AI in Practice Across the S2P Landscape Today – Introducing a New Series
This series concentrates on AI across the source-to-pay (S2P) cycle. It pulls from a service provider survey we recently conducted, which examines how artificial intelligence is being applied across procurement, supply chain and finance solutions today. The survey looks across the S2P landscape to understand:
- Where AI is present
- How it is being implemented, governed and operationalized by solution providers
- How AI is embedded in products and workflows
- How data is used and protected
- How providers define maturity and deployment approaches
- How AI capabilities are positioned and delivered within their solutions
The research will result in a consolidated research report, followed by additional insight articles developed over time to explore patterns and differences that emerge across procurement and S2P capability areas.
Alongside this research, we will produce other content that will approach the AI from different angles. These include a deeper analytical series focused on AI in procurement execution and articles that step back to examine execution fundamentals before AI is layered in. We will also feature interviews and practitioner-led discussions that bring in real-world perspectives on how AI is being applied in areas, such as negotiations, contracts and operational decision-making, along with concrete use cases drawn from recent practitioner presentations. Together, these pieces reflect a mix of analysis, practitioner experience and applied examples, rather than a single research lens.
Taken together, this theme is designed to keep the AI conversation practical and grounded in procurement reality. Rather than treating AI as a standalone innovation topic, the content places it within the context of how procurement actually operates, where outcomes are shaped by execution quality, process discipline, data structure and governance choices. By combining a provider-focused survey with execution-oriented series, interviews and real use cases, the quarter aims to help readers better understand how AI is being delivered in procurement today, where it is creating tangible value, and what conditions need to be in place for that value to be sustained over time.
Our series will kick off with a deep look into how AI is changing the shape of purchase-to-pay (P2P) platforms, see:
• Part 1 – How P2P platforms are actually changing in the era of AI
• Part 2 – What AI has genuinely improved so far in P2P platforms
• Part 3 – Where AI additions stop changing outcomes in P2P
• Part 4 – Structural constraints holding back P2P platforms
• Part 5 – Capabilities emerging at the edge of P2P platforms
• Part 6 – What this means for practitioners and platform builders
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