Ep 9: Leadership in Procurement: The Trust, Talent, and AI Questions Nobody's Answering

Companies spend millions on procurement technology and walk away with almost nothing to show for it. Not because the tech failed, but because nobody planned for the hard part.

The hard part is the people.

In this episode of Procurement Pulse, host Friddy sits down with Amanda Prochaska, Founder and Chief Wonder Officer at Wonder Services, who left her dream job at MGM Resorts to fix one of procurement's most persistent problems: digital transformations that look great on paper and fall apart in practice.

Amanda makes a sharp case for why most failed implementations have nothing to do with the software, what agentic AI actually changes about adoption, and why the entry-level role decisions companies are making right now could quietly hollow out the next generation of procurement leadership.

What We Discuss:

00:00 Welcome to Procurement Pulse

00:48 From "who doesn't like buying things?" to procurement transformation

02:57 The digital implementation trap most CPOs don't see coming

05:23 What an SI told Amanda that changed everything

09:10 Why agentic AI might finally solve the adoption problem

11:07 The entry-level role question keeping Amanda up at night

13:27 Replace headcount or unlock capacity? The fork in the road ahead

18:10 Why vendor relationships matter more than category expertise now

24:51 The soft skills that will outlast every wave of automation

29:16 Full-time vs. contract talent: what's actually shifting in the market

32:34 Where to find Amanda and Wonder Services

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/ Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/ Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.

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