery dates and delays from emails, prepare supplier and product data from PDFs and emails in the ERP, compare quotes, bundle stock alerts and write draft emails to suppliers. A human decides on anything that involves money or an agreement. At EasyToys, where AI reads suppliers' product information and prepares it in six languages in the ERP, that saves 132 hours and € 6,600 a month.

Yes. AI reads the order confirmation from the email or PDF, puts it next to the purchase order in the ERP and compares the price, quantity and delivery date line by line. What matches is ready to process. What deviates goes into a work list with the difference and a draft email to the supplier. The buyer approves and sends. Confirmations that don't arrive go on a list to chase.

At first, every email goes to the buyer as a draft. They read it, adjust it and send it. A simple reminder to send a confirmation can be automated later, if you want. Anything that involves money or an agreement, such as accepting a different price or changing an order, stays with the buyer. Every step is logged.

Yes, with a technique called RAG. AI searches your own contracts, framework agreements and terms and answers with the source attached, for example when you ask what you agreed with a supplier about the lead time. The buyer immediately sees where it's written and can check it. AI only searches the documents it has access to.

With ERPs such as Exact, AFAS, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics, and with other packages that have an API or export. Also with email in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and with Excel. We usually build in n8n, with custom work where needed. The condition is access with the right permissions, set up with your administrator. You can read more in connecting AI to your systems.

With one task that has high volume, a fixed format and a clear right or wrong. In purchasing, that's often checking order confirmations. Which other processes lend themselves to it is covered in which processes to automate. In the AI Quick Scan we list all the opportunities, with a business case for each.

That depends on your volumes. That's why we calculate with the APO method: three numbers per process step, namely the duration, the number of people and the frequency. A worked example, not a client figure: handling deviating order confirmations takes 40 minutes, with 2 people, 80 times a month. That's 1,280 hours a year, and at € 45 per hour € 57,600. Then we look at which part of that AI can take over. How to build a business case like that is explained in the knowledge base.

You start with the € 6,000 AI Quick Scan: one day on site, and within a week a baseline on seven dimensions, a business case per opportunity, a roadmap and package advice. Building happens within the AI Partnership: package S costs € 4,500 per month (30 hours, about one process at a time), M € 7,500 (50 hours, about two processes) and L € 12,000 (80 hours, about four processes). That's € 150 per hour. The minimum term is twelve months, after that with two months' notice. We only start if the partnership earns itself back at least twice in the first year. All amounts excluding VAT. More on pricing.

No. AI for buyers is an assistant, not a replacement. AI takes over the reading, checking and chasing and prepares a proposal. The buyer decides on prices, suppliers and what gets ordered, and has time left for supplier relationships, negotiating and purchasing strategy.