To truly understand AI's impact on procurement, look to the transformational leaders who've already embraced it. Cyril Pourrat, founder of BT Sourced and CPO of BT Group, offers invaluable insights as an early technology adopter who implemented Suplari in 2019—well ahead of the AI curve. "In 25 years in procurement, I've never seen something like that," says Pourrat, whose pioneering approach reveals both the immediate benefits and future potential of AI-enabled procurement that other leaders can now leverage.
Embrace the platform shift from digital to AI
The procurement function has undergone several transformative waves over the past two decades. As Cyril Pourrat explains, the early 2000s saw the rise of eSourcing, moving procurement from spreadsheets to digital platforms. Around 2012-2013, solutions like Coupa emerged as a bridge between eSourcing and full digital transformation. By 2017-2018, truly digital solutions began to proliferate.
Today, we're witnessing the next great shift: from digital transformation to the age of AI.
"We made this big bet at BT Group in 2019 that we would go full digital," explains Pourrat, referring to the creation of BT Sourced, a dedicated digital-first procurement company. "We skipped completely the eSourcing step and went directly into digital, which is now enabling us to go into this AI next step."
This progressive approach put BT Sourced in a prime position to leverage AI capabilities as they emerged. After starting with a best-of-breed approach involving numerous tools, they've now refined their strategy to focus on just three core tools—with Suplari being one of them.
Leverage AI for both strategic and operational procurement
When discussing AI's role in procurement, Pourrat makes a crucial distinction between strategic and operational procurement activities.
Strategic procurement: enhanced, not replaced
"On the strategic piece of procurement, AI is a game changer," Pourrat reflects. He recalls his early days as a category manager, spending weeks manually researching markets and suppliers to prepare for negotiations. "What I can see with AI—which I'm already starting to use—is that everything I used to do in a very manual fashion, where I was able to tackle only 10% of the topic, here with AI in basically two minutes, you can get access to tons of prescriptive and actionable information."
More importantly, AI contextualizes this information in ways that enable procurement professionals to rapidly develop comprehensive category strategies. In Cyril’s experience, this makes category managers better negotiators and more strategic partners enabling value creation and greater spend influence across the business.
Operational procurement: the path to autonomy
For transactional procurement—the routine and time-consuming tasks that many procurement professionals don't enjoy—AI offers a different value proposition. "That's where we can speak about autonomous procurement," says Pourrat. "It's pretty much what any procurement professional, starting by me, doesn't like to do."
By automating these tasks, AI eliminates risk of errors and frees up valuable time for more strategic activities. According to a recent estimate by Bain, the repetitive tasks that fill a procurement professional's typical nine-hour workday will shrink to less than one hour with AI-enabled workflows, leaving more time for strategic work.
How Suplari's AI delivers strategic insights
BT Sourced has been using Suplari since 2019, when Pourrat implemented it shortly after joining BT Group. The decision was clear-cut: when comparing Suplari with their existing SQL database for spend analysis, Suplari delivered results in "two clicks and two seconds" versus the 20 minutes required by their previous system.
"My boss was convinced after five minutes," Pourrat recalls.
With Suplari's AI capabilities, the procurement team gains several types of strategic insights:
- Spend visibility across divisions - Understanding spending patterns across business units
- Financial planning support - When finance needs to reallocate or defer spending
- Market and supplier intelligence - Deeper understanding of supply markets
- Strategic sourcing opportunities - Identifying opportunities that might otherwise be missed
"It's really connecting all the dots," explains Pourrat, "being able to use natural language and asking questions to the machine and having a proper plan very quickly in two minutes."
Drive business intelligence with your procurement data
Perhaps one of the most innovative ways BT Sourced uses Suplari is to transform procurement data into business intelligence for their sales teams.
"Our B2B division... we can see what we're spending customer by customer," explains Pourrat. "What we do with Suplari with the AI is customer profiling. And then we go to the sales guys and we say, 'Here we go. That's the way we are spending money to serve this customer. And here are all the patterns that we found.'"
This approach enables the sales team to make timely, relevant offers to customers based on historical spending patterns. "The AI from Suplari is saying clearly, 'By these dates or that month, you should go and offer this kind of solution to your customer because we can see a spike in the last three fiscal years at that period of time.'"
Connect your data ecosystem with an orchestration layer
As companies collect more transaction data, the question becomes how to make sense of it all. Pourrat sees Suplari playing a critical role here.
"For me, transactional systems, like Coupa or Ariba are my data lakes because that's where every transaction will be recorded, and that's where Suplari is coming on top of that, adding a layer of intelligence," he explains.
"Suplari has this unique position where they can look at every connection between this spend, this unit, these suppliers, that period of time, what has been done three years ago, four years ago... they can play a kind of orchestration role because they are sitting on this wealth of information."
Build a culture of innovation to overcome adoption barriers
Implementing new technology always comes with challenges. To address this, Pourrat created the BT Procurement Garage in 2019—an innovation hub where the team could experiment with new technologies, including AI.
"One of the keys for me to be successful was to say to the team, 'Don't be afraid. Just try something. Fail, learn fast, and move on,'" explains Pourrat.
This approach has fostered a culture of innovation within BT Sourced, with team members who are comfortable with technology and not afraid to try new approaches. With an average tenure of around three years, the team is relatively young and open to innovation.
What’s the opportunity of investing early in AI? According to recent research by Accenture, early adopters of modernized genAI tools and processes have expanded their operational visibility, optimized capital allocation and achieved 2.4 times greater productivity and 13% greater cost-savings compared to their peers.
Address common misconceptions about AI in procurement
Many procurement professionals harbor concerns about AI—fears that it will replace jobs or that it lacks the human judgment needed for complex decisions. Pourrat addresses these misconceptions head-on.
"It must be very clear what AI can do, what AI cannot do, and what are the key roles of the people in that," he advises. "AI is good at looking at the past, but today in a world where everything is changing rapidly, it won't be able to understand what is happening. And it's where we will keep a huge, huge added value."
He shares an anecdote about three different companies using the same AI tool on the same topic and arriving at identical conclusions. "That means you will have exactly the same strategy and no way to differentiate yourself," he points out. This highlights the continuing importance of human judgment and creativity.
Rather than seeing AI as a threat, Pourrat views it as "like an assistant by your side, but you are still in control."
Evolve the role of procurement professionals with AI support
As AI handles more routine tasks and enhances strategic capabilities, how will the role of procurement professionals evolve?
"They need to be even more connected to the world," says Pourrat. While AI provides access to vast amounts of information, professionals need to understand global trends, regulations, and market conditions to contextualize that information properly.
He recounts a recent conversation with investor relations colleagues who were concerned about tariffs. "It was eye-opening for him to hear about the implications of our global supply chain," Pourrat recalls. "AI will enable us to go even further with that expertise."
In this new paradigm, procurement professionals become valuable sources of market intelligence and business insight that benefit the entire organization—a role that extends far beyond traditional purchasing functions.
Manage security and risk in your AI adoption journey
As with any technology adoption, security concerns must be addressed. As both Chief Procurement Officer and Security Responsible Officer at BT Sourced, Pourrat takes these concerns seriously.
"Everything that we do with Suplari is within proper guardrails, and everything is properly checked from a security standpoint," he explains. Beyond cybersecurity, BT Sourced also considers the ethical implications of the AI tools they adopt, ensuring alignment with their ESG commitments.
The concern for cybersecurity is also shared by many other procurement leaders, the 2025 Procurecon CPO survey highlighted that 50% of procurement leaders have identified cybersecurity as a potential challenge for adopting AI over the next 12 months.
Maximize value creation in strategic sourcing
When asked where AI creates the most significant value in procurement, Pourrat's answer is clear and compelling: strategic sourcing. As the cornerstone of procurement's mission, sourcing strategy represents the greatest opportunity for AI to transform business outcomes.
"Strategic sourcing is where you can deliver a lot of value," Pourrat emphasizes. "With AI, we can develop comprehensive strategies in minutes instead of weeks, analyzing market dynamics, supplier capabilities, and negotiation approaches at unprecedented depth and speed."
This acceleration and enhancement of strategic sourcing capabilities is particularly powerful because it addresses a fundamental challenge. As Pourrat notes, "Stakeholders tend to like to work with people that they know. And procurement people are comfortable with what they know." AI breaks through these limitations by rapidly exploring alternatives, identifying new suppliers, and revealing opportunities that might otherwise remain undiscovered.
Prepare your procurement team for an AI-powered future
For procurement leaders looking to follow BT Sourced's path, Pourrat offers clear advice: "Don't be afraid of it. Cope with it. Work with it. It's a great opportunity more than anything else."
He recommends being transparent with teams about both the advantages and limitations of AI, and how they can use it to enhance their work. He also suggests learning from peers who have already embarked on the AI journey, as many CPOs call him to discuss their concerns and challenges.
For organizations just beginning this journey, Pourrat's approach with the BT Procurement Garage provides a useful model: create a safe space for experimentation, foster a culture that accepts failure as part of innovation, and focus on quick learning and iteration.
Bottom line on the transformative potential of AI
The journey from digital to AI transformation that Cyril Pourrat and BT Sourced have embarked upon offers valuable lessons for procurement leaders everywhere. By embracing AI as an enabler rather than a replacement, focusing on both strategic and operational applications, and fostering a culture of innovation, procurement functions can deliver unprecedented value to their organizations.
As Pourrat's experience with Suplari demonstrates, the right AI partner can not only enhance traditional procurement capabilities but also unlock entirely new ways for procurement to contribute to business success.
Ready to explore how AI can transform your procurement function? Learn how Suplari's AI-powered platform can help your team achieve similar results to BT Sourced by requesting a demo today.
