Art of Procurement10 Nov 2025

841: Three AI-Powered Opportunities: Assist, Augment, Autonomize W/ Etosha Thurman

"If your only role is cost management and processes, that's scary to me. The value of procurement is so much more than that." – Etosha Thurman, Chief Marketing Officer, Finance and Spend Management at SAP

AI is rapidly changing procurement's mandate and the expectations that business leaders now have.

Technology is no longer just digitizing processes; it's opening the door to new operating models and deeper business impact. To thrive, procurement teams must deliver far more than savings. They must bring innovation, resilience, and data-driven influence to the table.

In this episode, Philip Ideson welcomes Etosha Thurman, Chief Marketing Officer, Finance and Spend Management at SAP. Etosha's career spans sourcing at P&G to leading finance and procurement solutions at SAP. She shares stories and hard-earned insights on how AI is reshaping procurement, what it means for team structure, and why soft skills matter more than ever.

Whether you're exploring practical use cases for AI or looking to reposition procurement as a strategic partner, Etosha offers advice you won't hear elsewhere. She also dives into driving internal investment and how procurement leaders can tell a more powerful story about their work.

In this episode, Etosha explores how to:

Identify which procurement skills are critical and which may be automated
Rethink your operating model to match AI-enabled workflows
Secure buy-in by linking procurement to business growth and resilience
Turn data and technology investments into lasting business value
Build a stronger brand and tell your procurement story for greater influence

Links:

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(924)

EP 014: Provider of the Week: Sievo W/ Sammeli Sammalkorpi

"The expectation level of procurement is rising. Today's stuff that was not possible a year ago, that felt like science fiction three years ago, is something that we can create for our customers today...

26 Aug 24min

880: The State of AI in Procurement: Who's Getting the ROI? W/ Nick Heinzmann

"There's an absolute risk of procurement's role and scope being diminished by AI, unless we embrace new ways of working." - Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research, Zip According to new research from Zip, on...

24 Aug 33min

879: The AI Pilot Phase is Over: How to Move From AI Investment to Genuine Business Impact W/ Joseph Postiglione, Sr.

"If you're not completely sure about what you want to try to achieve, how will you know you ever achieved it?" - Joseph Postiglione, Sr., Author, Protecting Expected Outcomes in the Age of AI AI inves...

17 Aug 28min

EP 13: Making Sense of the Procuretech Landscape: Practical Insights for CPOs W/ Samir Khushalani

"The biggest risk today is not making the wrong AI decision. It is making no decision at all while everyone else is learning." Samir Khushalani, Senior Advisor, Art of Procurement Procurement leaders ...

12 Aug 29min

878: Building Procurement as a Strategic Growth Engine W/ Travis Hodge

"Procurement's future is bright, when we continue to do it the right way for the right reasons." - Travis Hodge, Director of Enterprise Sourcing & Procurement at nVent Procurement is no longer just a ...

10 Aug 36min

877: Building Trust for Digital Supply Chain Success W/ Mohit Ahuja

"Visibility is not the end goal. The end goal is how does that visibility enable me to make a quick decision." - Mohit Ahuja, Strategy & Transformation Leader, Caterpillar Business leaders can no long...

3 Aug 28min

EP 12: Provider of the Week: Una

"It's amazing how you can rise to the top just by doing what you say you're going to do and being honest about what you can't do." - Anthony Clervi, Managing Partner, Una Procurement teams today are u...

29 Juli 33min

876: AI with Purpose: Designing Procurement's Next Chapter W/ Gaël De Martelaere

"If you build AI on top of weak foundations, you're going to have a very broken system." - Gaël De Martelaere, Chief Procurement Officer, Hexion AI is driving enormous change in procurement, but succe...

27 Juli 41min