AI Lab: Practical AI for Procurement is an onsite, in-person workshop designed for procurement professionals who want to use AI with greater confidence, clarity, and business impact.

Created for business users, not technical specialists, this hands-on learning experience helps participants understand where AI can support real work, from supplier research and sourcing preparation to risk review, stakeholder communication, and stronger decision-making.

Through guided practice, peer discussion, and a realistic procurement-focused AI activity, participants will learn practical ways to prompt, evaluate, and apply AI responsibly. Because the workshop is delivered in person, attendees also benefit from live facilitator guidance, shared examples, networking, and interactive practice alongside procurement peers.    

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON LEARNING EXPERIENCE LOCATED AT THE ISM HEADQUARTERS IN TEMPE, AZ.

What you will learn

• Recognize where AI is changing procurement work, including where it can save time, improve preparation, and support better decisions.
• Identify practical AI opportunities that are frequent, useful, and easy to validate, while knowing which workflows still require careful human judgment.
• Build stronger prompts by providing clear context, constraints, source material, desired format, and review criteria.
• Explore how AI can support common procurement activities such as supplier research, market intelligence, RFP/RFQ preparation, risk review, negotiation prep, and stakeholder communications, including examples of AI-assisted outputs participants may build or refine together, such as a supplier risk or market intelligence brief.          
• Practice building an AI-assisted procurement output based on a realistic use case selected for the workshop.
• Review AI outputs for accuracy, missing context, bias, data privacy considerations, and responsible use.
• Define one practical AI workflow to test after the workshop, including a simple action plan for responsible adoption.
• Learn from peers through in-person discussion, networking, and shared examples from procurement professionals.

Hands-On Practice

Participants will take part in a guided, hands-on AI practice activity focused on a realistic procurement workflow. The specific use case may vary and could include common procurement activities such as supplier research, market intelligence, RFP/RFQ preparation, risk review, negotiation prep, or stakeholder communications.

Depending on the selected use case, participants may build or refine AI-assisted outputs such as a supplier research summary, market intelligence brief, RFP/RFQ support materials, risk review summary, negotiation preparation brief, or stakeholder communication draft.

These examples represent the types of workflows participants may explore during the workshop. The session is designed to focus on practical application, guided experimentation, and responsible AI use rather than covering every use case in equal depth.

 Who Should Attend

Procurement professionals, supply chain professionals, category managers, sourcing managers, supplier relationship managers, vendor management professionals, and procurement operations teams.