Heineken’s Procurement Transformation with AI Automation

Economic Context and Consumer Trends

In an era where procurement is rapidly evolving from a back-office function to a strategic driver of business success, organizations are realizing its critical importance. Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) are now pivotal in navigating the complexities of modern supply chains and delivering value across multiple dimensions. As a CPO of a manufacturing company noted:

"Never before has procurement been core to so many executive-committee-level priorities. We now have a real seat at the top table. And this is not a temporary situation—this is how we will operate going forward."

This sentiment is echoed by the CEO of a chemicals company:

"These days, to perform well, companies need a different end-to-end view on the business. Procurement is absolutely critical."

AI has the potential to further strengthen the role of CPOs. While sixty-six percent of CPOs surveyed in McKinsey’s CPO 100 survey in H2, 2023, believe generative AI is still years from generating substantive business results, Heineken’s transformation demonstrates that AI can deliver immediate and significant improvements, such as reducing task execution time by 300%.

Challenges in Traditional Procurement Processes

At Heineken, traditional procurement processes were fraught with several challenges:

Manual Labor Intensity

Prolonged execution times led to inefficiencies and dissatisfaction.

High Error Rates

Error rates of approximately 30% resulted in direct financial losses.

Complexity

The process was cumbersome for procurement managers, who had to navigate various and often duplicative tools.

Vendor Inconveniences

Vendors faced lengthy onboarding processes, repetitive submission of the same information, and multiple manual verifications, causing frustration and delays.

AI-Driven Procurement Transformation: The Solution for Heineken Employees

Tur.ai developed an AI-powered solution to manage Heineken's procurement process efficiently. The system featured a chat-bot interface integrated with Office 365, providing employees with a familiar and easy-to-use communication tool. However, the core of this solution was not the chat-bot itself but the robust orchestration and automation capabilities behind it.