In the AI era, procurement data management is a critical foundation. The idea that “AI is only as good as your data” is not just a rule of thumb, but a challenging constraint to managing supplier relationships, sourcing decisions, and contract renewals across the board. When companies are not investing in procurement data management through control and enrichment, they can quickly become misaligned from efforts to automate basic functions, enforce compliance across the sourcing value chain, and may lose trust across the business.
From a practical perspective, inconsistent supplier records, poorly collected and collated supplier data, and piecemeal contract descriptions and metadata prevent companies from effectively supporting corporate goals such as reducing supplier risk, accelerating sourcing events, and realizing savings.