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The thoughts of two CIPS award winning procurement gods who want to share our love of procurement with newbies, oldies and the procurious. Generally we'll be talking nonsense about all...
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The thoughts of two CIPS award winning procurement gods who want to share our love of procurement with newbies, oldies and the procurious. Generally we'll be talking nonsense about all things procurement, with the occasional nugget of priceless insight.
All views are our own - we're not affiliated in any way to anybody or anything!
Er, except Kodiak Hub...who are sponsoring our shows. How smart of them.
mostra meno
All views are our own - we're not affiliated in any way to anybody or anything!
Er, except Kodiak Hub...who are sponsoring our shows. How smart of them.
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1 SET 2026 · In episode 47 of your favourite procurement-flavoured podcast, Rich and Ed bring you much news from the supply chain front line and beyond:
- Another dead rock star
- No CIPS news but plenty of Avios points
- Coupa's new CEO - it's not Roy Batty
- Kimberley Clark's new fibres
- Panama canal runs out of water - shock
- Gartner's AI ROI report
- BCG's Generative AI report
- Ford and GM's opposing views of China
- EU to buy from EU - shock
- Romanian vaccine whiplash
- New procurement software that's as cheap as crisps
Plus more of your questions on Ask Rich and Ed:
- Culture fit in job interviews
- Stakeholders giving work to their favourite suppliers without a PO - shock
- Are fake RFPs ever a good idea?
- Should we buy all of our oil and gas via the Strait of Hormuz?
Plus Ed becomes a mentor.
Plus plus Rich & Ed become Marxists.
Plus plus plus more on our wonderful "Ask Rich and Ed bot" AI companion app - which will answer all of your questions with genius and brilliance. We couldn't believe it! You won't either - so click the link below to be amazed...
https://mentaraiq.com/share/chatbot/0e874f81-612c-46e5-8c7d-b1a8fc7ee544
Procurement Says No is now sponsored by Kodiak Hub - The SRM suite that makes you super smart. Check you out with your fancy plaid suit. www.KodiakHub.com Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
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31 AGO 2026 · How to deal with a cold caller. Hint - don't!
Another video which we said we'd never do. Except this is audio only.
They're on TikTok and YouTube (shorts) in full glorious video.
Now powered by www.KodiakHub.com. The smart SRM suite-spot. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
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12 AGO 2026 · We get lots of questions from our listener(s) on Procurement Says No. Now you can listen to them all again in our series of mini bite-sized podcast chunks. Like dog food.
In episode 29 we have more lovely questions including:
- Buying a trench - how much should it cost?
- Using strategic consultants with "should cost models" - is this better than going to market?
- Buying garments from a supplier in Pakistan with reported modern slavery in the supply chain - what's the next thing to do?
- If your boss is very close to a supplier - suggesting direct awards and sharing competitors' pricing - should you be suspicious?
All of the procurement questions, all of the time. Woohoo.
www.procurementsaysno.com
Now sponsored by www.KodiakHub.com. The SRM suite that makes you smarter. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
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6 AGO 2026 · How to buy a car. Not necessarily a better car.
Another video which we said we'd never do. Except this is audio only.
They're on TikTok and YouTube (shorts) in full glorious video.
Now powered by www.KodiakHub.com. The smart SRM suite-spot. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
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3 AGO 2026 · Procurement Says No is now sponsored by Kodiak Hub - The SRM suite that makes you super smart. Check you out with your splendid fancy pants. www.KodiakHub.com
Meanwhile it's almost time to set fire to the sky as various AI agents begin to attack one another in an "unprecedented" AI cyber-attack. Oooops. Don't worry, it's all contained in the sandbox, no wait...
Also in this episode...
- UK Military work out the best place to buy grenades. Not.
- CIPS funds the promotion of deforestation-free procurement in Wales.
- More Trump tariffs - this time for slavery in supply chains.
- It turns out that diamonds aren't forever.
- Who knew that the Suez Canal keeps closing and re-opening.
- New UK Government - sort of.
- Theme of resilience in procurement remains, er, resilient.
- Sainsbury's chicken eggs white supremacy madness.
All this plus more on our wonderful "Ask Rich and Ed bot" AI companion app - which will answer all of your questions with genius and brilliance. We couldn't believe it! You won't either - so click the link below to be amazed...
https://mentaraiq.com/share/chatbot/0e874f81-612c-46e5-8c7d-b1a8fc7ee544
And, yes there is a drone called the T-400. Not quite as good as the T-600. Yet. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
28 LUG 2026 · A follow‑up to our Procurebot9000 blog - now with the existential dread of RoboProc, and the launch of the Ask Rich and Ed-bot AI companion app.
For years, procurement has been promised a future filled with automation, digital transformation, and tools that would “revolutionise the function.”
Mostly, what we got were dashboards that required three logins, a chatbot that couldn’t understand the word invoice, and a supplier portal so unfathomable it became a rite of passage. But something has changed.
We’ve now embraced AI properly. We’ve been re-sprayed and are now living AI like procurement tech warriors.
Introducing the Ask Rich and Ed‑bot: A procurement companion built from three years of podcasting, 100 episodes, 75+ years of procurement experience, and the collective wisdom of our many special guests. It’s free, it’s fast, and it answers procurement questions with alarming competence.
You can try it right now — just use the link, create an account, and unleash the spacecats.
Copy and paste this into your browser:
https://mentaraiq.com/share/chatbot/0e874f81-612c-46e5-8c7d-b1a8fc7ee544
So… does this mean AI is about to take over procurement?
Well. Yes. And also absolutely not. And also maybe. And probably it will take over everything you secretly hate doing.
AI is already brilliant at:
- Reading contracts without crying
- Spotting risks you pretend aren’t there
- Predicting supplier failure before the supplier even knows
- Automating the “can you send me a PO?” loop
- Analysing spend without requiring a sacrificial intern
- Writing category strategies that don’t begin with “the market is challenging”
But AI is not brilliant at:
- Convincing Finance that your savings are real
- Negotiating with a supplier who has decided to live in a hedge
- Managing stakeholders who believe procurement is a suggestion
- Understanding why Janet insists on raising requisitions in Comic Sans
- Spotting when a supplier is lying because their left eyebrow twitches
Procurement is still a human sport — messy, political, relational, and occasionally surreal.
AI can handle the heavy lifting, but humans still need to steer the ship, charm the stakeholders, and stop the business from accidentally buying 14,000 unapproved widgets.
How should procurement people adopt and adapt?
Three rules:
1. Stop pretending AI is optional. If you’re still saying “I’ll wait until it’s more mature,” congratulations — you’re already behind. AI is in the building. AI has eaten your spend cube and found £1.2m of leakage.
2. Learn to ask better questions. AI is only as good as the prompts you feed it. If you ask “write me a procurement strategy,” you’ll get something bland. If you ask “write me a procurement strategy that terrifies the CFO,” you’ll get gold.
3. Become the human the AI needs. AI doesn’t replace procurement people — it replaces procurement people who refuse to evolve. Your job becomes interpretation, judgement, influence, creativity, and leadership. The robots do the grunt work. You do the clever work.
What about suppliers?
Suppliers fall into three categories:
1. The AI‑powered elite. Already using AI for forecasting, pricing, risk modelling, and proposal generation. They are not still using spreadsheets from 2014.
2. The “we’re exploring AI” crowd. They have one pilot project, one intern, and one slide deck. They are not exploring AI. They are exploring excuses.
3. The hedge‑dwellers. They will continue to send quotes in PDFs named “FINAL_FINAL_v7_revised”. AI will not save them. Only reincarnation will.
Which businesses are actively using AI in procurement now? Lots — and not just the tech giants. The leaders aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets — they’re the ones who stopped waiting for permission.
What AI is best at…
Analysis. AI can analyse 40,000 lines of spend data in seconds and tell you that your organisation has accidentally bought 17 different types of stapler. It will also politely point out that one supplier has been charging you £14.99 for “miscellaneous metal item” for three years.
Pattern recognition. AI will spot that Supplier A always submits invoices at 11:58am on Fridays, which correlates perfectly with their CFO’s weekly pub visit. It will also notice that Janet only raises requisitions after a full moon.
Drafting. Ask it for a category strategy and it will produce a beautifully structured document with charts, insights, and a conclusion that subtly implies your stakeholders are the problem. Ask it for a negotiation script and it will give you something that sounds like quick-fire Aaron Sorkin wrote it after three espressos.
Compliance checking. AI will read your NEC contract, highlight the clauses you’ve ignored, and gently ask whether you’re sure you want to proceed with that variation order. It will also detect that your supplier has replaced “shall” with “may” in section 4.2.1 — the procurement equivalent of a jump scare.
Risk detection. AI will tell you that Supplier B is showing signs of financial distress because their CEO has started posting inspirational quotes on LinkedIn. It will also flag that your preferred supplier’s parent company has quietly changed its name to “Phoenix Holdings Ltd”, which is never a good sign.
Workflow automation. AI will chase POs, send reminders, update trackers, and escalate issues — all without developing the deep resentment normally associated with these tasks. It will also send Janet a polite message reminding her that Comic Sans is not an approved font.
Turning chaos into clarity.
Give AI 12 conflicting emails, 4 spreadsheets, 3 meeting notes, and a photo of a whiteboard taken at a weird angle, and it will produce a coherent summary. It will also tell you that the real problem is that nobody knows who actually owns the widget category.
What humans must continue to do…
Negotiation. AI can draft your negotiation plan, but only you can look a supplier in the eye and say, “I’m not paying that,” with the correct level of English passive aggression. AI cannot replicate the subtle eyebrow raise that signals “we both know this price is nonsense.”
Relationship management. AI can remind you to call a supplier, but it cannot attend a meeting, drink terrible coffee, and pretend to be delighted about their new PowerPoint template. It also cannot detect when a supplier is lying because they blink too slowly.
Strategy. AI can generate 12 strategic options, but only humans can choose the one that won’t cause Finance to have a meltdown. It can’t foresee that your CEO will change direction halfway through the project because they read a magazine article on a plane.
Influence. AI can write a brilliant business case, but only humans can persuade Dave from Operations that “no, you cannot buy it on your corporate credit card.” AI cannot navigate the political minefield of a steering group where half the attendees don’t know why they’re there.
Creativity. AI can be too creative. Ask it for a supplier onboarding plan and it might hallucinate a ceremonial dance, a fog machine, and a QR code tattoo. Ask it to draft your contact details and it may invent a new phone number, a fictional postcode, and a job title you’ve never held.
Governance. AI can flag non‑compliance, but only humans can sit in a meeting and say, “No, we really can’t do that,” while everyone else stares at the table. AI cannot enforce a policy with the correct level of weary authority.
Saying “no” loudly and confidently. AI can suggest alternatives, but only humans can deliver the classic procurement “no” — the one that causes suppliers to reconsider their life choices. AI cannot replicate the tone that says, “I’m not angry, just disappointed.”
AI won’t replace procurement. But procurement with AI will absolutely replace procurement without AI. If you don’t adopt AI, you’ll become the person who still prints contracts. If you do adopt AI, you’ll become the person who delivers insights before anyone else has even opened Excel. The future belongs to the augmented, the curious, the adaptable — and the ones who aren’t afraid to ask a Spacecat for help.
Final thought
AI isn’t coming for procurement. AI is coming with procurement. If you haven’t tried the Ask Rich & Ed‑bot yet, now’s the moment. Click the link. Create an account. Ask it something difficult. See what happens when 75+ years of procurement experience meets actual intelligence.
And remember: In procurement, saying “no” is still an art. AI just helps you say it faster.
Procurement Says No. Now with added Ask Rich and Ed-bot - the first procurement AI companion app.
Trascritto
20 LUG 2026 · We get lots of questions from our listener(s) on Procurement Says No. Now you can listen to them all again in our series of mini bite-sized podcast chunks. Like dog food.
In episode 27 we have some random questions including:
- How to cope with your company reducing its stance on ESG when you don't want to
- How best to procure a kitchen renovation
- How to manage suppliers in administration who you've already paid (oh dear)
And we've specifically released ep27 after ep28, just to mix things up a little.
All of the procurement questions, all of the time. Woohoo.
www.procurementsaysno.com
Now sponsored by www.KodiakHub.com. The SRM suite that makes you smarter. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
Trascritto
14 LUG 2026 · More Negotiation Gambits - get them here!
- Limiting authority
- Take it or leave it
- Split the difference
- Enjoy the silence
Better negotiation!
Another video which we said we'd never do. Except this is audio only.
They're on TikTok and YouTube (shorts) in full glorious video.
Now powered by www.KodiakHub.com. Smartening you up. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
Trascritto
6 LUG 2026 · We get lots of questions from our listener(s) on Procurement Says No. Now you can listen to them all again in our series of mini bite-sized podcast chunks. Like dog food.
In episode 28 we answer all your techy IT type questions:
- How to go to market with a complex IT service made up of 7 existing different contracts
- Renewing design software to avoid in-built inflationary increases
- When to use an IT reseller rather than a prime contractor
All of the procurement questions, all of the time. Woohoo.
www.procurementsaysno.com
Now sponsored by www.KodiakHub.com The SRM suite that makes you smarter. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
Trascritto
25 GIU 2026 · Negotiation Gambits - get them here!
- Good cop/Bad cop
- The Flinch
- The Nibble
- Higher authority
Better negotiation!
Another video which we said we'd never do. Except this is audio only.
They're on TikTok and YouTube in full glorious video.
Now sponsored by www.KodiakHub.com. Smartipants. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
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The thoughts of two CIPS award winning procurement gods who want to share our love of procurement with newbies, oldies and the procurious. Generally we'll be talking nonsense about all...
mostra di più
The thoughts of two CIPS award winning procurement gods who want to share our love of procurement with newbies, oldies and the procurious. Generally we'll be talking nonsense about all things procurement, with the occasional nugget of priceless insight.
All views are our own - we're not affiliated in any way to anybody or anything!
Er, except Kodiak Hub...who are sponsoring our shows. How smart of them.
mostra meno
All views are our own - we're not affiliated in any way to anybody or anything!
Er, except Kodiak Hub...who are sponsoring our shows. How smart of them.
Informazioni
| Autore | Richard Beattie / Ed Cross |
| Organizzazione | Richard Beattie |
| Categorie | Gestione , Economia , Commedia |
| Sito | www.procurementsaysno.com |
| richardjbeattie@msn.com |
Copyright 2026 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company
