I recently ran a Poll on this subject, with most voters voting for good old mk 1 Human Intelligence over AI.
Some would state that the obvious reasoning for such voting results is that none of us want to accept the fact that we can be replaced, and possibly will, by in essence a machine. Kind of brings back memories of “The Terminator” movies, doesn’t it?
Seriously though let’s investigate some hard but basic influencer facts:
Pro’s
- It is the latest greatest trend, with development and to market costs, with huge returns on each system sold. As a result, marketing persuasion is intense and will be more so in the coming years.
- Direct and Indirect workforce costs and management can be greatly reduced, including costs of Human Resources and need for Recruitment Agents, thru reducing heads versus overall AI system purchase and management. This of course improves the all-important annual bottom line, which executive management and shareholders dream for.
- Performance greatly improved, thru enhanced data analysis, 24/7 availability, handling larger workloads, reducing human bias and corruptibility, and greatly enhanced scalability, ensuring that most Procurement functions from tactical day to buying activities to strategic management ones, can realistically be replaced by artificial intelligence.
- Legislation governing human resources becomes greatly reduced
Cons:
- I don’t believe the human factor can be totally removed from Procurement, at this point, but I do believe our role will change significantly over the next twenty years. This is a sobering fact for most all of our younger colleagues with long term careers ahead.
- Any system is infallible, corruptible or hackable in any numerous ways, which will certainly occur with AI in the future leading to data security and many other serious potential concerns.
- Lacks nuanced human judgement which AI models currently lack. In certain situations, with ambiguous inputs, AI cannot yet compensate for human experience, insight and judgement.
- Understanding contextual nuances of certain Procurement situations can prove a problem for AI models, especially complex non routine situations.
- Various external factors which AI is dependent on can all effect long term reliability of the AI system.
- Natural Resistance across all levels, of staff to integrate with AI is a very real scenario.
Unfortunately, AI is never going to go away, in fact it’s quite the reverse. Therefore, all Procurement professionals need to stay abreast of the technology and decide on how best they are going to co-exist along AI systems.
In conclusion, AI proves an unprecedented option to private business and state concerns to streamline operations and processes, resulting in improved bottom lines for all, but there are very real negative aspects which Procurement professionals also need to include into their decision making.
Karl Furrutter is a Strategic Procurement and Liquidity Consulting Practice. Karl has thirty years of cross industry experience within Strategic Procurement and is focused on developing bespoke strategical solutions tailored to each customer’s unique requirements.
Contact Karl on karlf@furrutterandassociates.co.za or visit Furrutter & Associates at www.Furrutterandassociates.co.za