If you’ve been following along, you know the following:

• the doctor is very disheartened at the lack of innovation, and even direction, among the major suite players
• the doctor is tired of the n^th solution popping up that does the same thing as solutions 1 through n-1 (which is why SI doesn’t even try to review every solution of the 666+ solutions that exist, but only those with actual improvement or innovation)
• the doctor is fed up with the fact that almost every vendor has been blinded by the hype of Gen-AI and are focussed on shoving it into every virtual nook and cranny they can find in their product (whether or not it provides any value whatsoever)
• the doctor is fed up with the constant claims that we will soon have Agentric AI that will solve all of our problems and eliminate the need for Procurement professionals

Which begs the question. Why is all of this happening?

• why is there a lack of noticeable innovation, and even direction, among the major players (besides cramming Gen-AI into all of the nooks and crannies)?
• why are there so few new, innovative solutions (and 40 carbon calculators when one will do)?
• why are so many vendors jumping blindly on the Gen-AI bandwagon (heading straight for a cliff with no steering and no brakes)?
• why are so many vendors claiming that the next generation of tech is Agentric AI?

Is it because Procurement Tech has peaked?

Sadly, for the time being, the answer is … YES!

Even though there is sill much that can be done, for the time being, procurement tech has peaked. There appears to be three major reasons for this:

• an almost all-in focus on Gen-AI, a technology that has not delivered on its vast over-promises and likely never will;
• an emerging focus on Agentric AI in the hopes of replacing people, instead of augmenting them; and
• an over-focus on orchestrating what is there, instead of orchestrating what is missing.

Each of these reasons prevents the necessary innovation that is needed to take Procurement Tech to the next level.

• As the doctor has repeatedly told you, Gen-AI is only useful if the problem at hand can be reduced to either large document search and summarization or natural language translation of inputs and outputs. The continued quest to force this technology to solve problems it fundamentally can’t is preventing any research and development on tech that would actually advance Procurement.
• As the doctor has repeatedly claimed, the answer is not in Artificial Intelligence but in Augmented Intelligence
• As it stands now, orchestration is just gluing best of breed systems together, it’s not really enhancing any ProcureTech.

And until

• Gen-AI is relegated to just another AI tech that is only used where appropriate,
• we stop trying to replace people and start trying to make them productive at a super human level, and
• we stop gluing and start truly enhancing

ProcureTech is stuck where it’s at. That’s just how it is. For now. Maybe someday it will change. But not before you insist you want it to change, and do so loud enough that maybe a few vendors will hear you and listen and stop wasting all their time and all your money chasing the wrong tech for problems you don’t actually have.