Generative AI in Procurement

As she entered the workforce during the original startup.com boom in the 1990s, she always felt that solving problems was more important to her than simply making money. As the company now helps to lead the conversation on the use of AI in the field of procurement and supply chain software, she still warmly looks back on the early days of the company and the strong grounding it has given the leadership team.

As President and Co-Founder of GEP, Neha Shah:

“As an early stage company, we had to do it all. I had to do it all from the administrative tasks, all the way to selling to Fortune 500 companies and getting a foot in the door. To hiring our first people, to figuring out a plan for our product roadmap and becoming a product manager and learning along the way.”

These phases of growth and development over nearly 25 years of GEP have resulted in one of the world’s leading procurement service solutions companies, and that presents Shah and her fellow leadership with a welcome challenge.

“Our next challenge is to continue to scale a fast-growing business while not losing the culture, attracting the greatest talent in the world and still continuing to pivot as the world around us continues to change in this generative AI revolution.”

Growing a company without losing a culture GEP has grown from a small team in a co-founder’s basement, to a world-wide enterprise with 26 global offices, 6,000 employees, customers in more than 100 countries and partnerships with some of the leading companies on the planet. With so much competition in the space for procurement transformation, with established players and innovative startups continuously entering the fray, why do their clients and customers choose to partner with GEP? Shah briefly considers the question, but is emphatic in her reasoning why companies choose them over other worthy competitors.

Shah explains:

“For most organisations these days, they want a long-term partner who is going to solve problems and be there with them every step of the way. At GEP, given that we’re founder-led, that we’re not just a startup with a nice new toy, but have been around for 25 years with the founders fully embedded in the business and working with a much longer term vision for the company. They believe in us. They believe in our people, our leadership team, and our product and expertise that we bring. All we do is live and breathe procurement and supply chain.”

Procurement and ESG

She also speaks with genuine passion about the role a company like GEP can play in helping their partners in the age of sustainability and all forms of ESG. She believes procurement and supply chain is the most important driver in helping companies reach their targets on climate change, decarbonisation, water usage, human rights, and living wage.

Shah:

“GEP is playing a role in setting the targets and strategy for these large organisations and even mid-size organisations. But to make that happen, it is all about the day-to-day processes and decisions that happen every single day for a company to run.”

If that is one way she feels GEP can help make a positive difference at every partner they work with, and every deal they help facilitate, Shah is certain they also have to lead the way both in the responsible use of Gen-AI, but in digital transformation of business.

Shah continues:

“It’s very important for GEP to, what I’ll call, take its own medicine, but also be thinking three steps ahead. Really in some respects, predicting where the future is. knowing that if they are helping to guide others through digital transformations and evolutions, they as a company need to be beyond the leading edge of that same technology.”

This leads to the subject of the value, potential and change being delivered daily by generative AI, that has exploded into the consciousness of the wider-public in 2023. Cutting through the hype of AI The intelligent implementation of AI technology is a subject that clearly inspires Shah, as she speaks excitedly about the ever growing potential, but realistically about knowing it is up to companies like GEP to be at the forefront of responsible implementation.

Shah explains:

“At a GEP level, it’s AI, every day 24/7. When I think about AI, of course it’s artificial intelligence. I like to think about it as augmented intelligence. What I’m finding is that there’s tremendous potential, and yes, there are some real concerns and I can’t predict what is going to happen, but I do believe that I see a tremendous opportunity for augmenting the people and what they’re able to do in a 10-hour or 8-hour day.”

One word she regularly returns to is ‘hype’. “I think it’s really important for GEP to take that leadership role, to cut through the hype. I will say that I think there’s a lot of individuals who, because they don’t know where to start, it all feels like hype.”

Her focus is making sure that the importance of using AI intelligently is never overlooked, given the boundless potential of the technology, and breaking it down into micro-steps and processes to ensure they serve their intended purpose. She knows that AI without true tangible value to her customers, is not the kind of progress GEP’s partners expect.

Shah continues:

“I think for us at GEP, it’s all about AI every single day, internally and externally, and applying that knowledge to our customers. How do we now apply these wonderful large language models that are coming out? Knowing the tremendous speed of change. How do we apply the large language models and really make a difference in some of these processes using proprietary data? That is what is at the heart of everything GEP is doing, so our platform and our advice and expertise to clients is what we can provide and really help them transform this new world.”

The future of AI and GEP

Neha Shah takes the responsibility of being at the forefront of the AI age extremely seriously, knowing the GEP plays a crucial role in supporting their clients, but also contributing to the wider conversation of how the technology can be responsibly implemented.

Shah:

“The pace is so fast, it’s hard for a normal procurement supply chain function or professional to keep up. So our job is to keep up to date and then give the right advice.”

GEP has also been taking active steps in helping to shape the dialogue about what is ethical and responsible use of artificial or augmented intelligence in procurement and supply chain. They recently collaborated with the World Economic Forum and published a thought leadership white paper around responsible AI and procurement.

That groundbreaking paper argued there is currently very limited guidance on industry standard practice and ways to minimise organisational risks during adoption, and that a procurement team needs to keep a high level of control to make sure AI tools deliver ethical, responsible and reliable solutions. Use of augmented intelligence Shah never loses sight of the obvious potential of the technology, and explains how by helping to lead in the field, they are already implementing it into their offering. One such example is their Total Inventory Management Solution.

“It’s really remarkable. What we’re doing is in partnership with an organisation called Eliant Inventory Solutions, which is made up of different backers, Apollo, Athene, and B N P Paribas. We are enabling clients where we, GEP, provide the technology hub to free up working capital that is tied to the inventory that’s sitting in warehouses and allow clients to improve supply chain visibility and resilience. We bring the digital technology hub, if there’s parts of a process that can’t be digitised, we bring some of our talent through our managed services team.

“We have customers like one of the world’s leading largest technology companies who are utilising this hub and they’re running their supply chain for some of their, what we call high volume, high value products.”

Shah speaks warmly about her passion for solving problems, helping people solve their own, and cutting through the hype to help her customers achieve in the age of AI, but what are the touch points that convince her she has achieved her goals in any given day?

Shah:

“Because of the platform of GEP, particularly as it relates to ESG, how am I making a broader impact on the things I really care about, like seeing the end of child labour and trafficking in the world.”

“I really care about that and how in the day to-day work I’m doing, how is that enhancing what I want to see in a better society, a better local community, regional community and a better world? It’s so important and that’s what keeps me going.”